# [solved] ipw3945-firmware

## tony11235

I'm currently running kernel 2.6.19-r5, and I'm trying to get my intel pro wireless 3945 to work.  I've emerge ipw3945, ipw3945d, ipw3945-ucode. I've started ipw3945d, but its not recognizing my card, or my card is not appearing. Is there supposed to be a ipw3945-firmware package in portage? There's not in my case.  And I have the right kernel configuration.  Any ideas?

BTW I get the following:

/etc/init.d/ipw3945d restart

 * Stopping ipw3945d ...                                                                                               [ ok ]

 * Starting ipw3945d ...

chown: cannot access `/sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw3945/00*/cmd': No such file or directory

chmod: cannot access `/sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw3945/00*/cmd': No such file or directory                                 [ ok ]Last edited by tony11235 on Sat Feb 24, 2007 4:41 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## pH

ipw3945-ucode is the firmware...  I am having the same problem.  Print out the relevent portion of 'dmesg' it tells me it loaded the module but for everyone else it's working it also prints out a few more lines like "detected ABG connection" or something like that which I'm not getting.

----------

## tony11235

Here is the relevant portion of my dmesg

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> ipw3945: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
> 
> ipw3945: ipw3945.ucode load failed: Reason -2
> ...

 

----------

## pH

 :Smile:  I haven't even gotten my to get that far yet

----------

## tony11235

I would think that "ipw3945.ucode load failed: Reason -2" would indicate that the firmware isn't installed.  But then ipw3945 IS the firmware, so I'm still clueless.  Going with ndiswrapper til this is solved.

----------

## tony11235

OK so I did a reinstall, new kernel.  Now when after I've install ipw3945*, modprobe ipw3945 gives me 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> ERROR: Unable to create pid file '/var/run/ipw3945d/ipw3945d'
> 
> FATAL: Error running install command for ipw3945
> ...

 

This sucks.

----------

## sdfg

Have a look here. Has worked for most of us.

----------

## tony11235

I tried the procedure, but I'm still getting the same results. Right now all I care about is getting my card to be recognized.

I have the following

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> ipw3945: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945 Network Connection driver for Linux, 1.2.0dmpr
> 
> ipw3945: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
> ...

 

But yet it doesn't appear in after iwconfig.  ipw3945d won't even start. Complains as always.[/quote]

----------

## sdfg

 *tony11235 wrote:*   

> I tried the procedure, but I'm still getting the same results. Right now all I care about is getting my card to be recognized.
> 
> I have the following
> 
>  *Quote:*   
> ...

 [/quote]

Hmm. Did you follow it exactly? Even the kernel version? Because from what I can see, that procedure covers every aspect of the card, hardware upwards.

----------

## tony11235

Is 2.6.19-r5 not enough? It absolutely HAS to be 2.6.20?

----------

## sdfg

 *tony11235 wrote:*   

> Is 2.6.19-r5 not enough? It absolutely HAS to be 2.6.20?

 

I don't know. All I know is that I did exactly what was down there, even upgrading from 2.6.19-r2, and it works.

----------

## tony11235

All I know is have ieee211 built in. And I tried the steps you posted. And I'm having these weird results.  I didn't have coldplug installed in the beginning, I have udev 104-r11.  It has to be something simple.

----------

## ziggysquatch

I have the same issue and have tried everything.  The firmware is not loading.  Tried first on 2.6.19 then on 2.6.20.

----------

## Spiderboy

 *tony11235 wrote:*   

> OK so I did a reinstall, new kernel.  Now when after I've install ipw3945*, modprobe ipw3945 gives me 
> 
>  *Quote:*   
> 
> ERROR: Unable to create pid file '/var/run/ipw3945d/ipw3945d'
> ...

 

I had a problem around Christmas with permissions which I tracked down by running ipw3945d manually under strace. It might be worth giving that a go and checking your permissions on the pid dir. I can't think of the number of times strace has got me out of trouble.

----------

## tony11235

I used strace on ipw3945d.

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> execve("/sbin/ipw3945d", ["ipw3945d"], [/* 47 vars */]) = 0
> 
> brk(0)                                  = 0x805b000
> ...

 

This "chdir("/root")                          = -1 EACCES (Permission denied)" is about the only thing that looks odd.  Any suggestions?

----------

## Spiderboy

 *tony11235 wrote:*   

> I used strace on ipw3945d.
> 
>  *Quote:*   
> 
> ...
> ...

 

You'll need to pass the --foreground parameter to ipw3945d so it doesn't fork off into the background or tell strace to follow the forked processes with the -f parameter. If it's exiting prematurely then all the action is going to be happening in the daemonised process.

----------

## tony11235

OK this is what I have.[/quote]

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> execve("/sbin/ipw3945d", [, ...], [/* 34 vars */]) = 0
> 
> brk(0)                                  = 0x805b000
> ...

 

----------

## Morpheus_GT1

Hy guys...

I have the same problem as described above... I first tried to install ipw3945, ipw3945d and ipw3945-ucode with 2.6.19-r5 sources (iee80211 stack in the kernel) and ended up with the same problem as described at the top... I then followed the guide that was postet here that treats the problem with the 2.6.20 sources... Unfortunatly I had no luck in solving the problem.

I hope that we can find a workaround here...

thx for your efforts...

Greetz, ->M_GT1

----------

## Morpheus_GT1

ok, strange things are goin' on... Yesterday i wasted my gentoo installation in trying to get the wireless card to work... Luck for me it was my new notebook and nothing but the bare system on it... So I did a reinstall from scratch, and what should I say, this is nearly Windows Style... Reinstall, and erverything works... Strange, but true...

I'm using the 2.6.19-r5 kernel-sources (with built in ieee80211 Stack), udev 104-r11, ipw3945-1.2.0, ipw3945-ucode-1.14.2 and ipw3945d-1.7.22-r4...

ok so now I'm hedin' for the rest of my hardware to works...

----------

## Spiderboy

 *tony11235 wrote:*   

> OK this is what I have.

 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> <snip...>
> 
> write(2, ""..., 862007-02-23 11:53:57: ERROR: Could not open '/var/run/ipw3945d.pid': Permission denied
> ...

 

I'd forgotten that when the ipw3945d init script runs it passes a "--pidfile /var/run/ipw3945d/ipw3945d.pid" to the deamon. This run here shows that it can't write to "/var/run/", which makes sense. I just tried reemerging ipw3945d and the problem came back. If I then did a "chmod g+w /var/run/ipw3945d" the problem went away again. You might want to try that.

----------

## tony11235

Ok finally.  That worked.

----------

