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Bug Fix Advisory kmod-ipw3945 and kmod-ipw3945-xen bug fix update

Advisory: RHBA-2009:0243-8
Type: Bug Fix Advisory
Severity: N/A
Issued on: 2009-01-20
Last updated on: 2009-01-20
Affected Products: RHEL Desktop Supplementary (v. 5 client)
RHEL Supplementary (v. 5 server)

Details

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

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

Updated packages

RHEL Desktop Supplementary (v. 5 client)

SRPMS:
ipw3945-kmod-1.2.0-4.20.el5.src.rpm     MD5: c010473474bc1be855f4d68229c3e32a
 
IA-32:
kmod-ipw3945-1.2.0-4.20.el5.i686.rpm     MD5: b1ca1d2d088543f80c452455e8047ac3
kmod-ipw3945-xen-1.2.0-4.20.el5.i686.rpm     MD5: 7eba2c8647bb5f98a7f3aa0ef200a627
 
x86_64:
kmod-ipw3945-1.2.0-4.20.el5.x86_64.rpm     MD5: fd0dad9bd9d06572a16d56bff3db7753
kmod-ipw3945-xen-1.2.0-4.20.el5.x86_64.rpm     MD5: 6b01b26eb36e21926536f25ae8789151
 
RHEL Supplementary (v. 5 server)

SRPMS:
ipw3945-kmod-1.2.0-4.20.el5.src.rpm     MD5: c010473474bc1be855f4d68229c3e32a
 
IA-32:
kmod-ipw3945-1.2.0-4.20.el5.i686.rpm     MD5: b1ca1d2d088543f80c452455e8047ac3
kmod-ipw3945-xen-1.2.0-4.20.el5.i686.rpm     MD5: 7eba2c8647bb5f98a7f3aa0ef200a627
 
x86_64:
kmod-ipw3945-1.2.0-4.20.el5.x86_64.rpm     MD5: fd0dad9bd9d06572a16d56bff3db7753
kmod-ipw3945-xen-1.2.0-4.20.el5.x86_64.rpm     MD5: 6b01b26eb36e21926536f25ae8789151
 
(The unlinked packages above are only available from the Red Hat Network)

Bugs fixed (see bugzilla for more information)

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


Keywords

driver-update-program, ipw3945


These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat for security. Our key and details on how to verify the signature are available from:
https://www.redhat.com/security/team/key/#package

The Red Hat security contact is secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at http://www.redhat.com/security/team/contact/