Wireless on T61 Thinkpad help please

drum · 2007-08-23 01:34:00

Hi,
Laptop Thinkpad T61, just finished install of "Don't Panic" Gnome using ftp. kernel 2.6.22.
Sound works out of the box and I got nvidia working.
Some distros wouldn't even load on the T61 so I came back to Arch because I've been using it for a few months on my home box and I've never had any problems. I love it.

Wireless Newbie Question-how do I get wireless working with the Intel 4965AGN.
I don't know how to get wlan0 to come up in iwconfig. It says 'no wireless extensions' for lo and eth0.
what do I need to get from pacman to get me going?
How do I set up my essid?
Your help will be greatly appreciated.

lspci
Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (rev 61)

Thanks:)

low · 2007-08-23 01:46:42

I have an acer aspire with an Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG which is a lesser version of your card. There are old drivers for it somewhere (for the 3945 it is ipw3945) but I use the newer iwlwifi. It doesn't require a daemon and works great, considering I wasn't able to get the ipw driver working.

To get it working you need to install two packages so "pacman -Sy iwlwifi iwlwifi-4965-ucode" and then "modprobe mac80211 | modprobe iwl4965". After, try iwconfig and see if it recognizes it. It should (make sure to add "mac80211 and iwl4965" to the modules array of rc.conf), and then you can try to manually set up wireless or make it EASY and used wicd.

If you have aurbuild installed, do "aurbuild -s wicd", follow the installation and then choose your wireless card in prefrences. Put in the information of your wireless network in the advanced options of wicd, and then hit connect. If you want to use dhcp to automatically get an IP with wicd, you'll need to install dhclient, and if you want to keep using wicd, you should add "wicd" to the daemons array of your rc.conf.

Hope it helps and ask more questions if you get stuck!

Last edited by low (2007-08-23 01:47:42)

drum · 2007-08-23 02:34:03

low,
thanks for your very quick reply.
I've got so far and iwconfig gives me this now but I'm still not connected wirelessly. How do I make it connect? I put mac80211 and iwl4965 into my modules array.
I don't have aurbuild? to get wicd?

iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"Netgear"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:18:4D:49:8C:20
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption key:off
Link Quality=94/100 Signal level=-26 dBm Noise level=-127 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

low · 2007-08-23 03:03:58

sorry, can't help you with connecting manually, you can try using the wiki if you want. aurbuild is really easy to install and really useful if you use the aur a lot (you can do this with wicd to, just adjust the commands per wicd):

$ wget http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/aurbu … d/PKGBUILD
$ makepkg
# pacman -U aurbuild-1.7.8.1-ARCHVERSION.pkg.tar.gz (this won't be right, just do ls and copy the name of the file with pkg in it)

after it is installed, aurbuild -s wicd, logout and log back in (since it is installed in opt) and then fire it up and try to connect. easiest way to get on wireless imho

thayer · 2007-08-23 03:31:12

I highly recommend Networkmanager for newer users looking for the least amount of hassle and greatest amount of flexibility.
Networkmanager Wiki: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Networkmanager
Also check out the general Wireless Setup wiki: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup

thayer · 2007-08-23 03:50:10

FYI, I just updated the Wireless Setup wiki with instructions on installing the iwlwifi driver for 3945 and 4965 based chipsets.

drum · 2007-08-23 08:05:55

Thanks low and thayer.w
You guys are so good.
I followed the archwiki networkmanager and everything works like a dream now. I rebooted a couple of times to make sure and a little box pops up telling me I'm connected to the "Wireless network connection to 'Netgear' (92%)"
I was having some worries about the T61 with it's latest hardware in relation to Linux but Arch saved the day.
There is one other thing which I think I'll have to start another thread on is that a couple of times the caps lock led lights up by it's self and the laptop freezes hard and the only thing left is a hard reboot. I don't use the caps lock at all, I just use shift for caps so I wonder if there's a way of disabling caps lock to see if it's causing the freeze?
If this shouldn't be asked here please tell me and I'll start another thread.
Thanks again
Regards:)

thayer · 2007-08-23 16:03:00

You're very welcome and I'm glad it worked for you. As for your caps lock problem, I would definitely start a new thread about it, so it gets the proper attention. Personally, I have no idea what could be causing the freeze, but I'm willing to bet it has nothing to do with the Caps Lock key itself.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-08-23 01:34:00

Wireless on T61 Thinkpad help please

#2 2007-08-23 01:46:42

Re: Wireless on T61 Thinkpad help please

#3 2007-08-23 02:34:03

Re: Wireless on T61 Thinkpad help please

#4 2007-08-23 03:03:58

Re: Wireless on T61 Thinkpad help please

#5 2007-08-23 03:31:12

Re: Wireless on T61 Thinkpad help please

#6 2007-08-23 03:50:10

Re: Wireless on T61 Thinkpad help please

#7 2007-08-23 08:05:55

Re: Wireless on T61 Thinkpad help please

#8 2007-08-23 16:03:00

Re: Wireless on T61 Thinkpad help please

Board footer