Verisons of iwlwifi and firmware for my wireless card?
Although you say you are running 14.04, your 3.16.0-xx kernel corresponds to Ubuntu 14.10.
The driver iwlwifi is somewhat unique in that the pci.id, for instance 8086:4239, tells the driver the exact device and calls the appropriate firmware for the device in question.
I suspect the version: In tree means that the version is what was included in the related kernel, in your case, 3.16.
Here is where the firmware is available: https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi Your card loads 8.83.5.1 which corresponds to the firmware for an Intel 5100, 5300 or 5350. If you found an earlier or later firmware file and placed it in /lib/firmware, the driver is still going to call and use the same firmware it is written to use.
As you see, the firmware for your device is available in three versions; the 5.4.A.11 extracts to iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode; 8.24.2.12 to 5000-2 and 8.83.51.1 to 5000-5. While it is perfectly possible to download and extract these and place them where the driver expects to find them, namely /lib/firmware, the driver iwlwifi included in kernel version 3.16 is going to call and use only the appropriate firmware file: iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode.
As for the differences, I am unable to locate any change log. I assume each succeeding firmware version incorporates improvements and/or bug fixes.
As for the drivers, the usual way to get a later driver is to compile backports: https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/stable/ Or, if you are brave: https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/2015/03/13/
If, for example, you wanted to compile the iwlwifi driver corresponding to the later 3.18.1 kernel, download this to your desktop, right-click it and select 'Extract Here': https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/stable/v3.18.1/backports-3.18.1-1.tar.xz Then, in a terminal:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential
cd ~/Desktop/backports-3.18.1
make defconfig-iwlwifi
make
sudo make install
Reboot and check the version with modinfo. It should read:
version: backported from Linux (v3.18.1-0-g39ca484) using backports v3.18.1-1-0-g5e9ec4c
Each time a later linux-image is installed, recompile and reboot.
I suspect, given your symptoms, that the difficulty is unrelated to iwlwifi and its firmware. You might check the log, specifically /var/log/syslog, at the time the drops occur.
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Tim
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Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Tim over 1 year
lshw -C network
gives info about my wireless card, driver, and firmware:*-network description: Wireless interface product: PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN [Shiloh] Network Connection vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 00 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=3.16.0-34-generic firmware=8.83.5.1 build 33692 ip=192.168.1.102 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg resources: irq:49 memory:f4200000-f4201fff
modinfo
gives information about the driver moduleiwlwifi
and firmwares:$ modinfo iwlwifi filename: /lib/modules/3.16.0-34-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/iwlwifi.ko license: GPL author: Copyright(c) 2003- 2014 Intel Corporation <[email protected]> version: in-tree: description: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi driver for Linux firmware: iwlwifi-100-5.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-135-6.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-105-6.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-7265-9.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-3160-9.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-7260-9.ucode firmware: iwlwifi-8000-8.ucode srcversion: 93D664267873827B22C4309
About the driver module:
Is the version of
iwlwifi
3.16.0-34-generic
as output bylshw -C network
, orin-tree:
as output bymodinfo iwlwifi
, or93D664267873827B22C4309
as output bymodinfo iwlwifi
?
Where can I find the latest available version of
iwlwifi
and how to install it on 64-bit Ubuntu 14.04?About the firmware(s):
Is the version of the firmware which
iwlwifi
needs8.83.5.1 build 33692
as output bylshw -C network
, oriwlwifi-<digit>.ucode
as output bymodinfo iwlwifi
?
Are the line started with
firmware
in the output ofmodinfo iwlwifi
- different versions of the same firmware? Or
- different firmwares?
Where can I find the latest available version of the firmwares, and how to install them on 64-bit Ubuntu 14.04?
Thanks!
-
Tim about 9 yearsThanks. (1)
cat /etc/*release*
saysDISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS"
.$ uname -a
saysLinux ocean 3.16.0-34-generic #45~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 24 11:14:29 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
. Can it have a 3.16.0-xx Linux kernel? (2) is the version ofiwlwifi
same as the version of the linux kernel? (3) What does "5" mean in "iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode" in the output ofmodinfo iwlwifi
? Is it not the firmware version, right? -
Tim about 9 years(4) In your fimrware link, can any of the three
iwlwifi-5000-ucode-5.4.A.11.tar.gz
,iwlwifi-5000-ucode-8.24.2.12.tgz
, andiwlwifi-5000-ucode-8.83.5.1-1.tgz
work with my wireless adapter? What are their differences then? (5) I would like to know how to get a later driver. (6) Yes, my wireless interface became disabled after a while (a few hours or a day) after each restart. Often my wired interface and an external non-intel wireless adapter also became disabled at the same time. -
chili555 about 9 yearsI will edit my answer to answer these questions. If your ethernet and an external wireless device also exhibit the same symptoms, I strongly doubt this is an iwlwifi and firmware issue.