Description of problem: In system-config-network the Intel 3945ABG Wireless in my Lenovo T61 laptop is recognized as device wlan0, but any attempt to activate it produces the error message shown below. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 1.3.99.12 How reproducible: Every time Steps to Reproduce: 1. Generate and select a network profile "Wireless" 2. Configure the wlan0 device for dhcp -- obtain DNS from provider 3. Click activate, answer Yes to save changes prompt Actual results: The following message appears in a popup window: Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) : SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument. Determining IP information for wlan0...SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory failed. Expected results: Establish wireless network connection. Additional info: It is known that a wireless network is active in my office and the laptop switch to activate the wireless is on at bootup. Prior to RHEL 5.3, the Intel wireless device was not even recognized by the system (did not appear in hardware browser or network configuration applet. With 5.3, it is detected with correct Intel name, a driver appears to be installed (lsmod shows "iwl3945 129985 0" and "mac80211 182857 1 iwl3945"), but any attempt to activate it produces the above SIOCS error.
Hello. I have an iwl3945 and it works fine for me in RHEL 5.3. Do you have the "iwl3945-firmware" package installed? Michael.
Dear Michael, I did NOT have iwl3945-firmware installed when I posted this bug (where were the instructions to tell me I should do that??). Anyway, I found the package on RHN (it seems to be a noarch source rpm) and installed it and rebooted. Now the wireless still refuses to run, but the error message has changed--the reference to SIOCSIFFLAGS is now gone. The exact message that now pops up is this: Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) : SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument. Determining IP information for wlan0... The applet then hangs in this state until CANCEL is clicked. This suggests that some configuration is missing. The device was configured in the applet as follows: Under the "General" tab: Allow all users to enable and disable the device Enable IPv6 configuration for this interface (same result with this IPv6 option checked or not checked) Automatically obtain IP address settings with dhcp Automatically obtain DNS information from provider Under the "Route" tab: Nothing entered Under the "Hardware device" tab: Bind to MAC address -- accepted the default as given Under the "Wireless Settings" tab: "Auto" checked.
Ran into the same problem. After wasting a day I found this page. The iwl3945-firmware does the trick. Thanks Michael. Reeke, I got that problem too. Try getting rid of every wireless drivers installed and start over again. I believe it's because you got 2 wireless drivers conflict with each other. Remove all 3945 drivers that I know. #rpm -e ipw3945-ucode ipw3945d kmod-ipw3945 iwl3945-firmware Restart the box, then notice at the NetworkManager (top right icon on the desktop), click on it you should see Wireless Networks but there will be nothing listed on it. Then follow Michael comment: #yum install iwl3945-firmware Reboot again. Now the NetworkManager should be seeing wireless network. At least this work for me on Thinkpad T60 3945abg.
Warat C, thanks for the suggestion, this is not my problem. Only package found with 'rpm -qa | grep 3945' is iwl3945-firmware. I uninstalled it, re-downloaded from RHN, reinstalled, same problem. ('yum install iwl3945-firmware' does not find this package for me). Added note: Must be something else missing, how can a 'noarch' package install a driver specific to an x86_64 kernel? If I delete file /lib/modules/2.6.18-128.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/ iwl3945.ko per suggestion of Warat C to delete all drivers, the RHN package does not reinstall this file. I also downloaded the source tarball from the Intel site, but 'make' fails with errors, so I gave up this idea before I could break things even worse. G.Reeke
Try lsmod | grep 3945 and see if you got any ipw3945 module installed. As for the yum could not find the iwl3945-firmware I believe you don't have subscription to the right software channel. Login to RHN network, click at system, select yours, then click at "Alter channel subscriptions". Check the "RHEL Desktop Supplementary (v. 5 for 64-bit x86_64)" and save. the noarch maybe because it is actually a firmware for NIC card so it has nothing to do with OS architecture.
Thanks for your tip regarding yum channel subscriptions. I added the Supplementary channel as suggested. Now "yum install iwl3945-firmware" gives this message: "Package iwl3945-firmware-2.14.1.5-2.noarch already installed and latest version Nothing to do" So the subscription works. The result is expected, given that I downloaded and installed the package by hand earlier, as reported above. "lsmod | grep 3945" gives no output. Apparently something more is needed besides this firmware package--or there is a bug relating to this machine. Note that a driver did show up here as reported in my initial submission-- that is no longer the case for reasons unknown. The driver iwl3945.ko is present in /lib/modules/2.6.18-128.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi but not in /lib/modules/2.6.18-128.1.1.el5/kernel...etc. but the 1.1 kernel is running. Could this be part of the problem? In the current configuration, attempts to start up the wireless device from the network configuration tool now give this message: "iwl3945 device wlan0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization." But note that the device does show up on the list of devices, which was not the case before the RedHat 5.3 update. G.Reeke
I followed below steps: 1. Uninstalled ipw3945-ucode.noarch 1.14.2-1.el5 2. Installed iwl3945-firmware.noarch 2.14.1.5-2 issue is resolved. Thanks everyone
I attempted to perform steps given by satheessh.c. There is no ipw3945-ucode installed on my machine, so I cannot uninstall it. I uninstalled and reinstalled iwl3945-firmware.noarch, using yum, which finds and installs same version number given by satheessh, Result is same error as given above: Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) : SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument. rpm -qa | grep 3945 shows no packages installed except the one iwl3945-firmware listed above. I have the latest kernel downloaded last week. Is there some suggestion how to track down this error? G. Reeke
Workaround found -- Wireless works -- System hangs during shutdown Entering the above "Set Mode (8B06)" error message into a search service, a Ubuntu forum is found which presents the following workaround: Create a file /etc/modprobe.d/iwl3945 with the following contents and reboot: alias wlan0 iwl3945 options iwl3945 disable_hw_scan=1 When this is done, the iwl3945 wireless device works. However, a new problem arises--when performing a system shutdown, the OS hangs forever while attempting to shut down the wireless ethernet service. It can only be stopped by using the power switch. Because this workaround indeed allows the wireless to function, I will use it for the nonce. However, a true fix that would allow the system to shut down normally would be much better. I am hoping my experience will help RedHat diagnose the problem. G. Reeke
so this is more a kernel problem
George, please try the latest kernel available under here: http://people.redhat.com/dzickus/el5/ Does that address the shutdown problem?
With kernel 2.6.18-160.el5 installed (3 packages: kernel, kernel-devel, and kernel-headers), and leaving the aforementioned workaround file in place, on bootup after selecting wireless profile, networking is not working. The command "service network start" yields this output: Bringing up loopback interface: [ OK ] RTNETLINK answers: File exists [last line repeated 9 times] and networking is still not working. However, upon running the network configuration applet and clicking "Activate" while the wlan0 device is selected, first the old "Set Mode (8B06)" error message reappears, but then the device starts and networking is OK. Shutdown is clean, no hang as with the current distributed kernel. Upon reboot, same thing--networking does not come automatically, but can be started manually. Upon removal of the workaround /etc/modprobe.d/iwl3945 file and reboot, same thing. Please let me know whether it is safe to continue to use this development kernel for normal operations, or should I go back to the current distributed version? Thanks, G.Reeke
I don't see any reason why it should be unsafe. Whether or not it is worth putting-up with the network service not starting is up to you! But FWIW, I can't see any reason why installing a new kernel should cause the network service to not start automatically. You might want to open a separate bug for that. The Set Mode error message probably results from the old RHEL5 scripts doing things in the wrong order. I recall that we had to get that fixed in Fedora, so at least it shouldn't happen in RHEL6 when it gets here. Anyway, this also sounds like a different issue that could merit it's own bug. Since you got iwl3945-firmware installed and the driver can now load and work, and since the later kernels correct the shutdown problem you observed, I'm going to consider this issue closed.
I had the same problem but i solved just deleting the files "ifup-wlan0" of my system and after my network card has worked. The files i found at directories: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-wlan0 /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifup-wlan0 /etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default/ifup-wlan0. I think the same should solve problem with other cards..
That sounds like an interesting idea. But my system doesn't have any of those files, so I can't delete them. I suspect Paulo had a different problem related to an error in one of those files. G. Reeke
Excuse me now I find the way to enable the card but i don't know how to correct. Its simple first i boot an livecd. So without remove battery or power line i restart my computer removing the livecd. And then my card its working. Please if you know how to correct the problem post here.