Intel 3945

[Matt Graham]

After a long battle with technology, Rhune Lord wrote:
> I tried editing or grabbing code for the ipwconfig of an Intel 3945
> mini-pci wlan card.  However, everything I have tried has failed.

What have you tried, and how did it fail?  Be specific.

> Dell Inspiron 640m
> Ubuntu 7.10
> Ubuntu sees the drivers and is using them, but going to the networking
> icon in the top right does not show a wireless option.  Either I am using
> bad commands in [the] terminal or something, any suggestions? 

Don't trust a GUI app for something this important.

You need to have the iwl3945 module modprobed, and you need to have the 
iwl3945 firmware where the firmware loader can find it (usually 
in /lib/firmware/ ).  The package manager may or may not have installed the 
firmware, because the firmware is under a different license than the driver 
code.  The 3945 firmware is available on http://intellinuxwireless.org/ .  If 
you didn't have the firmware there when you modprobed the module, you'll have 
to put the firmware there, rmmod ipw3945, and modprobe it again.  Once the 
module and firmware have been loaded, running "iwconfig" should show you 
something like:

eth0: no wireless extensions
eth1: Radio off   ESSID: none/any   TxPower: 0
      [more 802.11-specific bits]

...so obviously, all you have to do then is "iwconfig eth1 txpower 
on", "iwconfig eth1 essid MY_NETWORK", "iwconfig eth1 mode managed", 
and "iwconfig eth1 channel 6" (or whatever.)  Then "dhcpcd -d eth1" to get an 
IP via DHCP from the AP.  Your distro probably has a reasonably readable 
config file in its equivalent of /etc/conf.d/ that you should read and edit 
with appropriate values.  Then all you'll have to do is "/etc/init.d/net.eth1 
restart" to re-associate with your preferred AP (or any open AP if a 
preferred AP can't be found).

-- 
   "Cheer up, things could be worse."  So I cheered up, and sure enough,
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Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see