# my wireless interface is missing [SOLVED]

## legit

I have a dell inspiron 1525 with the intel wireless card.

I am trying to get my wireless working, I have my kernel configured with the right intel drivers and I installed the 1395 ucode.  I also got network manager up and running.

But I'm missing my wireless network interface in /etc/init.d.  All I have are net.lo and net.eth0.

How do I get a net.wlan0 so that networkmanager can connect up my wireless?Last edited by legit on Sun Dec 05, 2010 7:09 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## ewaller

Does the device show up when you do a ifconfig -a  ??

If so, the device is installed, but you must create the symbolic link for wlan0, or whatever it is called on your system with something like:

```
sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.wlan0
```

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## legit

ifconfig -a gives me: eth0, lo, sit0

Not sure what sit0 is, is that the wireless?

if it isn't then what do I need to do to get the wireless installed?

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## ewaller

sit0 is something else: http://nixcraft.com/linux-software/555-what-sit0-interface.html

It does not appear that you system knows about your card yet.  Can you provide the output of 

sudo lspci

sudo lspci -n

and

sudo lsmod

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## cach0rr0

 *legit wrote:*   

> ifconfig -a gives me: eth0, lo, sit0
> 
> Not sure what sit0 is, is that the wireless?
> 
> if it isn't then what do I need to do to get the wireless installed?

 

sit0 has something to do with tunneling ipv6 over ipv4 if i recall correctly

you want to see wireless interfaces, do this:

```

cat /proc/net/wireless

```

if your interface isn't showing up at all, it's either a driver or firmware issue. 

do this:

```

rmmod iwl3945

modprobe -v iwl3945

dmesg |tail -n30

```

and post the dmesg output 

it will likely show complaints about bringing your card up, either complaining that the firmware is failing, or that iwl3945 driver is missing, or some such. 

Once the driver+firmware portion of things is sorted out, your wireless interface should show in /proc/net/wireless, and should also show in ifconfig -a

From there you can go about configuring it; you can either do that in /etc/conf.d/net or use one of the many graphical tools, spare yourself the hassle. 

I personally use wicd (NetworkManager is a bit cryptic and arcane for my purposes - too invasive as well, but it DOES have a handful more features than wicd, just ones I never use)

If you do go the route of configuring everything through /etc/conf.d/net, then you will need to cd /etc/init.d/ && ln -s net.lo net.wlan0, then to get it to load on startup rc-update add net.wlan0 default

If you use wicd or networkmanager, then you should skip that step, and not bother configuring /etc/conf.d/net at all

But first things first, let's get the driver portion of this sorted. 

If none of the above helps, post your lspci -n, and then dump your kernel .config up on pastebin (sharing the link with us obviously), should be able to tell from that what's missing.

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## StAlphonzo

you may find this link usefull!

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Dell_Inspiron_1525

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## legit

thanks cach0rr0, dmesg showed that I didn't have the right ucode.  I forget that I have the 4965 card not the 3945.  That fixed the problem.

Now however I can't get Network manager to scan for networks.

I think this has to do with eth0 and wlan0 starting on boot before networkmanager.  I removed them from the scripts to run but now I get "device initiated start:net.eth0 net.wlan0" and it runs dhcp on both.

How can I get it to not set these up on boot so that NetworkManager can access and manage the wireless connection?

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## sera

You can edit /etc/udev/rules.d/90-network.rules to not run the network script automatically.

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## legit

after some frustration it appears my issue was not the bootup scripts but an error in the way the wifi button is set up.

this russian (google translated) site has a script that solved the problem, in case anyone else needs it:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.opennet.ru/tips/info/2214.shtml&ei=vd_7TMi0NIe-sQPT6s33DQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCAQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.opennet.ru/tips/info/2214.shtml%26hl%3Den%26site%3Dwebhp%26prmd%3Div

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