The problem is getting the wlan to work on a sony vaio TZ11XN laptop
The machine has one OS, Pclinuxos2010 with KDE and kernel 2.6.32.11
Have tried to find a wifi signal at 2 public locations both having many known wifi options, the machine could not find anything.
The wired ethernet is working.
On the front of the machine is a wlan on/off switch next to a blue light, this controls both wireless and bluetooth, the light and bluetooth are both working.
Turning the switch on puts an applet on the taskbar, the menu in the applet gives "connect wireless", choosing that option the applet changes by adding a small green arrow, after 5 secs the arrow leaves and the error message "network is down on interface wireless(Wi-Fi) (wlan)"appears.
Working through PCC to set up a new network interface, not changing the default settings in each PCC window results in this error message:
"Problems occured during the network connectivity test.
This can be caused by invalid network configuration, or problems with your modem or router.
You might want to relaunch the configuration to verify the connection settings."
The OS has been closed down and the livecd used, the problems are exactly the same.
In PCC the network interface (intelPRO/3945ABG) has been removed and the machine rebooted
in root konsole "service -f network" has been used.
synaptic showed two related packages ipw3945 and iwlwifi-3945 both have been reinstalled through synaptic
And thats the situation.
"When you're in a hole, stop digging"
Some experts advice would be very much appreciated.
Lspci shows
[q1@localhost ~]$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
09:04.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
09:04.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
09:04.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev ff)
09:04.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 11)
IWCONFIG
[q1@localhost ~]$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abg Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=off
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
etc/modprobe.conf
install scsi_hostadapter /sbin/modprobe ata_piix; /sbin/modprobe ahci; /bin/true
alias ieee1394-controller ohci1394
install usb-interface /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd; /sbin/modprobe uhci_hcd; /bin/true
alias wlan0 iwl3945
alias eth0 sky2
alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel
options snd-ac97-codec power_save=1
alias pci:v00008086d00004222sv00008086sd00001051bc02sc80i00 iwl3945
etc/modprobe.preload
# /etc/modprobe.preload: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line. Comments begin with
# a `#', and everything on the line after them are ignored.
# this file is for module-init-tools (kernel 2.5 and above) ONLY
# for old kernel use /etc/modules
fuse
raw1394
sbp2
ohci1394
nvram
evdev