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#1 2011-06-04 21:53:52

eerok
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2005-03-20
Posts: 171

[SOLVED] Thinkpad W520 connection issues

I've been struggling with both wired and wireless connections on my W520.  I know the drivers are e1000e for wired and iwlagn for wireless -- both the ThinkWiki and Ubuntu confirm this.  The firmware should be in the kernel, but the error I get after running iwconfig suggests a problem with it.  Is there something special about iwlagn?

I mostly want the wireless, but it's especially frustrating that I can't get the wired connection to work, either.  In fact, dmesg shows that iwlagn loads and detects the hardware and e1000e does not detect the hardware.

I've installed Arch many times over the years, but this is the most trouble I've encountered.  Could I be missing something really simple?

Last edited by eerok (2011-06-04 22:58:28)


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#2 2011-06-04 22:15:52

broken pipe
Member
Registered: 2010-12-10
Posts: 238

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad W520 connection issues

try blacklisting acer_wmi for a working wireless connection! do you get any errors in errors.log?

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#3 2011-06-04 22:58:08

eerok
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2005-03-20
Posts: 171

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad W520 connection issues

As so often happens, I solved it myself soon after I asked for help.  It had to be the firmware, and so it was.  I downloaded the appropriate firmware from Intel just to get the net working long enough to update the system, then I had to remove the .ucode to install the new linux-firmware.  Works now.


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#4 2011-07-08 22:42:11

liquidweaver
Member
Registered: 2011-07-08
Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad W520 connection issues

I have a w520 as well. The microcode I have from the most recent update (as of 7/8) from the repos seems to make my wireless card degrade over time - eventually, I have to cycle the device to get it working again. Where did you get the firmware, and which one did you use?
Thanks!

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#5 2011-07-10 04:48:30

eerok
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2005-03-20
Posts: 171

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad W520 connection issues

I got the .ucode from http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=Downloads (mine is the Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300( but if you're running the current firmware, then you shouldn't need to do this.  I only needed that ,ucode to get online to download the more current firmware.  Once I installed it, the Intel firmware I'd injected manually was overwritten.

I'm afraid I have no idea what would make your wireless NIC degrade, but something like that would cause me to consider a hardware problem.


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#6 2011-07-26 02:17:42

shayan
Member
From: Edmonton
Registered: 2011-07-26
Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad W520 connection issues

Hi eerok,
I've installed ArchLinux on my W520 with Intel Ultimate-N 6300 wireless card. I used the testing versions so it detected my ethernet and wireless cards at the beginning and I could install X with a WEP connection. But my problem is that I cannot connect to any network with WPA authentication. I can connect to both WEP and no-security access points, but WPA always fails. Are you able to connect to WPA networks?

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#7 2011-07-28 11:32:18

eerok
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2005-03-20
Posts: 171

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad W520 connection issues

shayan wrote:

Are you able to connect to WPA networks?

Yes, I have no problem with WPA connections.  If you have the firmware working, it should just be a matter of generic wireless configuration.  I used the wiki article on Netcfg for this.


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#8 2011-08-01 21:16:09

shayan
Member
From: Edmonton
Registered: 2011-07-26
Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad W520 connection issues

eerok wrote:

Yes, I have no problem with WPA connections.  If you have the firmware working, it should just be a matter of generic wireless configuration.  I used the wiki article on Netcfg for this.

Unfortunately, that is not the problem. I have tried both netcfg and network manager and none of them succeed. Dmesg reports:

[ 3793.058967] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 3795.853589] wlan0: deauthenticating from x by local choice (reason=3)
[ 3795.884720] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[ 3795.886968] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
[ 3795.886971] cfg80211:     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[ 3795.886974] cfg80211:     (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 3795.886976] cfg80211:     (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 3795.886979] cfg80211:     (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 3795.886981] cfg80211:     (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 3795.886983] cfg80211:     (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)

Before installing crda package, I had the same problem.
I don't know why the de-authentication happens.

The output of netcfg is:

DEBUG: wireless_up Configuration generated at /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
DEBUG: wireless_up start_wpa wlan0 /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf nl80211,wext 
DEBUG: wireless_up wpa_check

 > WPA Authentication/Association Failed
DEBUG: profile_up connect failed

Do you know the version of 802.11 you are using? (b/g/n)

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#9 2011-08-01 21:50:31

shayan
Member
From: Edmonton
Registered: 2011-07-26
Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad W520 connection issues

Using Wicd I was able to connect to WPA network.
thanks eerok.

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