Arch Linux

JaQoB

Member

Registered: 2007-04-04

Posts: 60

Huge problems with wireless, would need some help

Sorry for the bad topic, and sorry for my english.

And now the problem.
I have just bought my first laptop, and got almost everything to play nice in arch, except the wireless.
My card is a Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (iwl3945), and i have a Dlink 524 router (abg).
Using WAP, but can change this if its help.

Right now I'am using NetworkManager (0.6.5-3 from rep) and KNetworkManager (from AUR), and it works very very bad.
It can't connect at startup (or atleast it doesn't...), it takes several attempts to get a connection, it drops the connection and dont reconnect when it does, and so on. Its almost unusable and force me to use wired a connection just to be sure to be able to write this.

After what i read in different forums and mailinglists, there seems to be a lot of problems with wireless at the moment?

Anyone got this combination to work fine? Or are there any other way of configuration i should try? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

RobF

Member

Registered: 2006-10-10

Posts: 157

Re: Huge problems with wireless, would need some help

I've had a lot of problems with wireless networking for several weeks recently, ever since I upgraded vanilla kernel26 from v.2.6.22 to v.2.6.23 (see http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=40145).  I'm using the Windows driver bcmwl5 for the Broadcom 4311 chipset via Ndiswrapper, and I'm using WPA-PSK (TKIP) encryption.  I also use a D-Link DI-524 router.  What finally cured the problem was to install the new wicd (v.1.3.1) network manager which is now in extra and to set up all networking interfaces in that GUI, abandoning using Arch network profiles and all the detailed setup in /etc/rc.conf.

My /etc/rc.conf now only contains (I'm only showing entries pertinent to networking)

MODULES=(ndiswrapper capability sg acpi-cpufreq cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_performance cpufreq_powersave)
HOSTNAME="RFDellLT"
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng @nfslock @nfsd @netfs @crond !network hal cpufreq portmap wicd sshd cups alsa @openntpd privoxy)

i.e. no more INTERFACES, not even "lo", gateway, ROUTES, NET_Profiles.  Everything is set up through wicd.  You only need to put the wicd daemon in the DAEMONS array (after hal which also loads dbus), and the network daemon isn't needed anymore.  Also you should uninstall any other networkmanager.

To put the wicd icon in the system tray, create a shell script (give it any name) in the .kde/Autostart/ directory in your home directory (if you use KDE, otherwise do the equivalent thing for any other DE/WM) that contains the command /usr/lib/wicd/tray.py.

You may want to try wicd, perhaps it'll fix your problem.  It certainly has gotten good press in this forum.

peart

Member

From: Kanuckistan

Registered: 2003-07-28

Posts: 510

Re: Huge problems with wireless, would need some help

Hello,

Many people will say that iwl3945 works great, which is great for them   On my laptop, it's beyond horrible.  I get a connection once in 3 tries, and even when I do get a connection, error messages appear.  So for now, I'm still using the tried and tested ipw3945 driver.  It's rock solid.

It might be worthwhile to test ipw3945.  Perhaps your laptop is like mine, and hates iwl3945.

Grimn

Member

Registered: 2006-12-23

Posts: 136

Re: Huge problems with wireless, would need some help

Personally I think there are some compatibility issues between ipw3945 and networkmanager (0.6.5-3), on my wireless at home it usually works but sometimes I have to restart the daemon or keep trying to make it work.
Also at my university they use a WPA-Enterprise wireless network but Knetworkmanager (I also tried with gnome's front-end) doesn't recognise it as Enterprise and thus there's no way I can connect even if I set it up mannually (it always fails at the first stage). It works fine on Ubuntu (which has the same version for networkmanager btw).

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Huge problems with wireless, would need some help

JaQoB got netcfg2 working: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 10#p304810 so you can consider this one closed.

RobF: try netcfg2 and let me know how you go.

Grimn: networkmanager is pretty odd. I've had issues with it too, it wouldnt pick up networks, or just failed to remember things about them. I filed a bug *months* ago and still havn't received a response. Instead I just picked up netcfg2 again and got it updated and ready for release. Sooner or later I might write a tray app to work with netcfg2

Last edited by iphitus (2007-12-05 08:49:29)

JaQoB

Member

Registered: 2007-04-04

Posts: 60

Re: Huge problems with wireless, would need some help

JaQoB got netcfg2 working: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 10#p304810 so you can consider this one closed.

RobF: try netcfg2 and let me know how you go.

Grimn: networkmanager is pretty odd. I've had issues with it too, it wouldnt pick up networks, or just failed to remember things about them. I filed a bug *months* ago and still havn't received a response. Instead I just picked up netcfg2 again and got it updated and ready for release. Sooner or later I might write a tray app to work with netcfg2

Sorry for not having updated this thread yet. Lost my internet connection.
But netcfg2 works absolutly wonderful! Connecting at bootup, and havent had a single disconnection.
Thanks alot iphitus

raul_nds

Member

From: Lisbon, Portugal

Registered: 2007-06-28

Posts: 258

Re: Huge problems with wireless, would need some help

Sooner or later I might write a tray app to work with netcfg2

Please please please