Ubuntu: Hardy Problem with Wireless (b43,iwl3945, madwifi etc)

I have been helping one of my fellow Ubuntu user from my neighbours country - Indonesia regarding his problem with Intel 3945 wireless chipset on Hardy Heron. Well, to be honest Intel chipset doesnt have any problem on the previous version of Ubuntu 7.10(Gutsy Gibbon). But the problem arise as in Hardy, the driver have change from ipw3945 to iwl3945.

Some people will have/encounter problems to setting up the intel chipset in order to make it work properly. Well, from my experience dealing with the problem(on helping my friend), there is a simple solution to this problem. There are several ways to solve this problem. And it will work on other chipset too including b43, madwifi and etc.

So here is the step to configure Intel 3945 Chipset on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron:

1. Open up terminal
2. Code : sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
3. Edit : Add at the end of the file "blacklist ipw3945" then save and exit. (You could use any text editor you like. I'm using gedit so that it could be more newbie friendly)
4. Then you need to edit the rules. Type : sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
5. Then delete all lines related to wifi interface. Leave only line which define eth0 which refering to your wired interface(ethernet). Then save and exit.
6. Now we need to remove the modules: sudo rmmode iwl3945
7. And add the modules back: sudo modprobe iwl3945
8. Now to check either the wifi is working do: ifconfig
9. If you see a device called 'wlan0' and 'wmaster0' then it means your wireless is working. Please check your network manager applet for access point signal. But please make sure you do have access point nearby if not you wont see any signal in network manager.

So that's it. If you are using bcm43xx formerly on Gutsy, then change the iwl3945 to b43. And you'll see what i mean. I hope this will be helpful. If any problem occur, please leave me a message either by comments or emails. Thanks

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