-dpet wrote:
Well, to cut a long story short, I now find that kernel-2174 responds correctly to the installation of ipw3945, but I still have this error and kernel panic with the smp version. Strange when an article covers this on a Samsung, using a slightly earlier kernel-smp, with no problem. http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~mdc1/samsung.html Well, I will use the working version for now, but see if I can somehow sort out the smp in the future Thanks everybody for your help (and patience!)
Hi dp Since you have referred to my web page for the Samsung, and I have been busy and only just picked up on the postings, I thought I should tell you that I have been updating the kernel in the Samsung and recompiling the ipw3945 driver (only) each time without any issues. For each update of the smp kernel I recompile the driver and then place the ipw3945.ko file in the appropriate directory, and also make sure that the permissions are the same as for the ipw2200.ko file in the same (stock) directory. Then after running depmod -a the wireless works fine after a re-boot. (You can also restart the wireless with a few commands as root, instead of re-booting) I am running regulatory daemon version ipw3945d-1.7.19, and do not change the ieee80211 from the stock version in the current kernel. So there is no need to fiddle with ieee80211. The driver is version ipw3945-1.0.12 and I did not bother changing to the 1.1.0-pre2 version. The microcode is still as described in my webpage. By the way if you have a failed attempt at installing the driver then you have to get rid of all the spurious files that are created otherwise a second or subsequent attempt at install will usually fail to create the correct files. If this is the case and you do not know which files to remove then it is easiest to boot into the previous kernel, and then do "yum remove kernel-smp-devel_version_as_appropriate" for the later kernel, and then reinstall the later kernel-smp-devel doing "yum update" or updating that specific version. If things are really messed up then yum remove the later kernel itself whilst running the previous kernel and then re install. Once you have a clean latest kernel and kernel-devel (both with SMP if this is relevant to your machine) then boot to the kernel for which you want the ipw3945 installed (the process will only work for the current working kernel as I described it) and then compile (make) the driver to create ipw3945.ko, and copy it to the appropriate directory - currently /lib/modules/2.6.17-1.2187_FC5smp/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ . Change permissions for that driver file to 744, then run "depmod -a" as root. Assuming that you followed all the steps precisely to install the microcode, and regulatory daemon as per my web page, and also added the lines to /etc/modprobe.conf and /etc/rc.local as per my webpage then after rebooting you should find that the wireless comes up working. At least it works fine for me and has done for all kernel versions since FC5 started. Of course the ifcfg-wth1 file needs to be correct, and in my system I only run with WEP encryption. If this is the first time you are connecting to a new Access Point then it might be worth switching off all encryption at the AP as well as for your card definition until it is all working, and then turn on encryption afterwards. I have not tried running with WPA as that is another layer of fiddling to get working in Fedora. I do know that I had to spend a lot of time getting the steps exactly correct otherwise it would not work. Hence what I would suggest is to make sure that your kernel and kernel-devel are both clean. Install the microcode and regulatory daemon. Change the two files modprobe.conf and rc.local, and then compile and install the driver as above. Don;t forget the depmod command. Now make sure your wireless card ifcfg-eth1 file is correct. Then re-boot and see if it works. I hope this helps Mike -- mike cohler
