Screwed up... tried to get wifi working and now no graphics

Snickar-Lasse · 12-11-2007, 05:15 PM

I was trying to get the wifi working by installing intel wifi link driver, which in turn required installation of mac80211 subsystem package. After installing mac80211, the graphics won't work...

I'm running a dist. based on Fedora 6 on a Lenovo ThinkPad. When installing the system originally, I couldn't get the graphics working due to a conflict with the video card (nvidia) and I had to install the driver after installing the kernel.

Any ideas on what to do?

pentode · 12-11-2007, 05:39 PM

It might be simplest just to re-install everything. It's good for the soul. You might do a little research on the Intel wifi NIC to see if there are native linux drivers available.

I know nothing about the distribution you are trying to install, but one of the major distribution may have better graphics support.

bbfuller · 12-11-2007, 06:00 PM

Hello Snickar-Lasse

If you are going to think about re-installing then you might consider getting a newer version of Fedora if possible.

FC6 is no longer supported, F7 will be for another 6 months or so and F8 is good for another year.

Wireless has become much easier in the time since Fedora 6 was introduced - though it can still one of the more difficult parts of Linux.

If you could post the part of the output of:

/sbin/lspci -v

that deals with your wireless card it would be easier to advise.

Snickar-Lasse · 12-12-2007, 09:54 AM

Thanks,

from /sbin/lspci -v I can find the wired card

Code:

00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection 
[...]

but not sure about the wireless. Guess it could be this one:

Code:

03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Unknown Device 4230 (rev 61)
Susbsystem: Intel Corporation Unkown device 1110
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at df2fe000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: [c8] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [d0] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64 bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable 
Capabilities: [e0] Express Endpoint IRQ 0
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Device Serial Number 23-ad-00-ff-ff-e0-1d-00

bbfuller · 12-12-2007, 10:29 AM

Hello Snickar-Lasse

Looking on the internet, that Intel Corporation Unknown Device 4230 description seems to refer to the Intel(R) Wireless 4965 Card.

As your distribution is giving the first identifier but not equating it with the second I conclude that what I said in my earlier post is true. Namely, Fedora 6 based distributions are too old to support that card.

You "may" get it to work with the latest versions of ndiswrapper but that is only a guess. That is the latest versions of ndiswrapper though and not necessarily any one made available with a distribution of that age.

If you were determined to go that route, I'd certainly try to get hold of one of the current fedora live cd's and see if that identifies the card. But then if it does you are probably better off installing the newer OS in any case.

Snickar-Lasse · 12-12-2007, 01:08 PM

OK, thanks. I re-installed the whole system. That a Fedora 6 based distribution doesn't support my card isn't good news. The reason for using the dist in question is that it's tailored for our network. And it sure does work beautifully in that aspect, but getting things like sound, wireless, applications like skype and banshee to work is a hassle. I ran Suse 10.0 before and I'm pretty tempted to go back...

Thanks

Hangdog42 · 12-12-2007, 03:28 PM

Something to keep in mind about the Intel drivers:

Intel has instructions on their site about replacing the 802.11 subsystem, but for any even remotely modern distro, this is not needed as the kernel has a perfectly acceptable version. Installing a new 802.11 subsystem probably did bork your kernel pretty well, so you could try installing a new kernel from RPM and then install just the Intel drivers and firmware.

bbfuller · 12-12-2007, 05:31 PM

Hello Snickar-Lasse

I think one of the things that comes across on the Fedora Forum is that Fedora is very much cutting edge,things may break and don't use it in critical situations where you may want long term support, type of distribution.

It may not have been a good policy move to have had something customised for a network where the support life is so short.

A better bet would have been perhaps Ubuntu 6.10 I think, where support was promised for a number of years.

I was going to suggest that you tried with the latest version of ndiswrapper compiled from their site, but their page of cards reckoned to work:

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/j...3/id,list_g-l/

doesn't list the 4965 among the successes.

There are some people on the fedora forum though who reckon to have got it running with fedora 8.

Hangdog42 · 12-13-2007, 03:13 PM

Quote:

I was going to suggest that you tried with the latest version of ndiswrapper compiled from their site

In general, ndiswrapper should be a last resort. Native linux drivers usually function much better, and since Intel is actively supporting their Linux drivers, I would think they would be a better choice than ndiswrapper.

bbfuller · 12-13-2007, 03:56 PM

Hello Hangdog42

Quote:

In general, ndiswrapper should be a last resort.

I agree, but I'm pretty sure that the drivers for "Intel(R) Wireless 4965 Card" were not made available in the fedora 6 repositories.

Of course Snickar-Lasse it may be possible to compile those drivers for fedora 6.

Hangdog42 · 12-14-2007, 11:35 AM

Just because they aren't in the Fedora repositories, doesn't mean they aren't available. The Intel driver site is here and has drivers for the 4965. They even have Fedora RPMs.

bbfuller · 12-14-2007, 04:33 PM

The iwlwifi drivers are included in fedora 8 because I have them working on a laptop.

They were included in fedora 7 but a lot of people on the fedora forum - including me - had trouble with them and at least for the 3945 card reverted to the earlier ipw3945 driver.

I've looked and really can't see any precompiled driver for the 4965 on fedora core 6 on the site indicated. Just fedora 7. But as I said it may be possible to compile one of the listed snapshots to work.