Bug 706533 - RHEL-6.1 iwlagn driver needs iwl5000 firmware update
Summary: RHEL-6.1 iwlagn driver needs iwl5000 firmware update
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED DUPLICATE of bug 680456
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Classification: Red Hat
Component: iwl5000-firmware
Version: 6.1
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
urgent
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: John W. Linville
QA Contact: desktop-bugs@redhat.com
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2011-05-20 20:24 UTC by Phil Perry
Modified: 2011-05-24 16:45 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-05-24 13:54:39 UTC
Target Upstream Version:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
Dmesg in messages (3.81 MB, text/plain)
2011-05-24 16:22 UTC, Stephen John Smoogen
no flags Details
Requested dmesg file. (52.21 KB, application/octet-stream)
2011-05-24 16:42 UTC, Alan Bartlett
no flags Details

Description Phil Perry 2011-05-20 20:24:40 UTC
Description of problem:

The updated iwlagn driver in RHEL 6.1 (kernel-2.6.32-131.0.15.el6.x86_64) requires an updated firmware to operate.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

iwl5000-firmware-8.24.2.12-3.el6.noarch

How reproducible:

Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Attempt to load iwlagn driver on system with Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5300AGN
2.
3.
  
Actual results:

May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link AGN driver for Linux, in-tree:
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn: Copyright(c) 2003-2010 Intel Corporation
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300 AGN, REV=0x24
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: device EEPROM VER=0x120, CALIB=0x4
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 24 802.11a channels
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: request for firmware file 'iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode' failed.
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-4.ucode
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: request for firmware file 'iwlwifi-5000-4.ucode' failed.
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-3.ucode
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: request for firmware file 'iwlwifi-5000-3.ucode' failed.
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-2.ucode
May 19 23:28:10 Duo2 kernel: iwlagn 0000:0c:00.0: Firmware has old API version. Expected v5, got v2. New firmware can be obtained from http://www.intellinuxwireless.org

Expected results:

Driver loads correct firmware.

Additional info:

The driver requires the following firmware:

$ modinfo iwlagn | grep iwlwifi-5000
firmware:       iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode

The current iwl5000-firmware package provides older revisions:

$ rpm -ql iwl5000-firmware
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-5000-2.ucode
/usr/share/doc/iwl5000-firmware-8.24.2.12
/usr/share/doc/iwl5000-firmware-8.24.2.12/LICENSE
/usr/share/doc/iwl5000-firmware-8.24.2.12/README

Please update to v8.83.5.1-1

http://intellinuxwireless.org/iwlwifi/downloads/iwlwifi-5000-ucode-8.83.5.1-1.tgz

I've not checked if other iwlxxxx-firmwares also need updating for this updated iwlagn driver as this driver supports multiple Intel chipsets.

Comment 2 Alan Bartlett 2011-05-20 20:44:00 UTC
A quick note from me. 

Having experienced the exact same issue as reported here by NedSlider, a simple
d/l of the above Intel tarball, extraction of the iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode file and
dropping it into the /lib/firmware/ directory resolves the issue.

Thanks to NedSlider for posting the fix.

A black mark to the RHEL 6 QA team for letting this first update out of the
door without noticing the phoo-bah!  ;)

(Please note the emoticon, above.)

Comment 3 John W. Linville 2011-05-24 13:54:39 UTC
Your device should function with the older firmware.  The firmware package should be updated in the 6.2 cycle.  If the messages in the log annoy you, then you can update the firmware manually as described above.  Otherwise, just ignore them in the meantime.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 680456 ***

Comment 4 Stanislaw Gruszka 2011-05-24 14:19:29 UTC
I deliberately add support to new firmware, but do not install it by default. New firmware claim to fix some 11n bugs, but after all these seems to be a driver bugs, also there is some other regression reported with new firmware. So, we allow to use new microcode, but default is older one, which was widely tested by RH developers and QA, and should work quite well.

Comment 5 Alan Bartlett 2011-05-24 15:02:40 UTC
(In reply to comment #3)
> Your device should function with the older firmware.  The firmware package
> should be updated in the 6.2 cycle.  If the messages in the log annoy you, then
> you can update the firmware manually as described above.  Otherwise, just
> ignore them in the meantime.
> 
> *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 680456 ***

Sorry John, you may say "should function" but I can definitely say it _does_not_function_ !

This is not about annoying messages in a log, this is about non-functional h/w when the OS is updated to 6.1

Synopsis: With 6.0, wireless connectivity works, apply OS update to 6.1, wireless connectivity is broken.

Using the upstream f/w restores the broken functionality. Therefore this issue should be fixed now, as a bug in 6.1 and not with the release of 6.2

The word regression applies here.

Comment 6 Stanislaw Gruszka 2011-05-24 15:10:28 UTC
Could you attach full dmesg output?

Comment 7 Stephen John Smoogen 2011-05-24 16:22:09 UTC
Created attachment 500641 [details]
Dmesg in messages

Stock Lenovo Thinkpad T500. Hardware began to show problems after upgrade. Got 669 reloads in about 24 hours and a sustained 10% packet loss between router and wireless card (10 feet away). Miniscule packet loss with RHEL-6.0

Comment 8 Alan Bartlett 2011-05-24 16:42:03 UTC
Created attachment 500648 [details]
Requested dmesg file.

For completeness, this is the device --

0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300 [8086:4235]


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