Intel 4965AGN wireless fail to connect

English Network/Internet
#1

Hi,
I have a Fujitsu Lifebook e8410 laptop with these specs:

  • Intel(R) Core™2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz
  • MemTotal: 4083536 kB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8400M G
  • Fujitsu 160G HD
  • PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (That’s where my headache’s coming from)

When I try to connect to my wireless home network (open wep 128hex key) it fail… here’s some info.

uname -a
Linux FujiLaptop 2.6.25.5-1.1-pae #1 SMP 2008-06-07 01:55:22 +0200 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

As I see the module iwl4965 is loaded

**lsmod |grep iwl**
iwl4965               129248  0
firmware_class         25984  2 microcode,iwl4965
mac80211              190484  1 iwl4965

**dmesg |grep iwl**

iwl4965: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN driver for Linux, 1.2.23ks
iwl4965: Copyright(c) 2003-2007 Intel Corporation
iwl4965: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
iwl4965: Tunable channels: 11 802.11bg, 13 802.11a channels
phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-4965-rs'
iwl4965: Error sending REPLY_SCAN_CMD: time out after 500ms.
iwl4965: TX Power requested while scanning!
iwl4965: Error sending REPLY_STATISTICS_CMD: time out after 500ms.

and sometimes at home I have theses messages:

grep iwl /var/log/messages

Jun  8 17:19:10 linux klogd: iwl4965: Error sending REPLY_SCAN_CMD: time out after 500ms.
Jun  8 17:19:10 linux klogd: iwl4965: TX Power requested while scanning!
Jun  8 17:19:21 linux klogd: iwl4965: Error sending REPLY_STATISTICS_CMD: time out after 500ms.
Jun  8 17:19:57 linux klogd: iwl4965: Error sending REPLY_SCAN_ABORT_CMD: time out after 500ms.
Jun  8 17:19:57 linux klogd: iwl4965: Error sending REPLY_RXON: time out after 500ms.
Jun  8 17:19:57 linux klogd: iwl4965: Error setting new configuration (-110).
Jun  8 17:19:58 linux klogd: iwl4965: Error sending REPLY_SCAN_ABORT_CMD: time out after 500ms.
Jun  8 17:19:58 linux klogd: iwl4965: MAC is in deep sleep!

To find out what’s going on I did these tests:

  • Try diffrent kernel/distro = same shit
  • Try the latest iwlwifi from intel website
  • Try a manual network configuration insteed of NetworkManager
  • Try an x86_64 arch insteed of x86
  • Configure my router to use an open wireless network without any encription = that give a connection for about 10 secondes and it stop responding.

Any help is welcome !

#2

A couple more things to try:

#1 put your WIRED ethernet adapter into ‘start->manually’.

#2 ndiswrapper
[This was only way I could get my Atheros wireless-PCI solid on 11.0…even the mad-wifi drivers weren’t reliable.]

Hope this helps…

Dave

#3

I try your suggestions,

can’t connect to wireless even when I set wired ethernet to “start manually”

And for ndiswrapper, my opensuse just stop booting; I had to boot in rescue mode then remove the windows driver installed with ndiswrapper to get my linux booted.

#4

karimfathi wrote:
> I try your suggestions,
>
> can’t connect to wireless even when I set wired ethernet to “start
> manually”
>
> And for ndiswrapper, my opensuse just stop booting; I had to boot in
> rescue mode then remove the windows driver installed with ndiswrapper
> to get my linux booted.

That is why I try never to use a Windows driver. Once you do, you run
the risk of getting the equivalent of the “Blue Screen of Death”.

Your Intel 4965AGN should work with iwl4965 as the driver; however, it
does not appear to be installed with openSUSE 11.0. I don’t think it
has been in the kernel long enough to have been included in the 10.3
version. One option is to grab the latest source and “roll your own”.
You will also need the firmware.

Larry

#5

Did you resolve this? I have the same problem. I have installed new drivers, 4.44.1.18, no effect.

Thanks

#6

Not yet resolved adrianriley; and after more than two months trying to get it work, I’m just about to give up and look for some PCMCIA ou USB Wireless network.
It’s really frustrating not being able to support laptop hardware’s, I know the blame have to go to Intel’s but I can’t contribute to community by buying openSUSE… now my money’s gonna go to d-link or linksys.

Larry Finger : The iwl4965 IS installed in openSUSE 11 and 10.3, I think it was there from 10.0, I also installed the latest iwlwifi driver and code’s file the hard way and with compat-wireless… IT JUST DON’T WORK

#7

This seems to be a KNOWN problem:

There is a specific posting at Intel’s site:
Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
that says that the supplied driver does NOT work
with Linux kernels 2.6.24 and above. [It appears
to tell you how to proceed in that case.]

Hope this helps…

Dave

#8

I tried it using compat-wireless as they suggest; no effect.

#9

Ok, just thought I’d make sure.

One last question: What’s up with your ‘PAE’ kernel?
(i.e. why are you using that? seems kinda ‘special purpose’
and I’m from the ‘KISS’ (keep it simple stupid) school.)

TIA…

Dave [inquiring minds want to know]*

#10

I was asking the question to myself; maybe it was installed by default in openSUSE 11.0 x86_64; don’t know why.

I assume the installer detects my 4G memory and decide to install that pae kernel… I really didn’t dig a lot to find out what this pae is for. But I’m sure my problem isn’t related to this type of kernel, cos I have the same issues using another kernels (2.6.23 and 24 using an Ubuntu Hardy both 32 and 64 bit)

#11

As I suspected…(it came in automatically…sigh).

Ok, so my LAST thought…try the Live-CD from my
favorite Linux distro…namely MEPIS. Download
the 32-bit Live-CD for version 7.0, as
I see that the iwl4965 driver is there (and the
32-bit flavor has much higher odds of working).

MEPIS has the reputation of ‘best hardware detection’
right off the Live-CD. (So, if your wireless doesn’t
work from the Live-CD, don’t bother installing it.)

Hope this isn’t even more wasting of your time…

Dave

#12

cookdav wrote:

>
> This seems to be a KNOWN problem:
>
> There is a specific posting at Intel’s site:
> ‘Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN’
> (http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwlwifi)
> that says that the supplied driver does NOT work
> with Linux kernels 2.6.24 and above. [It appears
> to tell you how to proceed in that case.]
>
> Hope this helps…
>
> Dave
>
>

When I try to follow their directions (no rpm files here) I get as far as
the make command and get an error…see below

rsmits@linux-27h2:~/dl> cd compat-wireless-2008-06-15
rsmits@linux-27h2:~/dl/compat-wireless-2008-06-15> make
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.25.5-1.1-pae/build
M=/home/rsmits/dl/compat-wireless-2008-06-15 modules
make[1]: Entering directory /usr/src/linux-2.6.25.5-1.1-obj/i386/pae' make[1]: *** No rule to make target modules’. Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.25.5-1.1-obj/i386/pae’
make: *** [modules] Error 2

I don’t understand this ‘rule’ I apparently need. Advice?

Also, over on the beta group, toharris suggested I try the ipw driver, but
it made no difference, either.

Bob Smits, Ladysmith, BC

“What a wonder is USENET; such wholesale production of conjecture from such
a trifling investment in fact.” – Carl S. Gutekunst

#13

Robert Smits wrote:

Aha! Found it! I had originally set the encryption method to WPA PSK and
somehow it had reverted to WEP.

Reset it and now everything is working.

So it looks the thing that made it work was installing the ipw driver from
Gnome Stable.

Thanks Everybody!!!

Bob.

#14

I think encryption has nothing to do with my connexion problem. As I already said, I wasn’t able to connect even with an open wireless network (without any encryption).

Robert Can you please post your configuration (or the steps you did to set it up) so I can reproduce your config in my laptop.

Thanks!

#15

karimfathi wrote:

>
> I think encryption has nothing to do with my connexion problem. As I
> already said, I wasn’t able to connect even with an open wireless
> network (without any encryption).
>
> Robert Can you please post your configuration (or the steps you did to
> set it up) so I can reproduce your config in my laptop.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
Surely.

Keep in mind I’m using the RC1 DVD here. Install the ipw driver as well,
from the RC1 DVD. The correct version is one that has .81 in the name. If
you use the one from the non-oss repo it won’t work.

Then enter the info to configure the wireless card (Yast, Network Devices,
Network Card). Then reboot and hopefully, your wireless is working. Just
don’t update until they get it all fixed.

Bob.

#16

I just can’t find the ipw-firmware-8-81 nowhere; do you have a download link so I can try it.

#17

karimfathi wrote:

>
> I just can’t find the ipw-firmware-8-81 nowhere; do you have a
> download link so I can try it.
>
>
It comes on the RC1 DVD. I’ll email it to you.

bob@rsmits.ca (Robert Smits, Ladysmith BC)

“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect
that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an
interpreter.”

  • Nicholas Petreley
#18

I need it also if possible - can you just link it or link the repo? I had everything working for a few days then wireless just went dead for my home network.

#19

There seems to be a problem with KNetworkManager and the AGN4965 on Opensuse 11.

See this thread:
openSUSE 11.0 and intel 4965agn card - openSUSE Forums

I have been battling with the AGN4965 since 10.2. It worked perfectly on 10.3 and is having trouble again on Opensuse 11.

I abandoned KNetworkManager and used the Traditional setup in Yast and then used the commands:

Start KInternet, and check it can see the wireless network.

Bring up the network

ifconfig wlan0 up

Scan for wireless networks

iwlist wlan0 scan

Associate with your network

iwconfig wlan0 essid [your wireless name]

Associate your key

iwconfig wlan0 key [your wep key in hex]

try and get an ip address

dhclient wlan0

#20

I finally was able to fix it today :

1- Add the iwl4965 module to blacklist so it wouldn’t load on boot.
2- Install the latest ndiswrapper from source (I installed 1.53)
3- Install the Windows driver (ndiswrapper -i netw4x64.inf)
4- reboot

That’s it.

This solution worked for both networkmanager and ifup.