Wifi is broken on a Lenovo T61 running Fedora Core 8

[sd.codewarrior]

I am running Fedora Core 8 on a bootable Maxtor external USB drive plugged into a T61. The internal HD still runs Windows XP when I don't have the external drive plugged in. Everything works fine when running Fedora except that I can't get Wifi to work consistently. I've been able to successfully connect about 3 times (in 30+ attempts) but even though I've paid very close attention, I can't seem to detect a pattern of when a connection will (or will not be successful). I've been intermittently working on this for weeks.

If I weren't so macho, I'd cry.


I've installed madwifi and tried various other solutions including ensuring the wpa_supplicant, NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher are running. The nm applet is consistently able to recognize my AP but when I attempt to enter the password, it thinks for a while and then rejects the password. I'm confident I'm entering the password correctly.

My primary access point uses 128-bit WEP encryption; I've also tried turning encryption off, using a shared as opposed to open key and using an AP with WPA-based encryption.

My most recent attempt: I found a post somewhere (that I can't find any more for the life of me) in which the writer said that he experienced similar symptoms. He ended up replacing his Atheros mini-PCI card in his T61 (my card is an Atheros AR5BXB6) with an Intel 3945. I attempted to do a similar replacement and just learned (today) that the BIOS rejects the Intel 3945. Is there any way to config the BIOS so that the card will be accepted?

Can anyone give any suggestions?

[lightweight]

With the stock card, can you post the output of the following?

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sudo ifconfig
sudo iwconfig

What happens if you do:

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sudo iwlist ath0 scanning

Verify your access point name and channel and wep encrytion, then

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sudo iwconfig ath0 essid [access point name] channel [channel number] key [10 character 128bit wep key, not passphrase] && sleep 20 && sudo dhclient ath0 

When you replace the items in brackets with their respective values, don't include the brackets.

[Volker]

One of the many disadvantages of WEP is that there is no way for your computer to know if the password is correct or not. Thats why NM has to wait for a long time until giving up. WPA is much nicer.

Which version of madwifi are you using? My guess would be that updating the driver will help.