Getting WPA Supplicant working

Forum: Networking
Topic: Getting WPA Supplicant working
started by: dslrgm

Posted by dslrgm on Aug. 31 2007,17:43

A must for me....

I have a D-Link PCMCIA card with the Atheros chipset.

The card is recognized no problem.

From the system menu it is not clear what to do for WPA. Searching around here, I tried:

/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

network={
ssid="Mynetwork"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=TKIP
group=TKIP WEP40
psk="MySecret"
priority=2
}

(this is what I have in my wpa config on my Centos based notebook and works).

Then I issued the command:

sudo wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iath0 -d -B -Dmadwifi

I see what looks like a successful authentication. with wpa_supplicant daemonizing.

But no dhcp?

I tried dhclient, but command not found.

What is this pump command I see used in some discussions?

Posted by curaga on Aug. 31 2007,17:53

It's DSL's dhcp client. Usage: pump -i ath0

Posted by dslrgm on Aug. 31 2007,18:06

Quote (curaga @ Aug. 31 2007,13:53)

It's DSL's dhcp client. Usage: pump -i ath0

oh.

I did that, and it failed. And afterwards, I did an ifconfig

and ath0 was no longer listed.

Posted by andrewb on Sep. 02 2007,23:27

Unless you definitely know your AP is using TKIP I'd change that to CCMP. I have a Netgear AP & it doesn't make it obvious in the documentation, but when you switch from WEP to WPA it changed from TKIP to CCMP (& there's no way of manually altering this setting on the AP.

Posted by infinitycircuit on Sep. 03 2007,16:00

wpa_supplicant by default uses WPA for entries in wpa_supplicant.conf. Just using:

network={
ssid="...."
psk="...."
}

should be sufficient.

Also try -Bdd for more debugging output when you run wpa_supplicant.

Posted by dslrgm on Sep. 05 2007,13:07

Quote (andrewb @ Sep. 02 2007,19:27)

Been off on other assignments. Getting back to this...

Hey, I configured the AP. It is mine. I helped write 802.11i; I was in the middle of the cipher-suite debate. And I can see from my Centos based notebook that TKIP is being negotiated.....

Some APs are REALLY dumb. The people doing the UI coding just don't seem to get it. But in part, it is a language thing. It is amazing for all we do in the standards to explain what MUST and SHOULD means, that this does not translate to working UIs.

And I cringe when a vendor tells me that, yes the eky MIBs are write only, per the PIC. Nothing in their UI software can read the content of the key MIBs. So they keep a copy of the keys elsewhere and that is what the UI is showing on the screen, because of course the user wants to know what the key is currently.... ARGH!

But on the gripping hand, this security stuff we make is COMPLEX. As Steve Kent (check out the editor/author of the IPsec RFCs amongst other things) said: "Bob, this IS Rocket Science." And users just don't want to be bothered to decide which security they want. Then there was JI with his Security Pixie Dust that he would sprinkle around the IPsec meeting when the debates tanked.

Well back to it.

Posted by setecio on Nov. 17 2007,18:08

I also wish I could sort this out in DSL 4.0 frugal.
I seem to have exactly the same problem with a Netgear WG511T (also atheros chipset).

DSL picks up the WG511T pcmcia card fine and it is able to scan and detect wifi networks (iwlist ap).

I use the simple /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf as infinitycircuit stated in previous post, replacing dots with my real SSID and PSK

network={
ssid="...."
psk="...."
}

Then in a root shell :

ifconfig ath0 up
wpa_supplicant -Bdd -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iath0 -Dmadwifi
pump -i ath0

..... but it just isn't working .... it seems to do exactly the same as dslrgm's problem.

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong or if my code is wrong ? Thanks.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 17 2007,23:25

Someone once posted that wpa_supplicant and pump don't always get along. I had success but then I used ndiswrapper with wpa.
Anyway, try assigning a static IP and see if you get further along.

Posted by setecio on Nov. 18 2007,10:10

Quote (roberts @ Nov. 17 2007,23:25)

Someone once posted that wpa_supplicant and pump don't always get along. I had success but then I used ndiswrapper with wpa.
Anyway, try assigning a static IP and see if you get further along.

I did try that but it still wouldn't connect.

I get exactly the same screen output that I got when trying a few months ago with with DSL3.3.

EDIT: remove images from 3 months ago to avoid confusion
Please see my updated thread attempting to resolve this issue.

< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....t=19378 >

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Nov. 18 2007,18:16

pump is for handling dhcp, not for a static ip (i.e. use netcardconfig). If you still want to use dhcp, make sure you are booting with "nodhcp" or do something like `killall pump` first.