FC5 ipw3945 problem on laptop

[Mike Cohler]

-dpet wrote:
>	Well, to cut a long story short, I now find that kernel-2174 responds
>correctly to the installation of ipw3945, but I still have this error
>and kernel panic with the smp version. Strange when an article covers
>this on a Samsung, using a slightly earlier kernel-smp, with no problem.
>
>			http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~mdc1/samsung.html
>
>Well, I will use the working version for now, but see if I can somehow
>sort out the smp in the future
>Thanks everybody for your help (and patience!)

Hi dp

Since you have referred to my web page for the Samsung, and I have
been busy and only just picked up on the postings, I thought I should
tell you that I have been updating the kernel in the Samsung and
recompiling the ipw3945 driver (only) each time without any issues.
For each update of the smp kernel I recompile the driver and then
place the ipw3945.ko file in the appropriate directory, and also make
sure that the permissions are the same as for the ipw2200.ko file in
the same (stock) directory.  Then after running depmod -a the wireless
works fine after a re-boot. (You can also restart the wireless with a
few commands as root, instead of re-booting)

I am running regulatory daemon version ipw3945d-1.7.19, and do not
change the ieee80211 from the stock version in the current kernel. So
there is no need to fiddle with ieee80211. The driver is version
ipw3945-1.0.12 and I did not bother changing to the 1.1.0-pre2
version. The microcode is still as described in my webpage.

By the way if you have a failed attempt at installing the driver then
you have to get rid of all the spurious files that are created
otherwise a second or subsequent attempt at install will usually fail
to create the correct files.  If this is the case and you do not know
which files to remove then it is easiest to boot into the previous
kernel, and then do "yum remove
kernel-smp-devel_version_as_appropriate" for the later kernel, and
then reinstall the later kernel-smp-devel doing "yum update" or
updating that specific version.  If things are really messed up then
yum remove the later kernel itself whilst running the previous kernel
and then re install.  Once you have a clean latest kernel and
kernel-devel (both with SMP if this is relevant to your machine) then
boot to the kernel for which you want the ipw3945 installed (the
process will only work for the current working kernel as I described
it) and then compile (make) the driver to create ipw3945.ko, and copy
it to the appropriate directory - currently
/lib/modules/2.6.17-1.2187_FC5smp/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ .
Change permissions for that driver file to 744, then run "depmod -a"
as root. Assuming that you followed all the steps precisely to install
the microcode, and regulatory daemon as per my web page, and also
added the lines to /etc/modprobe.conf and /etc/rc.local as per my
webpage then after rebooting you should find that the wireless comes
up working. At least it works fine for me and has done for all kernel
versions since FC5 started.

Of course the ifcfg-wth1 file needs to be correct, and in my system I
only run with WEP encryption.  If this is the first time you are
connecting to a new Access Point then it might be worth switching off
all encryption at the AP as well as for your card definition until it
is all working, and then turn on encryption afterwards.  I have not
tried running with WPA as that is another layer of fiddling to get
working in Fedora.

I do know that I had to spend a lot of time getting the steps exactly
correct otherwise it would not work.  Hence what I would suggest is to
make sure that your kernel and kernel-devel are both clean. Install
the microcode and regulatory daemon.  Change the two files
modprobe.conf and rc.local, and then compile and install the driver as
above. Don;t forget the depmod command. Now make sure your wireless
card ifcfg-eth1 file is correct. Then re-boot and see if it works.

I hope this helps

Mike
-- 

mike cohler