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'

Linux WiFi driver

The most recent revision of the Intel Centrino platform does utilize 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 is to be used. A sourceforge-project aimed to support the new cards is available on http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/. However, as of today, the project's code (which is not in production stable condition) depends on a binary-only, proprietary user-space-daemon communicating to 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 from countries other than 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.

ThinkPads this card may be found in

• T60, T60p
• X60, X60s