19 May 2009 15:20

I finally managed to get a version of kernel/modules that work nice on my wireless card:

06:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)

I had problems since late Hardy or Intrepid, using different kernel from that time with no luck. The worst case was connecting to WPA2 Enterprise (user/password) secured network. In worst subcase, I had the connection for 5-20 minutes and after that the network card or driver hanged and then only computer reboot used to help.

I was used to see iwlist scan errors like "Resource temporarily unavailable" or "Busy". dmesg showed different things on different kernels.

My frustration was great, when the problem started (after some upgrades that meant to improve things) to appear even on unsecured network. The connection was broken and I had to notoriously reconnect with my NetworkManager.

Finally I found a version of kernel that plays well.

It's from jaunty-proposed repository (enable it in your Synaptic or other package manager). Don't use jaunty-backports (this one was only broken). The package that solves things is: linux-backports-modules-jaunty version 2.6.28.12.16. The install should also update the linux-image to 2.6.18-12 (update your grub.conf as usual to include the changes).

After rebooting, run uname, to verify the kernel version:

# uname -a
Linux vaio 2.6.28-12-generic #43-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 1 19:31:32 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

This is crucial here: 2.6.28-12-generic. The original Ubuntu kernel is 2.6.28-11 not -12.

Hope this helps someone (with VAIO SZ or any other Intel AGN-enabled notebook with Ubuntu).

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