RHBA-2009:0243 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated kmod-ipw3945 and kmod-ipw3945-xen packages that fix various bugs
are now available.

Description

kmod-ipw3945 and kmod-ipw3945-xen are third party drivers for ipw3945
wireless chipsets.

These updated packages provide the following bug fixes:

• Certain 802.11-equipped laptop computers have physical switches for

turning their built-in wireless cards on or off. The kmod-ipw3945 drivers
were not detecting this switch in some instances. Consequently, if the
switch was set to off, the system would hang during boot when the driver
attempted to initialize the wireless card. This updated package includes
changes that ensures that the switch will be correctly detected and the
system will boot normally if the physical switch is set to off.

• Attempting to install the kmod-ipw3945 package during system installation

would fail due to a missing dependency on the package "rpm". In this
updated package, rpm has been added as a dependency of kmod-ipw3945,
resolving this issue.

• An issue arose with having both the new iwl3945 in-kernal driver and the

legacy ipw3945 driver functional at once. To correct this issue, a
condition has been set within these updated packages so that if
kmod-ipw3945 is installed then iwl3945 is not used.

• ipw3945 would inconsistently find and connect to networks with

non-broadcasting Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs). Corrected in this update,
ipw3945 now allows for the use of hidden networks via the scan capabilities
extension.

• The changelog for kmod-ipw3945 expressed the release as 4.19 when it

should have been 4.18. This documentation bug has been corrected with these
updated packages.

Users of kmod-ipw3945 and kmod-ipw3945-xen packages are advised to upgrade
to these updated packages, which resolve these issues.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use
the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 405501 - ipw3945d hangs when the wireless switch is turned on
• BZ - 466925 - NM is inconsistently able to find non-broadcasting SSIDs
• BZ - 467068 - need to have either iwl or ipw3945 blacklisted

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)