Intel PRO/WIRELESS 3945ABG problem with OpenSUSE 11.3

Dear All:

I am new to this field.

I have installed openSUSE 11.3 in my old compaq Presario V3026TU machine which has the Intel PRO/WIRELESS 3945ABG WLAN card. Yast can detect the network card. But I cant make it work in any way. The switch to manually on-off the wireless doesnt work (the LED never become active).

The “ifconfig” does not show the wireless interface, but “ifconfig -a” and “iwconfig” show the wlan0 interface.

One more thing to mention, during my installation and while I run on live cd, the wireless becomes active. But after installation, I am facing this problem.

I used openSUSE 11.1, Ubuntu and Fedora and I never faced this problem before. Does anyone know any solution?

Thanks and Regards
Arefin

If it’s working in the live cd it should definitely work on the installed version. You should collect all the data from the live environment and compare to see what’s different. The sticky posts here show all the commands to find out the relative information, such as…

lsusb
lspci -nnk
uname -r
dmesg | grep firmware

You should also check wether your installed environment is using network manager or ifup (traditional method).

I apologize, the live CD I used was OpenSUSE 11.1. But I am providing some information which may be helpful for identifying the problem.

I have been using openSUSE 11.3 for about 3 months. When I first install this OS, everything was working fine. Suddenly one morning, i found that my wireless LED is not working and the wireless device too. I tried to make it work using ifup, restart etc… But nothing worked. Then I tried with live CD that I have with me. But I forgot to check the OpenSUSE version… Sorry for this.

The thing is If I type “ifconfig”, the wlan0 is not showing. But if I use “ifconfig -a”, my wireless device is showing.

Please suggest me.

Regards
Arefin

I have this device and it works.
Please just confirm, does your device still work with the 11.1 live cd or with any other installed OS’s

Please post the result of this from your 11.3 install

/sbin/lspci -nnk

Currently I am using OpenSUSE 11.3 and my device is not working. The output of /sbin/lapci -nnk is as follows:

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27a0] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: i915
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a6] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 [8086:27d0] (rev 02)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 [8086:27d4] (rev 02)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 4 [8086:27d6] (rev 02)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:27c8] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:27c9] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:27ca] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:27cb] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:27cc] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:27b9] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller [8086:27df] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA AHCI Controller [8086:27c5] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: ahci
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller [8086:27da] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection [8086:4222] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945BG Network Connection [8086:1005]
Kernel driver in use: iwl3945
08:08.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation PRO/100 VE Network Connection [8086:1092] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: e100
08:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:0832]
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
08:09.1 SD Host controller [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter [1180:0822] (rev 19)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
08:09.2 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter [1180:0592] (rev 0a)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]
08:09.3 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller [1180:0852] (rev 05)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30b2]

Regards
Arefin

This is the device

05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection [8086:4222] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945BG Network Connection [8086:1005]
	Kernel driver in use: iwl3945

As you can see the correct driver is in place: Kernel driver in use: iwl3945

Have you been able to use the wired connection to get the machine updated?

I have updated the OS using ethernet. My wireless stop working suddenly. At the first time it worked fine. After that, i could not make it work.

Regards
Arefin

Try creating a new user login and see if wireless works there

The creating a new user does not work. Actually when I turn on the wireless device physicall, the LED does not change. But the same thing works on open suse 11.1 or ubuntu.

Regards
Arefin

Have you worked thru this
Getting Your Wireless to Work

Yes. Before using openSUSE 11.3, I have been using ubuntu (8.1 -10.04 upgraded one by one) and everything was working fine. Couple of months ago, I installed openSUSE 11.3.

I thought there is problem with my wireless card. Then I tried with live cd of openSUSE 11.1. In that case I found that, my wireless card does not activate after booting. I need to “switch off and on” to activate it.

Regards
Arefin

I have been using openSUSE 11.3 for about 3 months. When I first install this OS, everything was working fine. Suddenly one morning, i found that my wireless LED is not working and the wireless device too.

So something is wrong somewhere.

Because as I say, I have this device on my R61 and it works fine.

How you solve this is dependant on the extent to which you are prepared to go.

  1. Does the 11.3 live cd work
  2. Does it work post CLEAN install from CD
  3. Does it work post CLEAN install from the DVD
  4. Does work in 2 and 3 post updates

When I first install openSUSE 11.3 in June 2010, everything worked fine. Suddenly one morning I found that, my wireless device becomes inactive and I could not activate it. I reinstall the OS and got the same result. I have been using Ubuntu 10.04 before. So I thought that may be my wireless device has some problem. I install ubuntu 10.04 and saw everything is fine. Then I tried with openSUSE 11.1 live cd and found it functional. But for openSUSE 11.1 the wireless device does not activate just after boot. I have to manually swith off and switch on the wireless device. After that it works fine.

Now I failed in all the way for openSUSE 11.3. The device show when I type “ifconfig -a” but it does not show if I type “ifconfig”.

What may be tha problem?

Regards
Arefin

Don’t forget to check the BIOS to make sure your wifi isn’t disabled there.

In my notebook there is no option in the BIOS for enable or disable wireless card. But there is a switch which can switch on and off of the physical device and it is not working for openSUSE 11.3.

if I manually down the wireless card typing “ifdown wlan0”, I get the following output:

wlan0 device: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

and for “ifup wlan0”, I get:

wlan0 device: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
wlan0 warning: using NO encryption
RTNETLINK answers: Unknown error 132
Starting DHCP4 client on wlan0. .
wlan0 DHCP4 client NOT running
RTNETLINK answers: Unknown error 132
Cannot enable interface wlan0.
interface wlan0 is not up

Please advise me what to do.

Regards
Arefin

On 11/05/2010 04:36 AM, rashed823 wrote:
>
> In my notebook there is no option in the BIOS for enable or disable
> wireless card. But there is a switch which can switch on and off of the
> physical device and it is not working for openSUSE 11.3.
>
> if I manually down the wireless card typing “ifdown wlan0”, I get the
> following output:
>
> -wlan0 device: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan]
> Network Connection (rev 02)-
>
> and for “ifup wlan0”, I get:
>
> -wlan0 device: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan]
> Network Connection (rev 02)
> wlan0 warning: using NO encryption
> RTNETLINK answers: Unknown error 132
> Starting DHCP4 client on wlan0. .
> wlan0 DHCP4 client NOT running
> RTNETLINK answers: Unknown error 132
> Cannot enable interface wlan0.
> interface wlan0 is not up-
>
>
> Please advise me what to do.

Does the output of the dmesg command say anything about the RFKILL or radio
switch. Some laptops have a real on/off slide switch and do not require any
additional drivers. My HP has this kind. If yours has a pushbutton, then you
need the wmi (Windows Management Interface) driver for your brand. As you have a
Compaq, yours should be called hp-wmi. If the command ‘lsmod | grep wmi’ returns
nothing, that driver is not loaded.

It is also possible that your laptop is not handled by the current version of
hp-wmi. Note that Linux did not honor the radio switch on most models until
2.6.32 or later kernels. Thus openSUSE 11.3 is the first release affected by
this safety feature.

“dmesg” doesnt say anything about RFKILL or radio switch. But “lsmod | grep wmi” provides
hp_wmi 5882 0
wmi 7467 1 hp_wmi
rfkill 17298 2 hp_wmi,cfg80211

One thing is to mention that, my wireless card stop working suddenly. As I mentioned in my earlier post that, I have reinstalled my openSUSE from a DVD, but does not work.

Regards

Arefin

On 11/05/2010 12:06 PM, rashed823 wrote:
>
> “dmesg” doesnt say anything about RFKILL or radio switch. But “lsmod |
> grep wmi” provides
> -hp_wmi 5882 0
> wmi 7467 1 hp_wmi
> rfkill 17298 2 hp_wmi,cfg80211-
>
> One thing is to mention that, my wireless card stop working suddenly.
> As I mentioned in my earlier post that, I have reinstalled my openSUSE
> from a DVD, but does not work.

Post you dmesg output at pastebin or some similar location and give us the URL.

The dmesg output link is as follows:

http://pastebin.com/r8KGwA64

Regards
Arefin

On 11/05/2010 09:36 PM, rashed823 wrote:
>
> The dmesg output link is as follows:
>
> http://pastebin.com/r8KGwA64

Nothing unusual except for the fact that your wired connection is running. With
recent versions of NetworkManager, it will only use wired if the wire is
connected. For it to even try a wireless connection, the wire must be disconnected.