Ipw3945

Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCI Express Adapter This is a Mini-PCI Express WiFi Adapter Features Chipset: Intel WM3945AG IEEE Standards: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g PCI ID: 8086:4227

IBM Partnumbers

41A4068 (From Wireless & networking accessories - ThinkPad T60/p)

NOTE!

Only the IBM Parts will work, any other parts will give an 1802 error on Post because the sub-vendor PCI ID is different, see Problem with unauthorized MiniPCI network card for more details

Also known (in IBM literature) as....

• From announcement letter 106-068, 'Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG8 wireless connection'

Packages

• Fedora
  • Packages: http://www.atrpms.net/dist/fc5/ipw3945
  • Helpful Thread: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=436357
  • ATrpms yum repo rpm: http://atrpms.net/dist/common/atrpms/atrpms-67-1.at.noarch.rpm.html
  • NOTE: The T60p uses the smp kernel which the ipw3945 yum install does not provide. You will need the smp kernel for your architecture found at http://www.atrpms.net/dist/fc5/ipw3945. Remove the non-smp kernel and replace it with the appropriate smp kernel. Wireless works great for me... --Herlo 18:06, 22 June 2006 (CEST)
• Mandriva
  • Mandriva's kernel comes with the ipw3945 module (since at least 2006.0 Update One)
  • dkms package (dkms-ipw3945) can be found in contrib (currenlty cooker only, thus will probably be in 2007.0)
  • Additional Packages: ipw3945d and ipw3945-ucode, both either available in the commercial distribution (or club) or from http://plf.zarb.org/
• Gentoo
  • See Installation instructions for the ThinkPad T60p for more information on setting up the wireless card.
• Debian
  • The ipw3945 microcode is available in the firmware-ip3945 package (currently in testing and unstable (same versions)).
  • The ipw3945 regulatory daemon and module source are in unstable now, see ipw3945dand ipw3945-source. These are planned to be released in Etch.
  • Unofficial packages are available from Russell Stuart, Stefan Lippers-Hollmann, and Joachim Reichel.
• OpenBSD
  • Supported with the wpi driver in 4.0.
• Ubuntu
  • With Edgy, all you have to do is install the linux-restricted-modules-generic package.

--Tarjei

Linux WiFi driver

The most recent revision of the Intel Centrino platform utilizes a new generation of wireless networking device connected to the system via PCI-E, and not PCI (like the ipw2200-line used to do). Therefore, a new driver must be used. A sourceforge-project supporting the new cards is available at http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/. However, as of today, the project's code (Stable Release 1.0.0) depends on a binary-only, proprietary user-space-daemon communicating with the driver via sysfs. It is not possible to operate this device with Free Software exclusively at the moment. The license-terms the daemon is released under prohibit reverse-engineering of the communication-protocol; this will hopefully not hold developers outside the US, where clauses like this one are not enforceable, from re-implementing a free variant of some sort.

External Discussion

This issue already sparked discussions on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, accessible via http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/2/24/266.

There is also a very revealing interview with the author of the OpenBSD driver for the 3945, in which it comes out that Intel has lied (at least by omission) about the purpose of the "regulatory daemon".

Current State

The ipw2200-drivers in kernel 2.6.15 (and possibly later) do not work with this adapter. There is no mainline-kernel support at the moment, and without a change in the license of the required user-space-daemon, or mechanics of the code itself, probably will never be any.

Some comments

ipw3945 works with http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/ drivers. A Spanish summary, but easy to understand about how to install: [EsDebian-es Forum|http://www.esdebian.org/forum/viewtopic.php?forum=18&showtopic=69543], maxim_o message (longer)

Thinkpad topic: on ThinkPads like the Z60 that have one. remember to put the wireless switch in the on state! But you will not be able to enable the Wireless LED with Fn+F5, it is not a problem.

One more comment: if you want monitor mode (e.g for use with Kismet or other network sniffers), you need to uncomment CONFIG_IPW3945_MONITOR=y line from ipw3645-1.1.0 Makefile.

ThinkPads this card may be found in

• R60
• T43, T60, T60p
• X60, X60s
• Z61e, Z61m, Z61t, Z61p