[ltp] No WLAN connection on Thinkpad X40

[Maarten den Braber]

* John Locke <john@freelock.com> [040913 17:27]:

[ erratic iwconfig output ]
> I had similar trouble after installing Madwifi from CVS last month. It 
> had worked fine under the RPMs provided with Mandrake (but that version 
> didn't resume from a suspend, or show the light).

[...]
> This was what I was seeing, too. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not.
> 
> The solution, from the Madwifi list, was to set it to 802.11g mode, 
> instead of auto:
> 
> [root@hunter john] # iwpriv ath0 mode 2
> 
> For some reason, the auto-switching mode doesn't seem to work, but if 
> you tell it which mode to use, it works fine.

I've tried all different things but still no luck :-( The command you
suggested does make it a bit more stable, because it only tries to
search for networks at 2.4GHz.

In my search for a solution I only seem to have gone both forward and
backward :-/. The output of 'iwlist ath0 scan' is no constant (it gives
no errors anymore). I'm now at the university and am getting the
following output:

vortex:/home/mdb# iwlist ath0 scan
ath0      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:0B:5F:D0:10:02
                    ESSID:"WLAN"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=19/94  Signal level=-76 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100

          [...]

          Cell 06 - Address: 00:0B:5F:E2:45:1F
                    ESSID:"WLAN"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.462GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality=46/94  Signal level=-49 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100

So there are six AP's in my area. Nice. I've set my ESSID to "WLAN" and
now iwconfig is giving the following output:

ath0      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"WLAN"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.427GHz  Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF   
          Bit Rate:1Mb/s   Tx-Power:50 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=18/94  Signal level=-77 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Argh! Why doesn't it associate with an AP anymore?! This network also requires
the use of xsupplicant, but it should first associate! I've had one try
where it erraticly found an AP (some behaviour as before).

Can anybody give me *any* clue on where to search for a solution? I
suspect it is a driver issue, but e.g. ndiswrapper with the original IBM
driver also does not work (card works, but no connection). 

Any advice/clue/tip is welcome! Without wires is better :-)

thanks,
Maarten
-- 
Als er niet is gelachen,
was het niet serieus genoeg