How to use Golan 3945ABG wireless in Puppy 5.7? - SOLVED

[scottsemel]

I did a full install of Puppy 5.7 on an old Panasonic laptop. Looks like wiping out Windows wiped out the driver for the wireless card. How do I reinstall the driver?

In a terminal, I called

Code: Select all

lspci

and one of the lines returned was:
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

Doing a search on updatesdriver.com shows that the driver that corresponds to 3945abg is an .exe file, executable on Windows. However, I no longer have a Windows partition as I intend this laptop to be a completely Puppy box.

Any ideas how to fix this problem? Thanks.

[OscarTalks]

A windows driver is not normally needed. Puppy has a load of Linux drivers included. Hopefully one of those will work with your wireless card. The correct one should be detected and loaded automatically but you will need to use one of the wireless tools to set up the config. Try the connect icon on the desktop and choose wired or wireless LAN. Then try Simple Network Setup. With this it should just be a case of scanning for your wi-fi signal and entering your password.

[Galbi]

Hi, and welcome.

It doesn't care you have deleted Windows. Drivers (.exe) are not usable in Puppy.

I've searched for Wireless 3945ABG here:
http://wellminded.net63.net/

And found, for example, this:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... f1ca8b2fa8

and other links that may guide you.

[scottsemel]

OscarTalks: my laptop doesn't seem to be searching for on-board linux drivers. When I've tried the Connect icon, the Wireless LAN option, and the various set-up options, I just get messages saying that it there is no wireless detected or that it is unable to connect to wireless. Clicking on the "WLAN" button in the connection wizard immediately results in the message that no wireless is detected. It doesn't seem to be searching for the signal or looking for its own drivers. It's as if it's immediately defaulting to that message.

Galbi: Thanks for pointing out that Puppy can't run .exe files. The instructions I saw elsewhere indicated that ubuntu could run them.

Also, my browser said it can't connect to wellminded.net63.net.

Regarding the article you linked for me, how do I run "ipw3945d in /sbin/"? And if that doesn't solve the problem, what alternatives would you suggest?

Thanks to both of you.

[Galbi]

Also, my browser said it can't connect to wellminded.net63.net.

There is a misspell, perhaps that's why you can't go there.

[Galbi]

The link before it's rather old so,

Just guessing, open a console and type:

Code: Select all

modprobe ipw3945

and then try to configure with the connect icon.

[ardvark]

Hi Scottsemel...

Welcome to the forums

If modprobing it doesnt work, does the advice in this thread help? See Kimba's suggestion 4th from the bottom.

Regards...

[OscarTalks]

Hmm, looks like that card uses the iwlegacy driver. See this page:-
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlegacy

In console:-

Code: Select all

modinfo iwlegacy

will tell you some information about the driver module.
Is this Slacko 5.7 by the way?
Hopefully all the firmware is included (if not it looks like you can download it) but it looks like it is rather an old bit of hardware. If you are using WPA it may be that you will need to use the bigger Network Wizard which is more sophisticated. I saw one post from someone who said that Frisbee worked for them with this card.

[tempestuous]

my laptop doesn't seem to be searching for on-board linux drivers
...
Clicking on the "WLAN" button in the connection wizard immediately results in the message that no wireless is detected.

Actually, a native Linux native driver has automatically loaded, without you realising it. I know that because you are able to see a "WLAN" button - if a driver had not loaded, and loaded successfully, then that button would not even display.
It seems that your problem is wifi scanning.

I suggest you run the Internet Connection Wizard again, and select the "full" (Dougal's) network wizard. The Simple Network Wizard (SNS) is tragically unreliable for wifi connections.

[bigpup]

Try following this guide.
Illustrated Guide to setting up a network connection in Lupu 520+
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=65346

If something does not work
Tell us at what step.
What you see.

[mikeb]

just to confirm I recently installed to a lemovo with exactly the same wifi card... worked out of the box in 4.12 and lucid...driver and firmware present. I did use dougals wizard..it may be a little cryptic but for me it ALWAYS works if the driver is ok and autoconnects with no problem. I even took it and added it to Slax for that reason.

Only problem I have heard of is the firmware not extracting...supposed to come from /lib/modules/all-firmware and end up in /lib/firmware...a bit silly and unpacking the lot aint such a bad idea since it takes up no extra room that way.

mike

[tempestuous]

Only problem I have heard of is the firmware not extracting...supposed to come from /lib/modules/all-firmware and end up in /lib/firmware

Yes, that's a problem with Puppy which crops up occasionally - any firmware associated with a particular driver is supposed to relocate to the correct directory when that driver is first accessed and loaded ...
unfortunately Puppy sometimes fails to do this. Then the firmware is effectively missing, and the driver fails.

scottsemel, you should use ROX to see if the correct firmware file; iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode
exists in the directory; /lib/firmware

If not, go ahead and open a second ROX window, and locate the firmware file in /lib/modules/all-firmware/iwlwifi/lib/firmware
and copy it across to /lib/firmware

Reboot, and run the full Network Wizard.

[mikeb]

scottsemel, you should use ROX to see if the correct firmware file; iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode
exists in the directory; /lib/firmware

just to note mine (X60) needed the iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode so I suggest making sure both are there.

mike

[tempestuous]

mine (X60) needed the iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode so I suggest making sure both are there.

It doesn't work that way; the firmware version is not related to the hardware device.
The exact version of firmware depends on the version of (iwlwifi) driver, and thus relates to the kernel version.
The "-1" version of firmware was compatible only before Puppy (Lucid) version 5.0. The original poster is using Puppy (Slacko) 5.7.

In the meantime, where has our original poster gone?

[scottsemel]

tempestuous: thanks for your reply. I was away from my computer for the sabbath. (I'm on Los Angeles time, by the way.)

In using ROX to check my lib/firmware directory: I do have iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode in the folder, so I don't know where to go from here.

I ran the "full" (Dougal's) network wizard but received the same result as before: an immediate message that no wireless is detected.

OscarTalks: this is Slacko 5.7. And, yes, my laptop is probably about eight years old. modinfo legacy displayed several pieces of information, including:

Code: Select all

description: iwl-legacy: common functions for 3945 and 4965

Are there other data from this call that would be useful in diagnosing this problem?

Galbi: modprobe ipw3945 resulted in nothing.

[tempestuous]

OK, first let's get a few things straight: your wifi device uses the iwl3945 driver. The iwlegacy driver is an underlying driver, or sub-module. Querying this sub-module with the "modinfo" command has little, if any, diagnostic value.

open a console and type:

Code: Select all

modprobe ipw3945

First, the ipw3945 driver is outdated, and non-existent in modern Puppies. The new driver is iwl3945.
Second, it's generally a bad idea to manually load a driver. Puppy automatically loads all drivers it detects as being compatible with your computer's hardware at bootup. Manually loading a driver needs to be done only in exceptional circumstances, and such circumstances probably indicate a more serious underlying problem; hardware/IRQ conflicts, for example.

Let's proceed.

In using ROX to check my lib/firmware directory: I do have iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode in the folder

Yes, but what's the filesize of this firmware file? Is it 0 bytes, perhaps? This would indicate a failed copy process.

I ran the "full" (Dougal's) network wizard but received the same result as before: an immediate message that no wireless is detected.

Your results are unclear here. If the Network Wizard failed to detect a valid wifi interface, it wouldn't explicitly give a message about "no wireless", it would simply fail to display a wifi ("wlan0") button.
On the other hand if the Network Wizard does list a wifi interface (wlan0) then when you press the "Scan" button you might be presented with a failure message such as I have attached.
Can you confirm?

Ultimately what's most useful is if you run the "dmesg" command, and look for lines relating to how the "iwl3945" module loaded - and especially if the firmware was located, and successful.
If you're not confident of analysing this yourself, please attach the results so we can do it for you.
Run these 3 commands -

Code: Select all

cd /root
dmesg > dmesg.txt
gzip dmesg.txt

Now in /root you will have a file called "dmesg.txt.gz" which you can attach to this forum.

[mikeb]

Ok tempestuous , thanks for clarifying ... I my case i had copied the '2' but needed the '1' so that was stuck in my head.
As you mention the names used for this device driver have changed over time which makes googling info a bit confusing.

mike

[scottsemel]

tempestuous: Thank you for your message and willingness to assist.

In reply to your message, ROX shows that my iwl3945 file contains 65k.

Here are the steps I followed in trying to set up an internet connection using Internet Connection Wizard in the Setup menu, along with the results of each step:

1. Launch Internet Connection Wizard under Setup menu
[Result = Wizard display appears]
2. On Connection tab, clicked on Wired or wireless LAN
[Network Connection Wizard appears]
3. Clicked on Network Wizard (Dougal), the third option
[Puppy Network Wizard appears; shows both "eth0" and "wlan0" buttons]
4. Clicked on wlan0 button
[Configure network interface wlan0 window appears, with the message "OK, let's try to configure wlan0."]
5. Clicked Wireless button
[Puppy Network Wizard appears, with the Scan button, among others]
6. Clicked Scan
[Puppy Network Wizard warning window appears, showing a red circle with a white bar in its center. Shows the following message: "Error! Failed to raise interface wlan0. Failed command was: ipconfig wlan0 up. Error returned was: ipconfig: SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory."]
7. Clicked OK
[Puppy Network Wizard warning window appears, this time with a yellow triangle containing an exclamation point, and the message "No networks were detected. Would you like to try and scan again?"]
8. Clicked Retry
[Briefly a scanning progress bar window appeared, and then displayed Puppy Network Wizard warning window, with a yellow triangle and exclamation point, this time with the following message: "No networks were detected. Maybe your router is turned off? Maybe there is a Wireless switch on your laptop that needs to be turned on?" [FYI: the wireless switch is turned on]
9. Clicked OK
[Displayed the Puppy Network Wizard window with the Scan button that I note in step 5 above.]
10. Stuck and don't know what to do from here. I clicked the red "X" to close the window and same for subsequent two windows until the wizards closed.

Next, I entered the Code you suggested:

Code:

Code: Select all

cd /root 
dmesg > dmesg.txt 
gzip dmesg.txt

This returned nothing. I have a command prompt ("#") and a blinking cursor, but nothing else. No text to post on this forum.

(Previously, when I used an older version of Puppy on this same laptop several years ago, I never had this problem. I was able to connect to the internet with no problems. I did have to run the wizard, as noted in my step-by-step above, but it always worked. So I am utterly confused. Again, thank you for all your help on this.)

[tempestuous]

Puppy Network Wizard warning window appears, showing a red circle with a white bar in its center. Shows the following message:
"Error! Failed to raise interface wlan0.
Failed command was: ipconfig wlan0 up
Error returned was: ipconfig: SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory."

OK, there's the problem; an invalid/corrupt wifi interface.
But we still need your dmesg results.

I entered the Code you suggested:
Code:

Code: Select all

cd /root 
dmesg > dmesg.txt 
gzip dmesg.txt

This returned nothing.

"Nothing" means that the commands ran successfully! You will now have a file called "dmesg.txt.gz" in /root
which you should attach to the forum.

[scottsemel]

"Nothing" means that the commands ran successfully! You will now have a file called "dmesg.txt.gz" in /root which you should attach to the forum

.

Yes, it worked. Thanks for explaining that (first time I ever ran that command). Here's a paste bin link to the text of the dmesg.txt:

http://pastebin.com/embed_js.php?i=DTb36uCy

(It's over 700 lines of information and I didn't want to hog so much space on this forum. Please advise if you'd prefer me directly pasting the entire file of text into this forum page.)

Thanks for looking it over. Awaiting your assessment.