Help with getting intel 1000 series working with backtrack 4 final

Just installed backtrack 4 final in a dual boot system with Windows 7 on my laptop. It an intel 1000 series wireless card. When I do ifconfig, it is not in the list, however when I do ifconfig -a, it shows up under wlan0 and the TXpower is 0, which means its not working I believe.

When I try to start it this happens
root@bt:~# ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory

I have googled and I think its a firmware issue? So I found the firmware for it, iwlwifi-1000-3.ucode, and placed it in /lib/firmware, however I am a noob and I dont know how to install this firmware, or even if I am on the right path. Just trying to get wireless to work on backtrack 4. Any help is appreciated.

 

backtrack really isn't a n00bs distro..

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Wireless_networking

 

I know I use to use it a couple of years ago, all my drivers worked out of the box then.

Thanks for the link, Ill read it through

 

Found this site
http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn

Tried to install, got an error:

The following NEW packages will be installed:
firmware-iwlwifi
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1021 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/465kB of archives. After unpacking 1090kB will be used.
Writing extended state information... Done
(Reading database ... 228098 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking firmware-iwlwifi (from .../firmware-iwlwifi_0.17~bpo50+1_all.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/firmware-iwlwifi_0.17~bpo50+1_all.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode', which is also in package linux-firmware
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/firmware-iwlwifi_0.17~bpo50+1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done

Not completely sure what I should do. Thanks for helping out a noob.

 

well, if you can see in your output, which i presume you didn't read, your firmware was already present with installed package which is called linux-firmware:

Code:

trying to overwrite `/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode', which is also in package linux-firmware

you could try apt-get remove linux-firmware to remove that package and then try and install the one you were about to in the first place.

EDIT
if linux-firmware by any chance wasn't installed i suggest you install it with apt-get install linux-firmware. that may solve your problem. but i noticed it is present in backtrack 4 by default since my broadcom card worked out of the box

 

I actually did, however that isn't the firmware that needs to be installed, its the iwlwifi-1000-3.ucode. I knew that it couldnt over write that file for some reason, so I will try what you said. For all of your sakes I'm going to try and learn as much as I can before I give up and ask here.

Edit: yes, most of them are, but the 1000 series firmware is not to the best of my knowledge.

 

When I run

dmesg -c

this comes up when it gets to the wireless

iwlagn 0000:03:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-1000-2.ucode
iwlagn 0000:03:00.0: iwlwifi-1000-2.ucode firmware file req failed: -2
iwlagn 0000:03:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-1000-1.ucode
iwlagn 0000:03:00.0: iwlwifi-1000-1.ucode firmware file req failed: -2
iwlagn 0000:03:00.0: Could not read microcode: -2

From this, I assume I need to find the iwlwifi-2 and iwlwifi-1 and put it in the /lib/firmware directory, however I have no idea where to find them, and google has not helped much...

 

This is why I don't bother with wireless.. more trouble than it's worth... plug a wire in and have done with it, that's me.

Modules is where you need to look.. see what wireless modules are loaded.

 

do you have firmware-iwlwifi package present in you system? also, check out this page http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=Downloads

 

Unfortunately, yes I did install it, and yes i did check that page, only has the 1000.3 i need the 1000.2 and 1000.1 I havent done the lsmod thing yet. My internet went out at my apartment, so I have to get on when I am in classes. Ill post tomorrow about which modules are running for the wireless card. If this is too much trouble, then I'm just gonna buy a card that works out of the box. But I do like fiddling around with it.

 

I did lsmod heres what i got for the wireless

cfg80211 - iwlagn, iwlcore, mac80211

mac80211 - iwlagn, iwlcore

I believe that means that my other firmware that i installed, the iwlwifi, isnt being utilized?

 

post #uname -a output please

 

#uname -a

Linux bt 2.6.30.9 #1 SMP Tue Dec 1 21:51:08 EST 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

 

i see... few other posts made me realize that iwlwifi-1000-3.ucode only works with linux kernel 2.6.31 and up. earlier versions still ask for iwlwifi-1000-2.ucode and iwlwifi-1000-1.ucode. you'll need to update your kernel. by the looks of it, you need to compile it manually if it isn't included in your repo.
that's if you can't find these other two files somewhere on the web

 

Thats unfortunate... Ill look for the older files for a bit, because I have no idea how to tell if my repository has any updated ones, or how to compile one manually. Ill read up some and get back to you in a day or so if I cant figure out the kernel deal by myself, or find the files I need.

 

Well, I cant find the files, and I look up compiling the kernel and it seems extremely complicated, to me at least. And I don't think there is an updated kernel on the repo, i checked using apt-cache search Linux something like that and i didn't see anything higher than what I had so I think I'm out of luck... at least until they update the kernel. Thanks for your help.

 

if you try it few times you get a hang of it. if you don't know what is each module for, just leave it like it is. i have a great link i found just recently http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=linux:kernelbuilding&s

 

Thanks ill check it out

 

Decided to give compiling the kernel a shot. Currently doing that right now, ill let you know if I am successful or if I fail epically.

EDIT: Kinda got it working... Got vmlinuz-2.6.4, config-2.6.4, and system.map for 2.6.4 in the /boot directory, configured grub to find the new kernel, and tried booting... could not mount fs... something like that which i think has something to do with I dont have a intrid image... I tried mkinitrd, which apparently doesnt exist and found an alternative

So... I enter in

mkinitramfs -o initrid.img-2.6.4 2.6.4

in bash, and get this

W: kernel 2.6.4 too old for initramfs on i386
W: not generating requested initramfs for kernel 2.6.4

not really sure what to do now... I'm almost there!
Thanks for helping me out, I know its a pain, but its a nice learning experience.

 

BumP