Intel 3945ABG Wireless / WiFi Card on CentOS 5
I’ve taken to using CentOS on my servers, and fedora on my Laptop. New job, means new laptop, and to avoid fedora update hell, I thought I’d try CentOS on my laptop.
All seems good other than my wifi card not being detected, and for some reason googling for “centos 5 intel 3945” didn’t provide a working anserwer, actually I found the answer by googling for “supplementary disk centos 5” which finds this thread that says…
Install dag’s repo (this rpm), and then install dkms-ipw3945 (yum will pick up the dependancies)
yum install dkms-ipw3945
Next enable network manager…
chkconfig --level 345 NetworkManager on chkconfig --level 345 NetworkManagerDispatcher on
reboot (seriously) and when you next log in you’ll get a little icon in you system tray where you can manage your WiFi 
I tried this and it didn’t work for me. I’m running the x86_64 CentOS 5. Are your directions only for the 32 bit CentOS?
Hi Dean,
Sorry for the late reply, have been very busy lately.
The above should have worked with 64bit, yum is pretty much platform independent, my guess is that one of the RPMs installed wasn’t built correctly. Try uninstalling (check out your yum log for a list of what was installed) and re-building the source rpms on your 64bit machine, then use yum localinstall to get everything installed in the right order.
Good Luck!
This is interesting – I didn’t know there was such a wireless manager. So I have the icon and everything, and I can even see the various wireless networks, but when I try to connect to mine, it doesn’t work – it simply doesn’t connect. I know that my wireless works, because I have a dual-boot, and the wireless works on my windows side.
Thanks,
Brian.
Hi Brian,
To be honest I’ve found my wireless connection to be a bit “Hit & Miss”.. I’ve yet to work out whether it’s an AP problem, driver or NetworkManager. There are a couple of things you can try, firstly don’t use NetworkManager, stick to the standard linux iwconfig & wpa_supplicant, or secondly try restarting the ipw3945 daemon (
/etc/init.d/ipw3945d restart)… even stopping it and running it in a shell has helped in the past (sudo /sbin/ipw3945d --foreground)… actually I’ve found patients works too, after NM has found a wireless wait 30secs -> 1min before trting to connect…. if you come up with any Technical solutions to making the experience better I’d be love to hear them!Hi, Nick! I had similar problems with the older versions of NetworkManager and Sabayon Linux 3.4 and the God-awful BroadComm 43xx chipset. As you suggest, waiting about a minute or two before connecting (or connecting, and then immediately connecting again, regardless of the success or failure of the first connection) seems to work. However, one thing that seems to help me out is rebooting the AP. I have a Linksys WR54G (or whatever that one is that used to be Linux-based, but isn’t anymore) and an SMC. Both are a titch flaky, particularly with Linux-based WIFI, and rebooting them seems to help….somewhat.
Of course, if you’re like me, you may have a nasty habit of experimenting with the latest distros as they come out, thereby changing wireless configs on an altogether unreasonably frequent basis, which probably confuses the out of these poor little consumer-grade APs, making the reboots even more necessary…..
Hi, I am running Centos 5. I installed all the driver and the wireless works fine. However, there are couple of networks in my university and I couldn’t find an application to select a specific network. I tried your method and reboot my laptop but the icon didn’t come out.
Please advice.
Thanks in advance.
That’s odd Tan, Make sure that all the correct services are running:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManagerDispatcher status
NetworkManagerDispatcher (pid 2947) is running...
$ sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager status
NetworkManager (pid 2936) is running...
$ sudo /etc/init.d/ipw3945d status
ipw3945d (pid 1988) is running...
$
And double check that you’ve added the “Notification Area” to the gnome panel
Hi Nick,
Thanks for quick response. I’m running kde.
I tested in Gnome and it works.
Do you know how to get it from kde?
Thanks.
Sorry Tan, I don’t use KDE, try taking a look at KNetworkManager hopefully there’s an rpm you can install somewhere on the web.
Good Luck!
Hello,
I am have an other card : intel 4965 AGN.
I made what you said but no icons appeared in the tray.
Do u have any idea ?
Thx
Romano
Hello,
I have intel 3945 wireless card in my laptop, I got my card to show up in NetworkManager. I have issues connecting to my wireless network, I have a wpa/wpa2-psk, the NM prompts for the key but after few seconds it comes back with enter key prompt, I have given the correct password. Could you please suggest what can I check to fix the problem?
Thanks,
Vinod
Hi Vinod,
I had the same issue on fedora, I think it’s either due to hidden SSID’s or signal strength
Hi Nick,
Thanks for the quick response, well my wireless network SSID isn’t hidden, but still the problem persists. I get this
Activation (eth1/wireless): disconnected during association, asking for new key.
Jan 21 21:20:17 centos NetworkManager: Activation (eth1) New wireless user key requested for network ‘vinbb’
in /var/log/message. I tried with both WPA and WPA2 PSK’s but no luck
, I have changed PSK, but still it doesn’t help
Thanks,
Vinod
Hey, I have the same problem with a an Intel 3495 ABG on a TOshiba ProSatellite U300. Pro/Wireless just will not connect with my hidden SSID. Have tried many workarounds, but so far nothing. I’m wondering if there is a better wireless client that I can use rather than the Intel OEM. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Nick,
I am new to linux. I have centos 5 and installed DAG following this link:
http://www.ultranetsolutions.com/CentOS-5-install-rpmforge-yum-repo.html
when i run ‘ yum install dkms-ipw3945 ‘ i see the following:
Loading “installonlyn” plugin
Loading “priorities” plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
719 packages excluded due to repository priority protections
Parsing package install arguments
Nothing to do
I am unable to see the icon in NM… plz help me to resolve this ..
Thanks
karna
Hi, nick
thank a lot for your tutorial. I’m do that all you say and my wifi was active. I can see all the wifi network with network manager. But nick I’m still have one problem that is I can join to wifi network. Can you solve this problem?
Thanks
widhi
Hi Nick,
Thanks for putting up this info. I use a laptop as a ‘testbed’ for various distro’s, & a while back installed CentOS 5.2. Using your instructions I got wireless networking running (something I’ve never been able to do before) with the networking applet.
I’ve just re-installed CentOS 5.2, but can’t see the applet any more & have no clue how to set up wireless networing manually. NetworkManager & NetworkManagerDispatcher are running, so I have no clue as to what’s wrong.
There’s not many posts here so I hope you’re still watching this site!!
Forget what I just posted, I am seeing Network Manager, I just didn’t know what I was looking at.
I am still having problems in that I’m getting the same error Vinod is seeing (disconnected during association), & no matter how many times I re-enter my PSK it doesn’t connect.
Hi cloudmaster, yeah the icon’s changing with Distro upgrades can catch us out
One thing I can suggest is try shorting your PSK, I had a very strange problem the other day where one device would connect, but a second wouldn’t… give it a go, you never know your luck!
Hi Nick.
The tutorial about wireless is PERFECT.
I’ve installed centos 5.2 in a lenovo t60 but I can’t activate sound card (it seems to be detected but no sound can be heard). Could you help. Thanks
Hi mongo,
to make sound card works on Centos follow these instructions:
1- import these lines into file with extension .repo
[atrpms]
name=Centos ATrpms
baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/el5-i386/atrpms/stable
gpgkey=http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
gpgcheck=1
includepkgs=alsa-driver alsa-kmdl*
2- copy this file to /etc/yum.repos.d/
3 – run this command to install driver
yum install alsa-driver alsa-kmdl-`uname -r`
4- reboot
for more information use this url http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=195804&mode=linear
Hi,
I’m running CentOS 5.2 on all my machines here (work and home). I have the same problem with an ASUS laptop and an Intel 3945 wireless card. I’m using an unencrypted wireless network for testing. When I setup the card statically in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1, I can connect OK. But the same thing with NetworkManager fails. It just keeps searching and searching, and then times out.
Is there any way to tell NetworkManager not to time out?
my intel pro 3945 wifi card not working in centos 5.2.Is any way to install this in lenovo 3000 N200
Hi,
) problem with my wifi again. the network is detected (iwlist eth1 scan gives all the details . I can copy here if necessary) but I cannot connect.
I have a small (probably for you
Thanks for you help
I read your solution to get the intel 3945abg wifi card to work but I’m VERY green at this. You lost me at install dag’s repo. I went to the link and there was a huge list and nothing that said centos. So could you either give a link to where it’s explained STEP by STEP or explain it to me as if I were a two year old? =)
Hi Arbocorp, Take a look at Dag’s FAQ… “Just install the latest rpmforge-release package for your distribution and architecture. ”
(Nick, thx!)
Arbocorp —
There are many ways to do this, but easy way for CentOS 5 …
- on the page Nick mentions, you’ll see a link on the left to Frequently Asked Questions — click there
- scroll down — Installation and Configuration
- Under B2 – How to configure RPMForge, there is a link to the RPMForge-release RPM. Click it and you’ll see another (daunting) list. Find the RPM appropriate for your installation (for CentOS 5, pick the appropriate RHEL 5 distro, either 32 bit or 64 bit)
- run that RPM to set up your repositories
- Once that’s done, you can search for dkms-ipw3945 in Package Manager (Applications -> Add/Remove Software)
Then execute nick’s chkconfig cmds (above) and reboot.
HTH.
Beel
Hey Nick,
Thanks for this great walk through. I had been trying for a while to get my wifi going, and following your instructions had it up and running in no time. Thanks A Bunch
Actually if SSID is not hidden then either NetworkManager or wpa_supplicant should work. In the Dag’s method even if you:
chkconfig wpa_supplicant off
and
chkconfig NetworkManager on
NetworkManager will also be able to connect. In my case it did. {RHEL 5.2}
I guess hidden SSIDs are not supported in RHEL 5.2 as my Ubuntu 8.04, on same Laptop works without a hitch, throw any kind of Wireless.
Hi,
I have an issue with a Pro/wireless 5300agn wifi card.
I’m running centos5.2 on a dell Latitude. the wifi card is not detected.
but it works fine with windows on the same machine.
thanks for your help.
here is the result of lshw:
# lshw -c network
*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Network controller
product: PRO/Wireless 5300 AGN [Shiloh] Network Connection
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
version: 00
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:f69fe000-f69fffff
Starting from CentOS 5.3 (kernel 2.6.18-128) the kernel includes the iwlagn kernel module, which is required for your 5300. If you want to install it for cent 5.2, this site may be helpful.
http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Laptops/Wireless#head-d0f09f4e13e1089355527862718bbf7548a5a64a
Thanks for your answer.
But I have already tried the centos wiki without success.
Another idea?
is centos 5.3 already released? Perhaps is it more easy to upgrade than trying to install it myself.
Hello,
I’ve upgraded to centos 5.3 and the wireless now works well.
Hi Nick,
I am facing a problem when trying to span my desktop on 2 screens. The more I obtain is a copy of the same desktop on the 2 monitors.
And when I select the option “multiscreens desktop” in the X configuration tool, The X server simply dies at reboot and I have to restore the xorg.conf from the xorg.conf.backup.
Any idea to fix this?
I am running centos5.3 on a dell latitute e5500.
here is the result of lshw -c display.
# lshw -c display
*-display:0 UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 07
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:f6c00000-f6ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff(prefetchable) ioport:efe8(size=8)
*-display:1 UNCLAIMED
description: Display controller
product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.1
version: 07
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:f6b00000-f6bfffff
I am new to linux/centOS. I have installed centos on my HP Pavilion laptop. My wifi adaptor is not recognized.
The wifi adaptor on my laptop is intel 3945abg. I have installed the repo “rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.rh9.rf.i386.rpm” and then tried the following command
yum install dkms-ipw3945
But I am getting the following errors
Could not retrieve mirrolist http://apt.sw.be/redhat/9/en/mirros-rpmforge error was
[Errno 4] IOError:
Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for reposiroty: rpmforge.
Please verify its path and try again
Do I need to connect to internet before running the above command ?
Please help me to setup my wireless adapator.
Hi Rejendra,
Yes, you will need be connected to the internet with wires to install the drivers.
Cheers,
Nick
Hi Nick – thanks for posting this – I installed CentOS 5.2 (as a server) on a Dell Precision M65 with the same wireless device. No errors, but no device either. =(
After reboot I checked the device manager – CentOS still doesn’t think it has a driver for the device and NetworkManager can’t pick it up (obviously). Any suggestions? Don’t really want to go manual until I’m sure NetworkManager won’t work…
Thanks! =)
It was a clean install of CentOS, so ran the updater and restarted – now the device is present but cannot be activated. Getting there! Advice still appreciated! =)
A few more bits of messing about (seemingly unrelated) and another restart and everything works now! Go figure. It seemed to take three reboots to work properly, but it did in the end. =)
Hi,Nick,I am new to linux/CentOS, i have installed CentOS 5.2 (as a workstation) on a Dell 1400 with 3945abg wireless card, but i could not use wireless service, according to your resolution( install rpmforge; yum install dkms-ipw3945; chkconfig …. and then reboot) , after reboot , i can get a little icon in my system tray, but it shows “Wired network connetction” hint , i can not user it to manage my wireless connection, do you know why it is ?
Thanks !
David
The icon doesn’t show any wireless connections because the laptop doesn’t think it has any wifi cards… I don’t know anything about Dell 1400’s but a quick google suggests you need a broadcom driver ….
….not an intel one :confused:
Hi Nick, thanks for your help, my laptop is Dell vostro 1400, and after i use “lspci” and “modprobe -l | grep wireless”, it displays :
……
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
……
and
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/airo.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/airo_cs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/atmel.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/atmel_cs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/atmel_pci.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/hermes.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/hostap/hostap.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/hostap/hostap_cs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/hostap/hostap_pci.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/hostap/hostap_plx.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2100.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2200.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/iwl4965.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/netwave_cs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco_cs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco_nortel.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco_pci.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco_plx.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco_tmd.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/prism54/prism54.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/spectrum_cs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/wavelan_cs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/wl3501_cs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/zd1201.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/zd1211rw/zd1211rw.ko
but i don’t know which is the correct driver for 3945abg card?
thanks very much !
With centos 5, I got to the last command and ran into a problem:
[root@localhost ~]# /sbin/chkconfig –level 345 NetworkManagerDispatcher on
error reading information on service NetworkManagerDispatcher: No such file or directory
I rebooted and wifi came up successfully anyway. So, is this “NetworkManagerDispatcer” something
I don’t need?
Hey Nick!
I recently formatted my PC and laptop, I already have Windows on my PC so I thought I would give CentOS 5 a try on my laptop.
The laptop had a built in wireless (I have no clue as to how to get information up on it) and it worked fine, but scince I installed centOS it hasn’t worked (Currently using the ethernet cable normally plugged into my PC).
When I run your first line, everything goes fine, same with the second line. However on the third line I get this:
chkconfig –level 345 NetworkManagerDispatcher on
error reading information about service NetworkManagerDispatcher: No such file or directory
Help would be appriciated as this cable isn’t long and it takes the point out of having this laptop
Lee
Please respond to this comment aswell as the above, i forgot to tick the “Notify me of follow up comments via e-mail” button >.<
[...] postings to forums about all the tweaks and options other people had tried and failed with, I found this article, that pointed out that CentOS 5 (and for that matter RHEL 5) simply doesn’t have all [...]