Arch Linux

unprogram

Member

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 17

/etc/hotplug folder missing

Hello, linux newbie here.

I spent a couple of days getting wireless to work, with the infamous iwl3945 drivers.

I get in dmesg :

iwl3945: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
sda:<3>iwl3945: iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode firmware file req failed: Reason -2
iwl3945: Could not read microcode: -2
iwl3945: probe of 0000:03:00.0 failed with error -2

Now for some reason to get it to work I have to

modprobe -r iwl3945
modprobe iwl3945
ifconfig wlan0 up

Why would this be?

Now after looking round loads and loads of pages, apparently the /etc/firmware directory is referenced by /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent , but I don't even have a hotplug directory.

Any idea if this is related and/or how to fix this?

Thanks in advance!

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: /etc/hotplug folder missing

hotplug is obsolete, long ago. Firmware files should be installed in /lib/firmware. You need the iwlwifi-3945-ucode package.

unprogram

Member

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 17

Re: /etc/hotplug folder missing

Hi , I already have the iwl3925-ucode package, and I can get wireless to work.

What I am trying to figure out is why I have to type modprobe -r  and then modprobe first to get it to work. The intel documentation says it looks for FIRMWARE_DIR , but I can't find out what this folder is set to on my system, which I think is the cause of the problem.

Does anyone know how to find out what FIRMWARE_DIR is set to?

Thanks!

bgc1954

Member

From: Edmonton, AB, Canada

Registered: 2006-03-14

Posts: 1,160

Re: /etc/hotplug folder missing

As tomk said the firmware should be in /lib/firmware in Arch.  Your problem is not totally unique.  If you google around a bit there are a few posts about people having to unload and reload wireless drivers to get them to work.  Doesn't seem to be a real reason to it but someone out there may have an answer for you??

---

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz

unprogram

Member

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 17

Re: /etc/hotplug folder missing

Yeah, I'm just trying to work out why it was not working, but it seems noone eles out there knows either (i searched for two days on google for an answer) Never mind, I can hack through it by putting the modprobe lines in rc.conf, I just wanted to further my knowledge because I don't know why I have to do this!