Wireless problems Intel 4965agn

[Paul Rumelhart]

Bruce Marshall wrote:
> On Thursday 17 July 2008, Bruce Marshall wrote:
>   
>> On Thursday 17 July 2008, Paul Lemmons wrote:
>>     
>>> I just got a new laptop : Lenovo T61 completely tricked out including an
>>> Intel 4965agn wireless card. I am having a devil of a time getting it to
>>> work. It fails to connect to anything and once it does that it no longer
>>> scans for networks, leaving network-manager very empty looking.
>>>       
>> I assume this isn't really a 'card' but is built-in?
>>
>> I think I have a 4965xxx in my Toshiba that is working ok.
>>
>> How about doing a    hwinfo  --wlan  and posting the result.
>>
>> I'll do the same and check what I have.
>>     
>
> Below is the hwinfo for my wlan.   Note that the module being used is:
>
> iwl4965
>
> You should have a similar module in use.
>
>
> 04: PCI 800.0: 0282 WLAN controller
>   [Created at pci.296]
>   UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_8086_4229
>   Unique ID: y9sn.dFdMEvTRjP5
>   Parent ID: HnsE.6tejkoUeUmF
>   SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.5/0000:08:00.0
>   SysFS BusID: 0000:08:00.0
>   Hardware Class: network
>   Model: "Intel WLAN controller"
>   Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
>   Device: pci 0x4229 
>   SubVendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
>   SubDevice: pci 0x1100 
>   Revision: 0x61
>   Driver: "iwl4965"
>   Driver Modules: "iwl4965"
>   Device File: wlan0
>   Device Files: wlan0, wmaster0
>   Features: WLAN
>   Memory Range: 0xc2100000-0xc2101fff (rw,non-prefetchable)
>   IRQ: 219 (no events)
>   HW Address: 00:1d:e0:b4:c0:29
>   Link detected: yes
>   WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 149 153 157 
> 161 165
>   WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 
> 2.457 2.462 5.18 5.2 5.22 5.24 5.26 5.28 5.3 5.32 5.745 5.765 5.785 5.805 
> 5.825
>   WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
>   WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
>   Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00004229sv00008086sd00001100bc02sc80i00"
>   Driver Info #0:
>     Driver Status: iwl4965 is active
>     Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe iwl4965"
>   Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
>   Attached to: #15 (PCI bridge)
>
>
>   
I have a T61 at work, with the same card, and also had trouble with the 
wireless.  None of the gui configuration tools would work for me.  I 
ended up writing a script that I would run after logging in.  I don't 
have access to the laptop at the moment, but to the best of my 
recollection this is what I did:

I would run "iwlist wlan0 -scan" to get a list of access points.  I 
would choose the one with the highest power setting and note it's frequency.

I'd run "ifconfig wlan0 -up", if I remember correctly.  This enables the 
network, from what I understand.  It's possible this wasn't needed.

I would then run iwconfig wlan0 with parameters to give the essid, 
frequency, and WEP key.  I may have had mode in there, too, but I can't 
remember.  I think the key to getting it working command-line for me was 
to specify the frequency.  For example:

iwconfig wlan0 -essid whatever -WEP blah -freq 2.322G (or whatever it was)

I would finally run "dhclient wlan0" to get my IP address.  After that, 
I was golden.

It sounds worse than it is.  I was connecting to static access points, 
so I only had to run iwlist once and note the frequency.  Then I just 
put the other commands in a script, hard-coded the frequency on the 
iwconfig command-line,  and would run it via sudo.

Unfortunately, I've been told by my boss to have customer support 
install Vista on it, so I probably won't be much help after that.

If needed, I can get to the script on Monday and send it to the list.

Paul