the distribution should use iwl3945 instead of ipw3945 by default

[Sergey V. Udaltsov]

In Gutsy, ipw3945 is used by default for Intel 3945 chips. Open Source iwl3945 should be used instead. The reasons are:

- ipw is not maintained any more
- ipw is using closed-source user-space daemon
- ipw has issues (there are multiple bugs in launchpad)

[Matthew Specker (matthew-specker)]

I second that motion. Switching from ipw3945 to iwl3945 solved some pretty serious issues for me.

[Sergey V. Udaltsov (sergey-udaltsov)]

For a start, a good HOWTO for manual switching for these drivers would be nice to have.

[Thom Pischke (thom-pischke)]

some info about switching drivers from another issue. Can't vouch for it yet, about to try it: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/121439/comments/120

[Per Heldal (heldal)]

Not only should iwl3945 be used instead of ipw3945, but Gutsy also needs an upgrade to new versions of the iwl3945 and related drivers. The current driver causes occasional system freezes. These may, at least in part, be related to the use of software encryption in the current driver. It seems slightly better with hardware encryption enabled.

Swap driver by:

1. Prevent the system from loading the old driver through blacklisting. Add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:
   blacklist ipw3945

2. Force load of the iwl3945 driver by adding it to /etc/modules. I.e. add a line in the file with the word iwl3945.

Then reboot.

--

Hardware encryption can be enabled by creating a file /etc/modprobe.d/iwl3945 containing the following line of text:
  options iwl3945 hwcrypto=1

Then reboot.

[mblind (kingblind)]

A good Howto is here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=595060

Hope this helps

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

Update according to instructions in https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22/+bug/144621. You will also have to blacklist ipw3945 in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

Actually, the default ipw3945 won't ever change in Gusty. You can blacklist ipw3945 which will allow iwl3945 to load. Make sure you have at least 14.38 of linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22.

The default for Hardy is iwl3945.