Intrepid issue: wireless intel 3945 on Dell D520

[Catalin David]

Hey, guys and girls! Get your cups of coffee or cigars and please, bare 
with me!

I'm still up having an issue for a couple of days. I have a laptop, the 
above mentioned model. It's being used, mainly, in 2 places: my room and 
a lab where I work.
System was until today dual-boot with Win XP, but, because it was too 
slow, I decided to reinstall it. I wasn't able to find a cd with that so 
I installed Vista (bad choice, fixed the MBR and now I'm back in Ubuntu).

So, getting to the issue:
In the lab (I use a wireless router 802.11b at home), I don't know what 
router we have, but I get a kernel panic moments after turning on the 
wireless (searched on the web, reported to be a wireless 802.11n issue 
with the kernel). Suggested solution: install 
linux-backports-modules-intrepid in order to make it work. It worked 
until now, no kernel panics ever since.

Still, I have encountered another problem with WinXP. If I have my 
wireless turned off while restarting, the wireless, won't turn on in 
Ubuntu. Since I got Vista, it always turns off the wireless before 
restarting, so I get no wireless in Ubuntu. Suggested solution: 
uninstall linux-backports-modules-intrepid  **. So I did and it works 
fine now. Haven't tested in the lab, but I expect kernel panics there, too.


With the backports installed:
$ sudo lshw -C Network -> reports the wireless as network unclaimed
$ lsmod | grep iwl3945 -> outputs nothing, so the module is not loaded
$ sudo modprobe iwl3945 -> Error inserting iwl3945 
(/_path_to_iwl3945.ko): Unknows symbol in module or unknown parameter 
(see dmesg)
$ dmesg | tail ->
iwl3945: Unknown symbol lbm_cw_print_ssid

Without the backports, everything is fine as long as I stay home (not 
quite of an option... I hope you understand that :P ).


So, has anyone experienced that before? If yes, a possible tweak?

I am willing to test anything on my machine (in the limits of common 
sense) if you are willing to offer me instructions.


Thanks a lot,
Catalin