can't enable wireless

hi. all of the sudden - knetworkmanager says that the wireless is disabled, and there isn’t any “enable wireless” option. why is this? here’s some info for you that might help you help me.

04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (rev 61)
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:""
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Invalid
          Tx-Power=0 dBm
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B
          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
wlan0     Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

SuSE version ? DE ? in my knetworkmanager it has deactivate/activate connection

Andy

oh. sorry. those elementary parts slip my mind every time.

anyway, openSUSE 11.0 and KDE 3.5. I have 4.0 as well. I had an “enable wireless” option. but it suddenly uhm went away. the wireless is supposed to be activated upon start, and it worked beautifully up until just now when I rebooted. no idea why.

when I run the network device wizard-thingy in yast, I am able to enable/disable it for a while until the wizard completes. I think when the “network services set up” gets a check - it works. but then it stops suddenly.

on my knetwork for KDE 3.5.x If I look at deactivate connection it gives options including Switch to Online mode, if I am offline at the time. I just have to go over the Disable to let it pop up extra options

then once I am in Online Mode I can go and select my network and have it put me online

well that’s what I’m supposed to do but uhm I can’t.

it’s set to activate at boot. it’s in the firewalls external zone. non-root users can control it via kinternet. it uses dhcp and the right module.

hi I added the card as wlan1 for the third time and suddenly it started working again. I did try adding it earlier on (two times) with the exact same settings - without any luck. but now all of the sudden it started working.

okay it’s down again. it seems it’s completely random. sometimes I can just ifconfig wlan0 up, or add it as wlan1 - but most of the time it simply doesn’t work!

so let me sum this up for you,

openSUSE 11.0
KDE 3.5

ok. my wireless network is completely random. it’s ridiculous. in knetworkmanager yer supposed’a be able to enable/disable it, but most of the time i’s just disabled and I can’t enable it with the manager. most of the time it’s like this,

lolwabbit:~ # iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:""
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Tx-Power=0 dBm
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B
          Encryption key: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
lolwabbit:~ # lspci |grep w
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
lolwabbit:~ # lsmod |grep iwl4965
iwl4965               139364  0
firmware_class         27776  2 microcode,iwl4965
mac80211              220436  1 iwl4965
lolwabbit:~ # dhcpcd wlan0
err, wlan0: ioctl SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such device
lolwabbit:~ # iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down
lolwabbit:~ # ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such device
lolwabbit:~ # ifup wlan0
Network interface is managed from NetworkManager
NetworkManager will be advised to set up wlan0
but it cannot be assured from here.

here’s my 70.persistent-net.rules,

# This file was automatically generated by the /lib/udev/write_net_rules
# program run by the persistent-net-generator.rules rules file.
#
# You can modify it,as long as you keep each rule on a single line.
# PCI device 0x10ec:0x8168 (r8169)
# PCI device 0x8086:0x4229 (iwl4965)
# This file was automatically generated by the /lib/udev/write_net_rules
# program run by the persistent-net-generator.rules rules file.
#
# You can modify it,as long as you keep each rule on a single line.
# PCI device 0x10ec:0x8168 (r8169)
# PCI device 0x8086:0x4229 (iwl4965)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:1d:e0:c6:50:29", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="wlan*", NAME="wlan0"
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:09:df:81:0c:2e", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"

I’ve tried removing the latter lines, but when I reboot they get added automatically so I guess they are supposed to be like that. or? I have no idea. this is way above my wireless skills (none). PLEASE help. I need the wireless working on this as it is the computer I use at my technical university college.

ooooooops. supposed to be:

lolwabbit:~ lspci |grep w
04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (rev 61)

indietrash wrote:
>
>
> I’ve tried removing the latter lines, but when I reboot they get added
> automatically so I guess they are supposed to be like that. or? I have
> no idea.

You can have any rules you want. They are there to keep the interface
naming constant. For example, if you had a USB stick as well as your
Intel wireless device, if you booted without the stick installed, your
Intel device might be wlan0, but if the USB were in at boot, the Intel
might now become wlan1. Mine are setup to have my wired device be
eth0, my PCI wireless to be eth1 and my two USB sticks to be wlan1 and
wlan2.

I don’t understand the part about you sometimes having wlan0 and
sometimes wlan1. What are you doing there?

Larry

simply adding a new network device (as wlan1 due to wlan0 being taken by the real device) via yast, using the same drivers and so on. for some reason it actually worked twice. but it seems it doesn’t work anymore.

oh and I tried dhclient with no luck,

lolwabbit:~ # 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
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such device
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:1d:e0:c6:50:29
Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:1d:e0:c6:50:29
Sending on   Socket/fallback
receive_packet failed on wlan0: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
send_packet: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
send_packet: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
send_packet: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
send_packet: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
send_packet: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
send_packet: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
send_packet: Network is down
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

apparently I have net if I remove iwl4965 and add it again… for three seconds or so. dunno how relevant that is though.

indietrash wrote:
> apparently I have net if I remove iwl4965 and add it again… for three
> seconds or so. dunno how relevant that is though.

I think that is entirely relevant. I have seen some bugs that cause
this, but I’m not sure that these affect iwl4965.

I do know that a lot of bugs in the Intel drivers have been fixed
recently. You might try the compat-wireless package from
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download. If you have trouble
building it, you should change the configuration file so that only
iwl4965 is built. You will need make, gcc, and the kernel headers
packages.

Larry

I get this,


alexander@lolwabbit:~/test/compat-wireless-2008-08-06> make
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.25.11-0.1-default/build M=/home/alexander/test/compat-wireless-2008-08-06 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.25.11-0.1-obj/x86_64/default'
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `modules'.  Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.25.11-0.1-obj/x86_64/default'
make: *** [modules] Error 2

when trying to “make”.

indietrash wrote:
> I get this,
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> alexander@lolwabbit:~/test/compat-wireless-2008-08-06> make
> make -C /lib/modules/2.6.25.11-0.1-default/build M=/home/alexander/test/compat-wireless-2008-08-06 modules
> make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.25.11-0.1-obj/x86_64/default’

make[1]: *** No rule to make target modules'. Stop. > make[1]: Leaving directory /usr/src/linux-2.6.25.11-0.1-obj/x86_64/default’
> make: *** [modules] Error 2
> --------------------
>
>
> when trying to “make”.

I think this means that the kernel headers are not installed.

Larry

I have Linux Kernel Headers 2.6.25-8.1. I read its description

(linux-kernel-headers - Linux Kernel Headers

This package provides Linux kernel headers, the kernel API description required for compilation of almost all programs. This is the userspace interface; compiling external kernel modules requires kernel-source instead.)

and thought I might try installing the kernel-source package. I was now able to make without much difficulty. I unloaded the old one and loaded the new driver. and currently I am in love with you Larry. now I will try to restart the computer. if it still works, you have my eternal gratitude.

yes. it still works. that’s it. if it works like this for my entire bachelor, I’m dedicating the degree to you! thanks a lot. incredibly appreciated.

indietrash wrote:
> yes. it still works. that’s it. if it works like this for my entire
> bachelor, I’m dedicating the degree to you! thanks a lot. incredibly
> appreciated.

Yet another satisfied customer.

Study hard and dedicate your degree to someone important. Good luck.

Larry