iwl3945 drivers: dhcpd works but not from rc.inet1!

dugan · 06-01-2008, 05:28 PM

I have an Intel Pro 3945 network card, and the kernel iwl3945 kernel module loaded. I've ascertained that there is nothing wrong with the iwl3945 drivers. However, I can get dhcp to work from the command-line but not from rc.inet1!

Here's the situation.

My network device is detected. I have a node at wlan0.

The top part of my rc.wireless.conf looks like this:

Quote:

## NOTE : Comment out the following five lines to activate the samples below ...
## --------- START SECTION TO REMOVE -----------
## Pick up any Access Point, should work on most 802.11 cards
*)
INFO="Any ESSID"
ESSID="my essid"
KEY="my key"
;;
## ---------- END SECTION TO REMOVE ------------

The relevant part (read: the part I changed) of rc.inet1.conf looks like this:

Quote:

IFNAME[4]="wlan0"

The following commands work:
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 stop
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start
dhcpcd wlan0

After doing the above, I'm connected to my router.

HOWEVER, if I set my rc.inet1.conf up as follows...

Quote:

IFNAME[4]="wlan0"
USE_DHCP[4]="yes"

...then "/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start" just times out! The exact output is:

Quote:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1: wlan0 information: 'Any ESSID'
Error for wireless request "Set Nickname" (8B1C) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.
Polling for DHCP server on interface wlan0:
dhcpcd: MAC address = 00:19:d2:69:fc:62

After the above, just typing "dhcpcd wlan0" at the command prompt also just times out.

So what happens if I use wpa_supplicant? The results are exactly the same.

My complete wpa_supplicant.conf is as follows:

Quote:

# See /usr/doc/wpa_supplicant-0.5.10/wpa_supplicant.conf.sample
# for many more options that you can use in this file.

# This line enables the use of wpa_cli which is used by rc.wireless
# if possible (to check for successful association)
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
# By default, only root (group 0) may use wpa_cli
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

network={
ssid="my essid"
wep_key0=my WEP key
key_mgmt=NONE
wep_tx_keyidx=0
priority=5
}

# WPA protected network, supply your own ESSID and WPAPSK here:
#network={
# scan_ssid=0
# ssid="your_essid_here"
# proto=WPA
# key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
# pairwise=CCMP TKIP
# group=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
# psk=your_psk_here
#}

# Plaintext connection (no WPA, no IEEE 802.1X),
# nice for hotel/airport types of WiFi network.
network={
key_mgmt=NONE
priority=0
}

Now, if I set my rc.inet1.conf as follows...

Quote:

IFNAME[4]="wlan0"
WLAN_WPA[4]="wpa_supplicant"

Then I can type the following...

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start
dhcpcd wlan0

...to connect to my router.

Once again, however, if I add USE_DHCP="yes" to rc.inet1.conf then rc.inet1 times out.

What's going on?

dugan · 06-01-2008, 08:24 PM

SOLVED!

It turns out that the iwl3945 drivers in the current kernel releases (even the latest, 2.6.25.4) have this problem. Working drivers are nevertheless available. I downloaded and installed the latest snapshot from the compat-wireless project (it was dated June 1). Now everything works without problems!

[stinger] · 06-01-2008, 08:51 PM

I have this card in a Dell E1505 and the iwl3945 drivers work fine. I know you've had success with the newer drivers, but I wanted to let you (and anyone else who might be reading) that iwl3945 works as advertised with the 2.6.24.5 kernel.

I did notice in your post what may have been the problem. You really "do" need to comment out the first five lines as specified in rc.wireless.conf. The active section of this configuration file then becomes the very last section. I usually add some odd remark in the info line so I can get an idea of what's happening and when. I don't add anything else to this file and instead use rc.inet1.conf to configure the wpa driver and wlan0 data. I also edit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf accordingly. In my mucking arround with this in the past i have found that nothing will work for me until i comment out those 5 lines in rc.wireless.conf.

From your post:

Quote:

The top part of my rc.wireless.conf looks like this:

Quote:
## NOTE : Comment out the following five lines to activate the samples below ...
## --------- START SECTION TO REMOVE -----------
## Pick up any Access Point, should work on most 802.11 cards
*)
INFO="Any ESSID"
ESSID="my essid"
KEY="my key"
;;
## ---------- END SECTION TO REMOVE ------------

I spare the details since you don't seem to need them any longer.

dugan · 06-01-2008, 09:06 PM

Interesting that things worked differently on your Dell than they did on my Asus. For me, the five lines above weren't the problem. They worked with the ipw3945 drivers in older version of Slackware, they worked with ipw3945 when I installed it on Slackware 12.1, and they work with the newer version of iwl3945 that I just mentioned installing.

[stinger] · 06-01-2008, 09:19 PM

Well, one thing I'll never claim is that I completely understand how these 3 scripts interact to create a working wireless setup.

I've had 11, 12 and now 12.1 on this machine, with even more kernels, and all I can safely say is that I've never done it the same way twice. And by that I mean that I've never been "able" to do it the same way twice. The "only" thing I've ever done the same each time is the commenting of that section. I has not worked for me otherwise.

By the way, does your LED work? Mine only worked with the ipw3945 module. I saw this was to be expected back when I started using the iwl3945 driver and I never bothered to try and fix it.

Cheers

dugan · 06-01-2008, 11:35 PM

I've never looked to see if my LEDs were working. In fact, I haven't even checked where the relevant LEDs on my laptop are

However, people on this Gentoo forum thread have reported that the LEDs do not work with the version of iwlwifi in 2.6.24.5.
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t...start-275.html

tommcd · 06-02-2008, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [stinger]

Well, one thing I'll never claim is that I completely understand how these 3 scripts interact to create a working wireless setup.

Cheers

You don't need to edit both rc.wireless.conf and rc.inet1.conf. Just editing one or the other will do:
http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/...ckware:madwifi

Quote:

If you need to configure specific parameters to make the wireless card talk to your Access Point - for instance, the ESSID (in case the Access Point is hiding its station ID), or the channel, or a WEP key, etc) then you will need to edit either the file

/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf

or the file

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf

(one of the two will do) and add a specific configuration that matches your wireless card and Access Point.

[stinger] · 06-02-2008, 07:15 PM

I don't read that quote to mean that you don't need to edit both files. I take it to mean that, if you need to enter specific parameters to access the network, you can enter these parameters in either file, but you don't need to put them in both. This is in fact what I do. I use the rc.inet1.conf file for all of my parameters and leave rc.wireless.conf alone "with the exception of commenting out the first section of the file". Some configuration of wpa_supplicant.conf is also required.