Centrino Wireless-N not working

**pee_gee_l** · May 15th, 2011

Hi,
I've just updated my HP Pavilion laptop to 11.04, and my wireless has stopped working. I don't appear to be able to detect any wireless networks. The wireless card switch is a touch-type lighted button - when I press it, nothing happens whereas in Windows it changes colour to show it is on/off. It used to blink in the previous Ubuntu installation when it was working. The output of lspci-v for my wireless card is:

02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000 BGN
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 48
Memory at d9000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: iwlagn
Kernel modules: iwlagn

I'm no linux expert, so please let me know what other info/outputs you might need to help. I appreciate it!

**thelight68** · May 15th, 2011

Same problem to my laptop (lenovo y560)!
Anyone please help?

**pee_gee_l** · May 16th, 2011

Update: my card seems to be working fine now. I can turn it on and off in Ubuntu and it acts as it should. I have no idea why...

I had logged in to Windows and turned the card on, then rebooted and logged back in to Ubuntu and now everything seems to be working properly.

**garvinrick4** · May 16th, 2011

02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000 BGN
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 48
Memory at d9000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: iwlagn
Kernel modules: iwlagn

The wireless driver iwlagn for that intel card works fine in G but will not work if you
as an N card. If you try to use N it will slowly lose connection or just go real slow.
You can check in /etc/modprobe.d for a config file if having connection problems. If
need a config file to make card usable see below: intell 5300 will work if already there also.
This is a must for 11.04 with Intel Centrino wireless N 1000 if router set to work
at N speeds at mixed 20 and 40 mhz or just 40 mhz. If no other installs can just set router at G speeds and 20 mhz and will work fine without config file.

Fix is to make a config file and put this in.

Code:

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/iwlagn.conf

Now put this line in and close and reboot.

Code:

options iwlagn 11n_disable50=1 11n_disable=1

Makes the card just use the G capabilities in Linux.
If you dual boot can still run at 144 mb/s or N in windows.
Can run at 54 mb/s in linux (still plenty fast enough)
If anyone wants to know if they have N running in this card run

Code:

iwconfig

and N should not show up. Such as:
IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"Home" (notice no n just bg)
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: C0:C1:C0:C6:0A:EC
Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=14 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr off Fragment thr off
Power Management off
Link Quality=52/70 Signal level=-58 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid f rag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

**smirarab** · June 13th, 2011

.

**smirarab** · June 13th, 2011

Thanks for the reply. I was facing the same problem and your suggested solution of turning N mode off solved my problem.

Just wondering though, when you say
"If no other installs can just set router at G speeds ..." what do you mean by "no other installs"?

Basically, I am wondering if there is a way to keep the wireless card running in the N mode and still make it compatible with 11.04?