[SLL] wifi with Ubuntu

[Paul Allen]

On Tue, 2008-05-06 at 11:44 -0700, Ted Stern wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I upgraded over the weekend to Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04), running
> kernel 2.6.24-17-generic.  I'm running on a Dell Inspiron 1505.  The
> relevant hardware here is my wireless card, an Intel PRO Wireless 3945
> APG.
> 
> I just installed a new wifi router to activate my T-Mobile
> HotSpot at Home connection (WRTU54G-TM), WPA2 with password, and have
> verified that my Windows XP partition can connect to it via my ipw
> 3945 card.
> 
> The Linux side is a bit harder though ... I've muddled around with
> this endlessly, modprobing this and that.  I take it that iwl3945 is
> the new supported module for this card, but I can't get it to work.
> As in, it thinks my card has zero power.  It is also strange that the
> little wifi LED lights up when I run Windows XP, but it is as dead as
> a doornail under Linux, even if I toggle the WiFi hotkey (Fn + F2).
> 
> It looks like there may be a bug in iwl3945 support and it is awaiting
> a kernel upgrade.  Does anyone out there have any experience with this
> to confirm?

My new work laptop (a Dell M6300) came with a Broadcom wireless
card.  I replaced it with the Intel 3945, and it works fine on the
corporate network using WPA with X.509 certs.  I have yet to get it
to connect to my Linksys router at home (WPA with a password).  I'm
using Network Manager, which makes trouble-shooting pretty-much
impossible.  :-(

I'm running SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, SP1, with a 2.6.16 kernel
and version 1.2.0d of the iwl3945 module.  SLED is the "stable"
version of Novell's various Linux distributions.  It generally is way
behind the bleeding edge of change.  It's mildly surprising that Hardy
Heron's Intel 3945 support doesn't "just work".  I say "mildly" because
Linux support for wi-fi still seems to be a minefield even after all
the progress that's been made.

Paul Allen