I thought for a while I'd configured my laptop's wireless card properly. Sometimes, it boots up and autoconnects to my university's WLAN with no work required on my part.
Other times, though, I'll get one of these two messages as it boots:
or
In either case, not only will it fail to connect, but countless retries of
iwconfig wlan0 essid <essid> key <key> key open ap auto
dhcpcd
ifconfig (to check)
will still fail to connect to the network. As such, I'm wondering if a: there's something I'm forgetting to run or b: I don't have the drivers configured properly even though it works sometimes.
Here's the relevant portion of /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf for reference:
I'm kind of wondering if I should uncomment DHCP_KEEPRESOLV, especially since the wireless can sometimes disconnect if I carry the laptop a long distance (i.e. between classes). It seems like that handles that sort of thing.

What kind of wireless adapter does your laptop have? Is it an Intel 3945?

I'm pretty sure it's either a 3945 or a 4965. As to which one exactly, I honestly can't remember. I'm using a lenovo thinkpad t61 if that helps.

I've investigated this thoroughly. See my post here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi....php?p=3171431

The short answer is that the 3945 drivers in Slackware 12.1's stock kernel don't work. Your options are:

• install a newer kernel
• downgrade to the ipw3945 drivers, patching them first
• install newer drivers from the compat-wireless project

The first two are guaranteed to work. If you choose the second and run into trouble, post a follow-up; I've posted step-by-step instructions before.

Is there a possibility of this breaking other stuff? I'm hoping not, but this would be my first kernel upgrade so I'd like to make sure.

If you use the huge kernel, yes, the stock Slackware kernel does work with a 3945. If you did a full install, Slackware even comes with a package for the firmware needed. On my laptop, doing a full install of 12.1 got my 3945 running out of the box. No additional work needed other than configuration. Of course I use wicd rather than the normal Slackware /etc/rc.d scripts, so that might account for some of the differences between our experiences.

Hangdog42, there are different models and versions of 3945 chips. Therefore, Slackware 12.1's stock driver might well work for you. So that you can make sure, I've linked (in the post above) to step-by-step instructions for duplicating the problems that irkkaaja and I experienced.

However, this driver does not work (properly) for me, irkkaaja, or the people who tested it on Gentoo forums, which has a massive thread devoted to working around its problems. As noted on page 13 on that thread, kernel 2.6.26 (which is newer than what comes with Slackware 12.1) is the earliest one to have working iwl3945 drivers. Kernel 2.6.26 is newer than Slackware 12.1's kernel.

I tried wicd and it still didn't work so I doubt it's a daemon issue.
It's possible (isn't it?) that it works for some types networks and not others, which would explain why you're saying it works and I'm finding it doesn't.
After all, it's only sometimes broken for me. I managed to connect to the network as of now, but the next time I reboot and/or carry the laptop half a mile away to my classes it might break.

But I take it a new kernel won't break the wonderful compatibility I've had with my USB mouse, keyboard, touchpad, screen, and speakers, right?

No, it won't. It would have new and improved drivers, and therefore better compatibility.

That sounds good.
Of course, being that this is my first kernel upgrade, I'd like to make sure I've got this (obvious to people who aren't me) set of actions right.
download 2.6.27.5 from kernel.org
bunzip2 <file>
put it in /usr/src/linux
follow everything else on slackbook.org
stuff happens
successful internet connections.
bragging rights at university linux users group

Right from what I see except for you put it in "/usr/src" - the /usr/src/linux folder respectively symlink should stay as it is. If you want to make your life a little bit easier then take the config file from Slackware-current (for example from here: ftp://slackware.cs.utah.edu/pub/slac...p-2.6.27.5-smp). Not only will you have lesser choices to make but you can even be quite sure that you can (hopefully) get the card in the next Slackware release working, too. Copy it as file ".config" to the folder, for example "/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.5/.config".