Arch Linux

CryptoMole

Member

Registered: 2008-11-09

Posts: 2

iwl-wifi3945 wireless laptop issue

Hi all I have a t60 laptop with a fresh install of archlinux, my wifi driver is the iwlwifi-3945, I have been unable to get an active connection on wlan0? The one problem I see is that if I run iwconfig I have no ip address, and the essid is not set. I dont know what I am supposed to do at this point as I am new to this distro.
I can give you all my /etc/rc.conf and /etc/resolv.conf  and /etc/hosts as a start. im sure we can get it working.

files: /etc/rc.conf#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime"
# USEDIRECTISA: use direct I/O requests instead of /dev/rtc for hwclock
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
USEDIRECTISA="no"
TIMEZONE="US/Pacific"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
#
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
#
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(e1000e ipw3945 iwl3945 snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-hwdep snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-hda-intel soundcore)

# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="the-archbox"

# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
#   - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
#   - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
#
# DHCP:     Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#
eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
INTERFACES=(eth0)

# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
#   - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(gateway)

# Enable these network profiles at boot-up.  These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
#   - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
#   - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This now requires the netcfg package
#
#NETWORKS=(main)

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
#   - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs crond alsa hal dbus fam gdm)

file: /etc/resolv.conf:nameserver 205.171.3.65

file: /etc/hosts:#
# /etc/hosts: static lookup table for host names
#

#<ip-address>    <hostname.domain.org>    <hostname>
127.0.0.1        localhost.localdomain    localhost the-archbox
192.168.0.1 the-archbox.domain.org the-archbox

# End of file

any help of course is much appreciated.
thanks George Tweedy aka cryptomole:)

mcmillan

Member

Registered: 2006-04-06

Posts: 737

Re: iwl-wifi3945 wireless laptop issue

How are you trying to connect with the wireless? It looks like your rc.conf is just the default things for the network, which you'll probably want to change. You can take a look at the wiki to get an idea of what you need.  I also see both ipw3945 and iwl3945 listed in your modules. You should only have one of these and in case you didn't know the ipw3945 driver is deprecated.

There's different tools you can use to connect that require things to be setup a little different. In case you want to use netcfg (which is what I use) I found my t60 needs to have the line QUIRKS=(preessid) included to make it work. This runs iwconfig wlan0 essid $essid before connecting. I'm not sure if this same quirk of the driver would cause issues if you're connecting another way, since it popped up after I first configured netcfg and haven't tried other methods.

cjpembo

Member

Registered: 2008-08-06

Posts: 105

Re: iwl-wifi3945 wireless laptop issue

I have the 3945 as well.  I use wicd to set all my wired and wireless connections:

1.  pacman -Syu
2.  pacman -S wireless_tools iwlwifi-3945-ucode hal dbus wicd
3.  edit /etc/rc.conf
     remove (or prepend an ! to) ipw3945 from the MODULES line
     add iwl3945 to the MODULES line
     remove (or prepend an ! to) network from the DAEMONS line (wicd can setup all wired and wireless networks)
     add @dbus @wicd to the DAEMONS line (dbus must launch before wicd)
4.  (re)start dbus (and therefore hal) and wicd daemons (or just reboot machine)
     cd /etc/rc.d/
     ./dbus restart
     ./wicd restart
5.  configure your networks via wicd (within an xorg session)
     python /usr/lib/wicd/gui.py

Note:  this last command produces an error:

python /usr/lib/wicd/gui.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/wicd/gui.py", line 2063, in <module>
    app = appGui(standalone=True)
  File "/usr/lib/wicd/gui.py", line 1252, in __init__
    self.window.set_icon_from_file(wpath.images + "wicd-client.png")
glib.GError: Couldn't recognize the image file format for file '/usr/share/pixps/wicd/wicd-client.png'

There is a missed dependency when installing wicd. 
Installing firefox satisfies the dependency.
Therefore, one of the following packages (firefox dependencies) must be required for wicd:

libidl2
mozilla-common
nspr
sqlite3
nss
lcms
hunspell
startup-notification
xulrunner
desktop-file-utils
mime-types
shared-mime-info

I'm guessing lcms, or one of the mimes?

Hope that helps.

mutlu_inek

Member

From: all over the place

Registered: 2006-11-18

Posts: 683

Re: iwl-wifi3945 wireless laptop issue

For anyone that comes across this later, it's shared-mime-info that is the dependency. I run wicd in e17 with no firefox and came across this problem. That mime will fix it up.

Please file a bug report if you haven't already.