Making Intel Wireless 3945ABG Work Better on Ubuntu Hardy
24 04 2008In Ubuntu 8.04 the Intel wireless cards have switched from the ipw driver to the iwl driver. The version of the iwl driver that ships with Hardy is slightly buggered. The driver does not support SCAN_CAPA = 0×0 which prevents it from connecting to hidden networks. Though Network Manager has been pachted with a workaround for this. It also doesn’t have any support for controlling the LED light. Luckily a new version of the iwl driver has been backported in the linux-backports-modules-hardy-generic package.
To install this package, first go System→Administration→Software Sources. Go to the Updates tab and enable the Hardy Backports repository.
Click Close then click the Reload button when prompted. After that is done open a termianl and enter
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-hardy-generic
Afterwards, reboot and you should have your LED light working as well as possibly better wireless performance.
I still have some problems connecting to my network. Sometimes it won’t connect when I boot the computer and I have to fool around with Network Manager by disabling wireless, enabling wireless, disabling networking, enabling networking, and a number of combinations of those things with some waiting thrown in there too. So if you’re having problems connecting to the network, play around with Network Manager for a while. It might take a lot of tries.
This cured the led for me but I had to ditch Network Manager and install Wicd to get my Inspiron 9400 with Hardy to connect to any encrypted network.
Wicd works really well for me. You will need to add the following line to your 3rd party repos.
deb http://apt.wicd.net hardy extras
Thanks so much! This got the light working again for the wireless on my Dell 6400 e1505!
The gtk theme! It burns my eyes
ROFL
Yes, I should do something about that.
Anyone have luck getting WPA/WPA2 setup with this method?
Some people are getting the card to work, but are either using WEP or no encryption at all.
I would give Wicd a shot as Blingin2Mingin mentioned. The patch that Network Manager was patched with seems flaky at best. Some have had better luck with the backports-modules + Wicd instead of Network Manager. I think I’m even going to give Wicd a shot since I’m tired of fooling around with NM for 10 minutes whenever I boot up to get connected. I’m using WEP by the way.
Fixed GTK theme
All that and still no LED lights on.
i’m using a X60, with the iwl3945 driver.
And already compiled the compat-wireless.
Any help appreciated.
***@*****-x60:/home/grayamf# dmesg|grep 3945
[ 23.756827] iwl3945: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG/BG Network Connection driver for Linux, 1.2.26k
[ 23.756831] iwl3945: Copyright(c) 2003-2008 Intel Corporation
[ 23.757975] iwl3945: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 3945ABG
[ 23.823740] iwl3945: Tunable channels: 11 802.11bg, 13 802.11a channels
[ 23.836444] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm ‘iwl-3945-rs’
[ 35.653649] iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
[ 178.666346] iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
[ 180.671550] iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
[ 182.662147] iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
[ 485.402723] iwl3945: Radio disabled by HW RF Kill switch
Thinkpad X60s the light is still off and now wirless connection after doing your suggestion.
Sorry correction no wireless connection.
i recommend wicd. it really works fine and my dell doesn’t disconnect any more
[...] The thing booted and everything seemed to work. Except the wireless lan was nowhere to be seen (known issue with the driver apparently, haven’t managed to fix this yet). Compiz actually works and looks pretty cool. I have sound. [...]
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Worked for me, Inspiron 1520, WPA2 Personal. THANKS!
wicd is broken
…
File “/usr/lib/python2.5/ConfigParser.py”, line 462, in _read
raise MissingSectionHeaderError(fpname, lineno, line)
MissingSectionHeaderError: File contains no section headers.
file: data/wired-settings.conf, line: 1
‘[]\n’
why didn’t they stick with what worked with 7.10??
found it. delete /opt/wicd/data/wired-settings.conf and restart
Thanks! Worked perfectly!
I apt-get’d the backports and now everything runs smoothly. I can’t believe such a glaring error was included in a LTS!
Thanks very much!
I’ll try it
Can you give me more detail about getting the Wicd? I did the backport stuff but wireless still does not work.
Thanks
THANKS!!!
Running Ubuntu Hardy on a Lenovo T61 and a Dell Insipron 1420. Both laptops include a wireless Intel 4965AGN. Followed instructions for both laptops, rebooted, and wifi light came on for both laptops. Excellent, Thanks
[...] http://linuxtechie.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/making-intel-wireless-3945abg-work-better-on-ubuntu-hard... [...]
[...] ins Essen — Atheros- oder Prism54 via PC-Card rockt weiterhin das Haus (und ich bin nicht alleine …)kein Dateiempfang mehr via Bluetooth — another pain in the ass brought to you by [...]
Wicd worked well for dv6516tx. Thanks!
Thank you!! My Computer would connect to certain wireless routers and it confused me. While I was on vacation at my family’s I could connect to their router and their neighbor’s router, but not mine when I returned home.
Fixed now, light and all!!
Thank you all for this great advice! Just dropping by to say that I had the same issues, and a simple install of the backport iwl driver seems to have fixed them all.