Confusing wireless behaviour

[GreyWizzard]

I have recently picked up a new dv9335nr notebook with a built in wireless card. lspci shows it to be:
Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
A little bit of digging around has shown me that I need the ipw3945 binaries to make this work. OK, fair enough:
# rpm -qa | grep 3945
ipw3945-kmdl-2.6.20-1.2948.fc6-1.2.0-18.3.fc6
ipw3945-ucode-1.14.2-4.at
ipw3945-1.2.0-18.3.fc6
ipw3945d-1.7.22-4.at
Now, from previous experience I have learned that Network Manager is a good thing for a wireless laptop. It has proven invaluable in my old laptop, so I made sure to enable it through System->Administration->Services

So far so good. Just to be on the curious side, I also installed Wireless Assistant since it is usually fairly good at showing wireless networks, but has never been worth a flip for me to use to connect in the past.

Now I have a bit of a strange situation. It seems as if Network Manager only knows of the wireless interface on occasions, not always. It also seems that I cannot use it to connect to any wireless network under any circumstance, protected or open.

On the other hand, Wireless Assistant seems to be able to use the wireless card to see other networks (nothing new for me) but also to connect to other unprotected networks. I still have a problem with protected networks of any kind even with Wireless Assistant.

I found another person who had installed FC6 on their dv9000 and followed the instructions they gave. You can find their info here: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~ambrown4/linuxondv9000.html#wireless I would have to say that it was good for me, but since I am not a Linux or wireless Guru I don't know if it is missing anything or not.

My goal is to be able to use Network Manager to connect to any network, wireless or wired, open or protected. I would also like to learn what I have missed so that I don't have to sit back and wonder about it next time.

Pointers, anybody?

[wneumann]

Same experience on my wife's laptop with this wireless card. I decided it wasn't worth sweating since wireless assistant was a fine alternative. Network Manager works with every other card I've used, just not this one.

[Iron_Mike]

After you downloaded the code and installed, did you reboot the computer and open the NEAT tool at system ->administration ->network and select , "new", "wireless connection" and then add the device??

[GreyWizzard]

Same experience on my wife's laptop with this wireless card. I decided it wasn't worth sweating since wireless assistant was a fine alternative. Network Manager works with every other card I've used, just not this one.
Well, I can't say that I want to be stuck with Wireless Assistant. While it is true that it does work, I just don't care for the steps required to make it work. I like the way Network Manager handles things and I don't mind taking the extra time to get it to work if someone can offer me a solution for it.
After you downloaded the code and installed, did you reboot the computer and open the NEAT tool at system ->administration ->network and select , "new", "wireless connection" and then add the device??
Thanks for the suggestion, but I was already one step ahead on this one. I did think to go through those steps and have made use of that “NEAT” little tool.

Please understand that I am not locked out of using the wireless card completely, I simply can't seem to get Network Manager to use it correctly at the moment. Since I have been known to move from wired to wireless and back again all in the same session, Network Manager is just a more appropriate tool for me.

[Iron_Mike]

Please understand that I am not locked out of using the wireless card completely, I simply can't seem to get Network Manager to use it correctly at the moment. Since I have been known to move from wired to wireless and back again all in the same session, Network Manager is just a more appropriate tool for me.

Understood, This might interfere with wlassistant, but go into NEAT again and highlight your wireless and select "edit" and remove the check mark for "activate on boot" and add a check mark for "allow users enable/disable device". Do this for your ethernet connection also. Activate the Network Manager services and reboot the computer. If there is a conflict with NM and WLAssistant remove wlassistant and try it again.

[GreyWizzard]

{snip}If there is a conflict with NM and WLAssistant remove wlassistant and try it again.
Silly question: How would I identify a conflict with NM and WLAssistant?

Another point of concern: WLAssistant is currently remembering my security access codes for the wireless networks. Is there a way to save this information in a file so that I am not basically required to go back through all the pain and hassle of redoing all of that?

I have already followed the suggestions of disabling the "start at boot" and allowing anybody to start it, but I am not seeing any real changes as of yet.

Well, that is not exactly true... I have noticed that when I wake the notebook from a suspended state the wireless card has to be 'turned on' by WLAssistant before it will connect to anything again.... Rather frustrating, but now that I know what it is I can live with it if I must. :(


By the way, thanks for the suggestions and the patience. I know this has drug out longer than one would expect.

[GreyWizzard]

OK, now I have managed to mess up something fairly badly it seems.

I have managed to get the Network Manager to recognize the wireless interface (but it still takes a little coaxing) and I can see the networks around me, but it refuses to connect to any of them. It matters not if they are secured or open :confused:

In the interest of getting it to work again, I reinstalled wlassistant. Now, even THAT won't connect to any of the networks :eek:

Trying to get a handle on what is happening, I pulled up wlassistant via command line so I can have something to work with. Problem is I don't know what to do with the output. Any pointers?
ACTION: CONNECT.
No DHCP client running.
No pre-connection command specified.
iwconfig_set: /sbin/iwconfig mode managed channel 6 key off essid linksys
==>stderr: Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
SET failed on device ; Operation not permitted.
iwconfig_ap: /sbin/iwconfig ap 00:18:39:DB:10:FE
==>stderr: Interface doesn't support MAC addresses
Interface doesn't support MAC addresses
Error for wireless request "Set AP Address" (8B14) :
invalid argument "00:18:39:DB:10:FE".
ifconfig_dhcp: /sbin/dhclient
==>stderr: Can't create /var/run/dhclient.pid: Permission denied
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.5-RedHat
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

can't create /var/lib/dhclient/dhclient.leases: Permission denied
/sbin/dhclient-script: configuration for not found. Continuing with defaults.
basename: missing operand
Try `basename --help' for more information.
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/network-functions: line 78: .: filename argument required
.: usage: . filename [arguments]
0: unknown interface: No such device
Open a socket for LPF: Operation not permitted

{snip}

exiting.
No DHCP client running.
CONNECTION FAILED.
disconnect: /sbin/iwconfig mode managed key off ap off essid off
==>stderr: Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
SET failed on device ; Operation not permitted.

[Iron_Mike]

Go to system ->administration ->services and put a check mark in the dhcdbd service and save it and try again....

[GreyWizzard]

Hey all.

I just wanted to drop in and let you know that I will be moving on beyond this thread now since I no longer have the issue that caused me to open this.

The solution I used to get through this issue was to install Fedora 7 :cool:

Thanks for all of you that have jumped in here trying to help me through this!