Intel 3945abg Driver

[hiever1]

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.10. I cannot connect to the internet. My wifi light is on, but it'll flash? Any ideas? Works fine on Windows.

I'm a noobie so be gentle.

[chili555]

The driver is built in to the kernel and usually works well. Let's run a few diagnostics. Please open Applications > Accessories > Terminal and do:

rfkill list all
dmesg | grep iwl
lsmod | grep dell

The pipe symbol | is on the right side of my US keyboard along with \.

Post the result and we'll proceed.

[hiever1]

tristan@tristan-laptop:~$ rfkill list all
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
tristan@tristan-laptop:~$ dmesg | grep iwl
[ 1487.720187] iwl3945 0000:0b:00.0: Card state received: HW:Kill SW:On
[ 1487.756024] iwl3945 0000:0b:00.0: MAC is in deep sleep!. CSR_GP_CNTRL = 0x040003DD
[ 3477.659952] iwl3945 0000:0b:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x100106, writing 0x100506)
[ 3800.727459] iwl3945 0000:0b:00.0: Master Disable Timed Out, 100 usec
[ 3801.064020] iwl3945 0000:0b:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x100106, writing 0x100506)
tristan@tristan-laptop:~$ lsmod | grep dell
dell_wmi 2852 0
dell_laptop 5730 0
dcdbas 5402 1 dell_laptop

.

[chili555]

Fascinating. Although rfkill list all shows no hardware or software switches that are interfering with the operation of your wireless card, dmesg suggests it is:

Card state received: HW:Kill SW:On

The time stamp indicates you may have manipulated the switch later.

I do not see these items (from my dmesg) that show the card starting normally:

[ 18.594214] iwl3945 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[ 18.594230] iwl3945 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 18.651851] iwl3945 0000:03:00.0: Tunable channels: 11 802.11bg, 13 802.11a channels
[ 18.651857] iwl3945 0000:03:00.0: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 3945ABG
[ 18.652041] iwl3945 0000:03:00.0: irq 48 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 18.683843] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-3945-rs'
[ 19.641354] iwl3945 0000:03:00.0: loaded firmware version 15.32.2.9

I am going to use a bit of guesswork here. The module dell-laptop sometimes, but not always interferes with the correct operation of wireless. Presses of the wireless switch don't always get properly translated into kernel messages. Let's remove it temporarily and see if the wireless improves:

sudo rmmod -f dell-laptop
dmesg | grep iwl

Please look for and post messages after [ 3801.064020]. Thanks.

[hiever1]

tristan@tristan-laptop:~$ sudo rmmod -f dell-laptop
ERROR: Removing 'dell_laptop': No such file or directory

We got a problem.

[chili555]

tristan@tristan-laptop:~$ lsmod | grep dell
dell_wmi 2852 0
dell_laptop 5730 0
dcdbas 5402 1 dell_laptop

I thought it was loaded. Please check again.

lsmod | grep dell
modinfo dell-laptop

[hiever1]

lsmod | grep dell
modinfo dell-laptop

tristan@tristan-laptop:~$ lsmod | grep dell
dell_wmi 2852 0
tristan@tristan-laptop:~$
tristan@tristan-laptop:~$ modinfo dell-laptop
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.35-23-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/dell-laptop.ko
alias: dmi:*svnDellComputerCorporation.:*:ct8:*
alias: dmi:*svnDellInc.:*:ct8:*
license: GPL
description: Dell laptop driver
author: Matthew Garrett <mjg@redhat.com>
srcversion: 937E56ACAE113942D6266C1
depends: dcdbas
vermagic: 2.6.35-23-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 686

And

tristan@tristan-laptop:~$ sudo rmmod -f dell-laptop
ERROR: Removing 'dell_laptop': No such file or directory

[hiever1]

Ok, a little more info. When I connect to my network, I enter my password and then it just keep trying to connect then the light will flash.

[chili555]

Either your driver, Network Manager or wpa_supplicant have problems in two areas. I don't know which. First, it can be troublesome to connect to SSIDs with a space, such as "Chili House." If yours has a space, try changing to something else, such as, "ChiliHouse."

Second, many routers have a mixed WPA and WPA2 mode. The intent, I believe, is to be backwards compatible with older hardware that may not be WPA2 capable. If yours is so configured, you will have better luck with WPA or WPA2; not both.

Finally, have you double-checked the password? Does it work seamlessly in other computers on the network?

[hiever1]

1. No spaces.
2. I think this is it. My netowork is WPA.
3. It's correct.