Kernel panic when associating ipw3945 adapter through iwconfig on Slackware 12 2.6.21

Gr0k · 01-19-2008, 03:33 PM

Hi there, i got Slackware 12 running 2.6.21.5-smp kernel on my HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop (intel core 2 duo @2.00 Ghz, 2GB Ram, i965GM chipset and intel pro wireless 3945 ABG network controller). As i expected, it doesnt support my adapter natively, so i installed drivers, firmware and some other stuff as explained in intellinuxwireless.org. All was OK, i updated ieee80211 module, installed drivers, firmware and daemon, and rebuilt kernel again (this in order to get the reinstalled ieee80211 module working properly). So modules were correctly inserted, interface recognized and when i try to do the last step with iwconfig, i get an annoying kernel panic.

This is what lspci says about the controller:

Code:

02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

lsmod output:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
snd_seq_dummy           6788  0 
snd_seq_oss            32896  0 
snd_seq_midi_event     10112  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                50640  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device         10508  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            42784  0 
snd_mixer_oss          18048  1 snd_pcm_oss
ipv6                  254496  12 
pcmcia                 34988  0 
pcmcia_core            36500  1 pcmcia
capability              7304  0 
commoncap               9344  1 capability
lp                     13736  0 
parport_pc             27812  0 
parport                34760  2 lp,parport_pc
psmouse                39048  0 
ipw3945               197408  0 
r8169                  29832  0 
ieee80211              34632  1 ipw3945
ieee80211_crypt         8576  1 ieee80211
snd_hda_intel          20248  0 
snd_hda_codec         209152  1 snd_hda_intel
sdhci                  18828  0 
mmc_core               25988  1 sdhci
serio_raw               9220  0 
intel_agp              25116  1 
sg                     30364  0 
i2c_i801               11408  0 
agpgart                31432  1 intel_agp
ata_generic             9220  0 
snd_pcm                72068  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer              22532  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    47204  9 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
evdev                  11904  1 
soundcore               9824  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         11528  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
shpchp                 33172  0

Now i run the regulatory daemon (/sbin/ipw3945d, it comes together with drivers), and it says:

Code:

ipw3945d - regulatory daemon
Copyright (C) 2005-2006 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
version: 1.7.22
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection found at:
 /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw3945/0000:02:00.0
Daemon launched as pid 3383.  Exiting.

ifconfig output (ethernet and loopback interfaces not shown):

Code:

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1C:BF:0E:87:86  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:1 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:18 Base address:0xa000 Memory:f4000000-f4000fff

iwconfig output:

Code:

eth1      unassociated  ESSID:off/any  Nickname:"slack"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=nan kHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power:16 dBm   
          Retry limit:15   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:1   Missed beacon:0

Now i type:

Code:

ifconfig eth1 up # just in case :)
iwconfig eth1 mode managed essid THOMSON key <my_wep_128_bit_hex_key>

It seems to work (wifi led on the laptop shifts from orange to blue) and about 10 seconds later, before entering "dhcpcd eth1" it crashes down. This is the panic log:

Code:

EIP: [<c0694487>] netif_rx+0x17/0x170 SS:ESP 0068:c090dc50
Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt
BUG: at arch/i386/kernel/smp.c:546 smp_call_function()
[<c010e8ce>] smp_call_function+0x13e/0x150
[<c0445726>] do_unblank_screen+0x16/0x140
[<c010e8fb>] smp_send_stop+0x1b/0x30
[<c012083e>] panic+0x4e/0x100
[<c0104072>] die+0x252/0x260
[<c01149cc>] do_page_fault+0x2cc/0x5d0
[<c0114700>] do_page_fault+0x0/0x5d0
[<c0710f6c>] error_code+0x7c/0x84
[<c0694487>] netif_rx+0x17/0x170
[<f8f5ce9f>] ieee80211_rx+0x50f/0xd30 [ieee80211]
[<f9087a1a>] ipw_handle_reply_rx+0x4ca/0x1580 [ipw3945]

Log goes on, but i think that's the interesting part. So, what can i do? I have an older laptop running the same system with a Texas Instruments chipset pcmcia card, and it works perfectly; this never happened me before.

Thanks in advance.

Hangdog42 · 01-20-2008, 08:52 AM

Something isn't adding up here. The site you point to (intelwireless.org)doesn't host the ipw3945 driver (which has been deprecated by the way) but rather hosts the new iwl3945 driver. I'm wondering if you somehow managed to get bits and pieces from two different projects.

To be honest, you're probably better off moving to the iwl3945 driver as it will be developed going forward. It doesn't require the daemon that ipw3945 does, but it does require patching the kernel with the mac80211 wireless stack. It isn't hard to do, and has worked very nicely on my laptop.

Gr0k · 01-20-2008, 10:15 AM

Uh, i didn't know that. Ok, i will try to uninstall the old drivers and get those iwl3945 drivers working. Thank you!

Gr0k · 01-26-2008, 08:46 AM

Finally i got it, it works great! Thank you again Hangdog42

Hangdog42 · 01-26-2008, 08:51 AM

Congrats! I'm hoping this becomes a lot easier in the near future. I think that the mac80211 stack will be standard in the next version of the kernel, and hopefully the iwl drivers will move into the kernel source as well once that happens.