Wireless networking with Hardy Heron on T61p

[mariner]

I have been using Linux for about 8 years, and for about 3 years I've run several versions of Kubuntu Linux on my T43p.

I have a new T61p, and although wireless networking works in WinXP, it does not work at all in either 32-bit or 64-bit Hardy Heron.

From lspci -v:

...
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (rev 61)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Lenovo ThinkPad T51
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 216
Memory at df2fe000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [c8] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [d0] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable+
Capabilities: [e0] Express Endpoint IRQ 0
...

From dmesg:

...
[ 97.496616] iwl4965: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN driver for Linux, 1.2.0
[ 97.496618] iwl4965: Copyright(c) 2003-2007 Intel Corporation
[ 97.496730] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
[ 97.496750] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:03:00.0 to 64
[ 97.496778] iwl4965: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
[ 98.140241] cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: clean.
[ 98.142009] cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: excluding 0x4d0-0x4d7
[ 98.142779] cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: clean.
[ 98.143440] cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcf7: clean.
[ 98.144232] cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
[ 98.202411] iwl4965: Tunable channels: 11 802.11bg, 13 802.11a channels
[ 98.206595] wmaster0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-4965-rs'
[ 98.386219] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1b.0 -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
...

From lsmod:

...
iwlwifi_mac80211 219108 1 iwl4965
...
cfg80211 15112 1 iwlwifi_mac80211
...

From iwconfig:

...
wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0


However, when I call up knetworkmanager, it tells me there are no active devices.

(I know, lspci says I have a T51, but every other device with a "Subsystem" line shows T61. Maybe this is significant?)

What have I missed?


MOD EDIT: Moved to linux forum.

[lightweight]

Great job with parsing the relevant data from your system.

iwconfig will show all devices even if the network device is down (as in, not brought up with an ifup or ifconfig wlan0 up). So, try this:

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sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

Then try KDE's GUI net manager. If that still fails, I would suggest associating with the network using wireless-tools / iwconfig / iwlist / etc. Since the modules are loaded this will almost certainly work, and worst case you can just make yourself an alias or function to associate with a given network.

[mariner]

Thanks for trying.

I knew I was missing something when I posted the original message:

Results of "ifconfig":

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1c:25:b6:eb:cd
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Base address:0x1840 Memory:fe200000-fe220000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1f:3b:7c:ca:cb
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-1F-3B-7C-CA-CB-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)


Note that wlan0 is already shown as "up".

Results of "ifup wlan0":

Ignoring unknown interface wlan0=wlan0.


Results of "dhclient wlan0":

Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.6
Copyright 2004-2007 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:1f:3b:7c:ca:cb
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:1f:3b:7c:ca:cb
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 17

Note that sending and listening are supposedly occurring on the correct interface, but I can see no evidence that anything is actually happening.

What's next?

[lightweight]

As you know, per iwconfig you are not associated to any wireless network, and so dhclient will only send a broadcast to nothing. Try associating with the network manually, and if you can, you'll isolate KDE's tool. For the purposes of this test let's assume there is no key or you've turned it off:

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sudo iwlist wlan0 scanning

to ensure your access point appears and verify the channel, then

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sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid <your ap> channel <your ap's channel>

with <your ap> and <your ap's channel> replaced, of course.

Then do your dhclient.

[tarvoke]

I had a similar problem couple times recently (card detected, shows up in iwconfig/ifconfig, iwlist/knetworkmanager can't see any APs) and it turned out that when I upgraded the kernel, the intel firmware was not getting copied to the new location.

if you do

Code: Select all

ls -l /lib/firmware/$(uname -r)

is the intel firmware .ucode file there?

[mariner]

THANKS, lightweight! You filled in the gaps I needed.

The problem is KNetworkmanager.

I've also noticed it doesn't work with my T43p and its Intel 2200bg wireless.