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 annoucement 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 the process of being packaged. See Bugs #372118 and #363967.
  • Unofficial packages are available from Russell Stuart, Stefan Lippers-Hollmann, and Joachim Reichel.
• Ubuntu
  • Ubuntu Dapper has already built in this drivers; it works out from the box.

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.

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: remember to switchon the wireless-switch! 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, you need to uncomment CONFIG_IPW3945_MONITOR=y line from ipw3645-1.1.0 Makefile.

ThinkPads this card may be found in

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