# ifconfig does not show a wireless network card on my laptop

## Shining Arcanine

My laptop has a Intel Wireless/Pro 3945ABG. It worked in Windows and the Gentoo LiveDVD would show an interface for it when I did ifconfig, although it did not work when I was running the Gentoo LiveDVD.

I now have Gentoo installed on my laptop and I have just about everything working except the wireless card. I have emerged net-wireless/wpa_supplicant and I have compiled the appropriate drivers with the kernel. I verified that my kernel has CONFIG_PACKET set to yes. I also emerged kdenetwork-meta hoping it would do something. I have followed all of the online guides I could find via google and recompiled all of the packages on my system, but Gentoo does not recognize my wireless card via ifconfig. It will show an entry for it in lspci though.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

----------

## mikegpitt

Have you installed your wireless firmware?

```
emerge net-wireless/iwl3945-ucode
```

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## d2_racing

Also, can you post this :

```

# ifconfig -a

# iwconfig

```

----------

## Shining Arcanine

 *mikegpitt wrote:*   

> Have you installed your wireless firmware?
> 
> ```
> emerge net-wireless/iwl3945-ucode
> ```
> ...

 

Yes, I emerged that.

 *d2_racing wrote:*   

> Also, can you post this :
> 
> ```
> 
> # ifconfig -a
> ...

 

Here is ifconfig -a:

```
new-host-4 richard # ifconfig -a

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:15:c5:37:fe:6d  

          inet addr:192.168.1.5  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          inet6 addr: fe80::215:c5ff:fe37:fe6d/64 Scope:Link            

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1            

          RX packets:5164 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0         

          TX packets:3280 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0       

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000                                  

          RX bytes:6074337 (5.7 MiB)  TX bytes:281526 (274.9 KiB)       

          Interrupt:17                                                  

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host     

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:20 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:20 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:1000 (1000.0 B)  TX bytes:1000 (1000.0 B)

sit0      Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4

          NOARP  MTU:1480  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:13:02:55:06:e5

          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wmaster0  Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-13-02-55-06-E5-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00

          [NO FLAGS]  MTU:0  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
```

Here is iwconfig:

```
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abg  ESSID:""

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated

          Tx-Power=0 dBm

          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          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

sit0      no wireless extensions.
```

It might be worthwhile mentioning that I didn't have iwconfig on my laptop until a moment ago. I added networkmanager to my use flags in make.conf and did emerge -avDuN, which I believe installed it.

----------

## cach0rr0

iwconfig is part of the wireless-tools package

from the look of things your wireless card is now quite happily showing up

you now need only configure wpa_supplicant, or, since you have X and a DE on here, emerge wicd, and let it handle all of the otherwise cumbersome configuration for you

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## Shining Arcanine

That worked. Thankyou.

There is just one hiccup I would like to try to resolve. I was asked for my root password because it said that Wicd required root privileges. Is there any group to which I could add my user account so it can connect/disconnect to networks without requiring my root password?

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## d2_racing

Hi, can you post this :

```

$ groups

```

----------

## Shining Arcanine

This is when logged in as root via su:

```
root bin daemon sys adm disk wheel floppy dialout tape video
```

This is logged in as a regular user:

```
wheel audio cdrom video usb users portage plugdev richard
```

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## cach0rr0

 *Shining Arcanine wrote:*   

> That worked. Thankyou.
> 
> There is just one hiccup I would like to try to resolve. I was asked for my root password because it said that Wicd required root privileges. Is there any group to which I could add my user account so it can connect/disconnect to networks without requiring my root password?

 

that only happens if the wicd daemon isn't running

as root, do:

```

/etc/init.d/wicd start

```

then launch your wicd GUI and it shouldn't prompt you for a password. That has the added benefit of automatically connecting you without intervention

and so that it starts on boot

```

rc-update add wicd default

```

----------

## d2_racing

 *cach0rr0 wrote:*   

> and so that it starts on boot
> 
> ```
> 
> rc-update add wicd default
> ...

 

Really, run this command instead  :Razz: 

```

rc-update add wicd boot

```

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## Shining Arcanine

Thanks. That fixed it.  :Smile: 

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## d2_racing

Good  :Razz: 

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