iwl3945 opensuse 11.1 - wireless down networkmanager idle

Paololinux · January 10, 2009, 8:13pm

Hi all,

I just upgraded from 10.3 to 11.1. Wireless used to work (with a few up and downs in connection). Now it does not work anymore. More in detail: it worked a couple of times, but now it’s silent.

KnetworkManager does not even try to connect.

First the details.

Kernel

Linux rodolfo 2.6.27.7-9-default #1 SMP 2008-12-04 18:10:04 +0100 x86_64 x86_64x86_64 GNU/Linux

My wireless card is

Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection

This is the dmesg output when it relates to my card:

iwl3945: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG/BG Network Connection driver for Linux, 1.2.26ks
iwl3945: Copyright(c) 2003-2008 Intel Corporation
iwl3945 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
iwl3945 0000:0c:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
iwl3945: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 3945ABG
iwl3945: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 23 802.11a channels
phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-3945-rs'
iwl3945 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
iwl3945 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
iwl3945 0000:0c:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x100102, writing 0x100106)
firmware: requesting iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode
Registered led device: iwl-phy0:radio
Registered led device: iwl-phy0:assoc
Registered led device: iwl-phy0:RX
Registered led device: iwl-phy0:TX
iwl3945: Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On:
iwl3945: WARNING: Requesting MAC access during RFKILL wakes up NIC
iwl3945: MAC is in deep sleep!
iwl3945: WARNING: Requesting MAC access during RFKILL wakes up NIC
iwl3945: MAC is in deep sleep!
iwl3945: WARNING: Requesting MAC access during RFKILL wakes up NIC
iwl3945: MAC is in deep sleep!
iwl3945: WARNING: Requesting MAC access during RFKILL wakes up NIC
iwl3945 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
iwl3945 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
iwl3945 0000:0c:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x100102, writing 0x100106)
Registered led device: iwl-phy0:radio
Registered led device: iwl-phy0:assoc
Registered led device: iwl-phy0:RX
Registered led device: iwl-phy0:TX

And iwconfig tells me

IEEE 802.11abg  ESSID:"rp-guest"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Tx-Power=15 dBm
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management: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

Here we start with the problems. Sometimes the card is able to scan for all networks, included mine; sometimes it just shows some of the networks. In the second case, there is no things I can do to make it find all networks, except rebooting.
In any case, this is the output of iwlist scan, in a case in which all networks are shown:

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:03:6F:D3:4B:94
                    ESSID:"FASTWEB-1-00036FD34B8C"
                    Mode:Master                   
                    Channel:6                     
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=65/100  Signal level:-68 dBm  Noise level=-127 dBm
                    Encryption key:on                                         
                    IE: WPA Version 1                                         
                        Group Cipher : TKIP                                   
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP                           
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK                       
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s       
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s      
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s                                
                    Extra:tsf=000000c6dc3ef20d                                
                    Extra: Last beacon: 2092ms ago                            

....

          Cell 05 - Address: 00:1A:2A:6C:E0:4E                                
                    ESSID:"Lonesome Wireless"                                 
                    Mode:Master                                               
                    Channel:6                                                 
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)                           
                    Quality=78/100  Signal level:-56 dBm  Noise level=-127 dBm
                    Encryption key:on                                         
                    IE: WPA Version 1                                         
                        Group Cipher : TKIP                                   
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP                           
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK                       
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 22 Mb/s      
                              6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s       
                              36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s                       
                    Extra:tsf=00000000ef7271b6                                
                    Extra: Last beacon: 1548ms ago                            
          Cell 06 - Address: 00:0C:F6:3C:DB:3E                                
                    ESSID:"CDG"                                               
                    Mode:Master                                               
                    Channel:6                                                 
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)                           
                    Quality=45/100  Signal level:-82 dBm  Noise level=-127 dBm
                    Encryption key:on                                         
                    IE: WPA Version 1                                         
                        Group Cipher : TKIP                                   
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP                           
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK                       
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s       
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:tsf=000000006f6081c8
                    Extra: Last beacon: 2136ms ago
          Cell 07 - Address: 00:15:62:0B:C0:F0
                    ESSID:"rp-guest"
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=51/100  Signal level:-78 dBm  Noise level=-127 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:tsf=00000425cd982192
                    Extra: Last beacon: 180ms ago

My network is ‘Lonesome Wireless’.

Finally, this is what happens when I listen for what my WLAN does with iwevent - nothing ever happens. I mean, I try to connect with Knetworkmanager and nothing shows up in iwevent. All I get is

iwevent
Waiting for Wireless Events from interfaces...
19:06:20.379019   wlan0    Scan request completed

So, summing up:

wireless sometimes sees all networks, including mine, sometimes it does not;
it usually does not connect - though it happened once that it connected;
knetworkmanager does not seem to interact at all with the wifi card;
I have tried to follow the thread in which it is advised to install compat-wireless, but I had not the guts to go on and make it load the ‘new’ drivers *.

Any help would be much appreciated.*

caf4926 · January 13, 2009, 7:18am

I am able to connect with mine. Though I can tell you that recently speeds have been way down. I would normally get 300 kB/sec

But at the moment lucky if I get 50 kB/sec

And it’s nothing to do with my ISP. If I plug eth cable in I’m at max 800 kB/sec

Paololinux · January 13, 2009, 9:33am

Thanks for your reply.

Isolved the connectivity problem - it was a conflict between knetworkmanager-kde3 and knm-kde4: apparently if both installed prevent one another from working. I removed knm-kde4 and it all went well.
for details, see here: Nabble - Gnome - NetworkManager - knetworkmanager stopped working

Now I do have the very same problem you describe: speed is low, and moreover erratic. Sometimes it takes ages to load a page.

caf4926 · January 13, 2009, 1:34pm

Yep, I read that link.

Did you disable ipv6?

I can’t explain the erratic connection quality/speed. Mine is the same. I’ve never had a issue with it in the past. When I get chance I’ll be looking into it. But for the moment I’m wired.

zoroaster · January 31, 2009, 1:58pm

caf, I got the same speed problem here with the new opensuse 11.1 driver. normally it would be 1,6-1,8Mb/s now it’s only 400-500Kb/s and not stable. Under Windows everything works fine, like in my previous 10.3 installation. is it an ipv6 issue, should I disable it???

zoroaster · January 31, 2009, 2:21pm

Just to mention I found some info on falling back to the old compat-drivers here:

Intel 3945 a/b/g Wireless problem in openSUSE 11.0 | SUSE & openSUSE

zoroaster · January 31, 2009, 4:15pm

that solution DID NOT help my speed problem! my speed still keeps only 500Kb/s instead of 1,8Mb/s under Win or OpenSuse10.3. Please help!

Currently I’m using iwl4965-ucode 228.57.2.23-2.1 ver.