wifi on iwl3945 driver in Lenny - mysterious SIOCSIFFLAGS and HW RF Kill switch

slawek · 08-25-2009, 03:48 PM

I have installed firmware and driver for my wireless card (which works fine under Windows),
loaded modules, but I cannot use wireless card.

First issue:

Code:

 ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such device

dmesg have nothing about SIOCSIFFLAGS.

Second issue:

Code:

from dmesg
iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch

Please give me some idea how run wlan0 interface .

my system:

Code:

# uname  -a
Linux debian 2.6.26-2-686 #1 SMP Sun Jun 21 04:57:38 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

wireless card:

Code:

# lspci
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

Code:

# lshw -C network   =>
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       product: PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wmaster0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:19:d2:b8:04:ba
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwl3945 latency=0 module=iwl3945 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11

Code:

ls /lib/firmware/
iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode  iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode  iwlwifi-4965-1.ucode  iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode	iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode

Code:

# lsmod | grep iwl
iwl3945                78772  0 
mac80211              139712  1 iwl3945
cfg80211               21576  2 iwl3945,mac80211
firmware_class          6816  1 iwl3945
led_class               3908  2 iwl3945,asus_laptop

Code:

dpkg -l
ii  firmware-iwlwifi
ii  wireless-tools

rerushg · 08-25-2009, 04:03 PM

"Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch"

Are you sure there isn't a physical switch or button on the machine? How about in BIOS?

slawek · 08-26-2009, 02:43 AM

in BIOS my Wireless Network Interface in Unlocked.
WiFi switch on my machine is turn off all time.
I can switch it on while booting, but when system is booted wifi-led is off and is no possible to change it.

I changed my network manager to wicd and now :
ifconfig wlan0 up pass.
some iwconfig commands and I have connection after dhclient wlan0.

I'm little confused because I only changed my network manager when issues comes from driver.

However, still my wifi switcher and wifi led does not work.

errors from dmesg:
iwl3945: Error sending REPLY_CARD_STATE_CMD: time out after 500ms.
iwl3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting 0x82000008.
iwl3945: Error Reply type 0x00000000 cmd UNKNOWN (0x5B) seq 0x9F79 ser 0x0000005B
iwl3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.
iwl3945: Error sending REPLY_LEDS_CMD: iwl3945_enqueue_hcmd failed: -5

rerushg · 08-26-2009, 07:25 AM

It sounds like we're on the right track.

Try this link:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=820297&page=2

Hang in there! You'll get it.

slawek · 08-26-2009, 11:28 AM

I had applied above link (alias with parameter for modprobe iwl3945)
When I switch wifi something strange happens - driver cannot handle it on my machine.

During booting, in moment when iwl3945 is loading wifi-switch goes off.
After boot when I put wifi switch (to on from off I hope, but wifi connection is active) after about 20 secs led goes to light - connection is not interrupted.

When I try do more switches I loose wireless card irretrievably, with errors from "ifconfig wlan0 up" after switching: "No such device" / "sth time out" (appropriate to both states).

It's sounds like i don't want fight with iwl3945 any more - connection works, switching not, but I can turn off my wifi connection manually if need.

Summary for others in troubles with iwl3945
kernel: 2.6.26-2.686
wireless card: 3945ABG Intel
driver: iwl3945 - works almost fine (beside wifi-switcher handle) - you can use previous driver named ipw3945

1. install firmware-iwlwifi from package,
2. change network manager to wicd - better than default manager,
3. change your modprobe in /etc/modprobe.d/iwl3945 to
alias wlan0 iwl3945
options iwl3945 disable_hw_scan=1