Help with wpa_supplicant

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

I had my Netgear PCMCIA card set up via the madwifi instructions here:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=122435

but it started working only intermittently after a baselayout upgrade. I'd like to set it up via wpa_supplicant now. I've made the necessary changes to my router's config, and set up my wpa_supplicant.conf file like this:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
network={
ssid="network1"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="mypassword"
}

If I try to run wpa_supplicant manually I get:

system4 ~ # wpa_supplicant -w -d -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iath0 -Dmadwifi
Configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf' -> '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
Reading configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
ctrl_interface='/var/run/wpa_supplicant'
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
Priority group 0
id=0 ssid='network1'
EAPOL: SUPP_PAE entering state DISCONNECTED
EAPOL: KEY_RX entering state NO_KEY_RECEIVE
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state INITIALIZE
EAP: EAP entering state DISABLED
EAPOL: External notification - portEnabled=0
EAPOL: External notification - portValid=0
wpa_driver_madwifi_set_wpa: enabled=1
wpa_driver_madwifi_del_key: keyidx=0
wpa_driver_madwifi_del_key: keyidx=1
wpa_driver_madwifi_del_key: keyidx=2
wpa_driver_madwifi_del_key: keyidx=3
wpa_driver_madwifi_set_countermeasures: enabled=0
wpa_driver_madwifi_set_drop_unencrypted: enabled=1
Setting scan request: 0 sec 100000 usec
l2_packet_receive - recv: Network is down
Starting AP scan (broadcast SSID)
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'ath0' added
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'ath0' added
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b1a len=12
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b19 len=12
Received 0 bytes of scan results (0 BSSes)
Scan results: 0
Selecting BSS from priority group 0
No suitable AP found.
Setting scan request: 5 sec 0 usec
Signal 2 received - terminating

and it continues like that. Can anyone help me figure this out? I
can double up on the debugging output if anyone thinks it will be useful.

- Grant

UberLord · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:52 am Post subject:

Looks like it cannot find the AP

Ensure that it's broadcasting its SSID

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

Hi UberLord, thanks for all your help thus far.

I have this in my Netgear router's config:

Enable Wireless Radio: Yes
Enable SSID Broadcast: Yes
Fragmentation Threshold: 2346
CTS/RTS Threshold: 2346
Preamble Mode: Automatic

Does that seem right?

- Grant

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

I should also mention that I'm currently online with that other set of wireless instructions of your's with the router set to no encryption. It must be broadcasting right?

- Grant

UberLord · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 2:59 pm Post subject:

Try this wpa_supplicant config

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

YEAH! The output looks pretty damn good. The only thing is if I try to run '/etc/init.d/wpa_supplicant start' I get:

* Starting wpa_supplicant ...
* eth1 ...
eth1: unknown interface: No such device [ ok ]

The contents of /var/run/wpa_supplicant are as follows:

srwxrwx--- 1 root root 0 Mar 23 07:13 eth1

I think I need to get it to use ath0 instead. How can I do that?

- Grant

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

Also I don't seem to be able to reach the Internet. Here's the output without debugging:

system4 ~ # wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -iath0 -Dmadwifi
l2_packet_receive - recv: Network is down
Trying to associate with the:address (SSID='network1' freq=2422 MHz)
Associated with the:address
Trying to associate with the:address (SSID='network1' freq=2422 MHz)
Associated with the:address
WPA: Key negotiation completed with the:address

- Grant

UberLord · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:50 pm Post subject:

Why don't you try baselayout-1.11.10-r3 as it has wpa_supplicant support?

1) emerge baselayout-1.11.10-r3 and unstable versions of bash, sys-libs/readline and sysvinit
2) remove wpa_supplicant from the default runlevel

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

UberLord, YOU ARE THE MAN.

I'm using ~x86 baselayout, bash, readline, and sysvinit. I added what you specified to my blank /etc/conf.d/net and issued 'rc'. ath0 came right up. This is too great.

What does 'rc' do? Does it just make sure everything is running that's supposed to be running based on 'rc-update -s'?

Do I still need madwifi-driver and wireless-tools?

- Grant

UberLord · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:38 pm Post subject:

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

Damn. I rebooted to watch everything come up fresh, but now I always get:

* Starting wpa_supplicant on ath0 ... [ ok ]
* timed out [ !! ]

The only thing I changed before rebooting was upgrading sysvinit from 2.85-r1 to 2.6. I have since emerged back to the latter with no luck.

I've been doing all of this in 2.6.7, and when I to boot 2.6.11 I get an 'ath0 does not exist' error instead of the above. That's the same thing I was getting before I started working on wpa_supplicant. I'm not sure why those two kernels would have different configs for ath0.

- Grant

nichocouk · Guru Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 585 Location: Glasgow

Have you reinstalled the necessary tools against your new kernel? It looks like your drivers need to be recompiled:

UberLord · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:53 pm Post subject:

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

I've tried booting into 2.6.11, making sure /usr/src/linux points to the right source, emerging madwifi-driver and madwifi-tools, and rebooting but I get the same errors as before. Two of these are printed:

ath0: error fetching interface information: device not found

followed by:

ath0 does not exist

a couple lines later.

I've also tried booting into 2.6.7, changing /usr/src/linux to point to that source, emerging madwifi-driver and madwifi-tools, and rebooting but it does this as before:

* Starting wpa_supplicant on ath0 ... [ ok ]
* timed out [ !! ]

Running wpa_supplicant manually gives me the same output from my first post. What could the problem be?

- Grant

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

All of my packages and etc files are now updated and this problem persists. I have also unmerged all kernels builds, rm -rf 'ed them, emerged hardened-dev-sources (2.6.11), re-emerged madwifi-driver and madwifi-tools, and restarted, but the results are the same. Here is where I'm at:

system4 ~ # rc
* Starting ath0
* Bringing up ath0
* Configuration not set for ath0 - assuming dhcp
* dhcp
* ath0 does not exist [ !! ]

What can I do to make ath0 exist?

- Grant

UberLord · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:41 pm Post subject:

Add ath_pci to /etc/modules.autoload.d

You may need to add wlan_tkip (for wpa) and/or wlan_wep (for wep) *after* ath_pci

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

I do have ath_pci in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 and it always loads at startup without any errors.

system4 ~ # modprobe wlan_tkip
system4 ~ # rc
* Starting ath0
* Bringing up ath0
* Configuration not set for ath0 - assuming dhcp
* dhcp
* ath0 does not exist

- Grant

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

Make that:

system4 ~ # modprobe wlan_tkip wlan_wep
system4 ~ # rc
* Starting ath0
* Bringing up ath0
* Configuration not set for ath0 - assuming dhcp
* dhcp
* ath0 does not exist

- Grant

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

Here's what I'm getting trying to run wpa_supplicant manually:

system4 ~ # wpa_supplicant -ddw -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dmadwifi -iath0
Configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf' -> '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
Reading configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
ctrl_interface='/var/run/wpa_supplicant'
ctrl_interface_group=0
ap_scan=1
Line: 187 - start of a new network block
SSID - hexdump_ascii(len=

:
sensitive? network1
PSK (ASCII passphrase) - hexdump_ascii(len=

:
sensitive? mypassword
PSK (from passphrase) - hexdump(len=32): sensitive?
Priority group 0
id=0 ssid='network1'
Using existing control interface directory.
EAPOL: SUPP_PAE entering state DISCONNECTED
EAPOL: KEY_RX entering state NO_KEY_RECEIVE
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state INITIALIZE
EAP: EAP entering state DISABLED
EAPOL: External notification - portEnabled=0
EAPOL: External notification - portValid=0
ioctl[SIOCGIFINDEX]: No such device
Waiting for interface..
ioctl[SIOCGIFINDEX]: No such device
Waiting for interface..
ioctl[SIOCGIFINDEX]: No such device
Waiting for interface..

- Grant

UberLord · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 11:29 pm Post subject:

Everything you've posted says you don't have the correct kernel module installed

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

system4 ~ # dmesg |grep ath
ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
ath_hal: 0.9.14.9 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413)
ath_rate_onoe: 1.0
ath_pci: 0.9.4.12 (EXPERIMENTAL)

It was working 100% of the time before a baselayout update a while back, and about 50% of the time after that until I tried to change over to wpa_supplicant.

The problem seems to be with 2.6.11 grabbing the driver. I just fixed my /etc/make.profile link and 'emerge -pDu world' now wants to install linux-headers-2.6 for the first time. I'm hoping that, re-emerging madwifi-driver, and restarting gets this moving.

nichocouk · Guru Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 585 Location: Glasgow

Hello there,
I'm also getting some trouble with my wifi... I used to connect with just WEP 128 bit encryption and it worked fine. As I understand that WPA is better, I have configured my router for WPA with PSK. I mean that I have left all the settings regarding WEP untouched (so I still have a 128 bit key defined), and I enabled WPA with PSK (TKIP), and defined a lovely password (are there any forbidden characters in the password? it's all ascii anyway)
My problem is that I don't manage to connect now.

My wpa_supplicant. conf file is:

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

No such luck. Still getting the same 'ath0 not found'. What do I need to look at to see why that error is coming up? Everything is in place.

- Grant

grant123 · Veteran Joined: 23 Mar 2005 Posts: 1080

OK, the kernel issue is fixed. It turns out I didn't have any PCMCIA support built in to my 2.6.11. Sorry about that.

I'm back to the point where trying to start the net.ath0 daemon times out and running wpa_supplicant manually says there is "No suitable AP found." What can I do from here?

- Grant

UberLord · Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:44 am Post subject:

Ensure that your AP is broadcasting it's SSID.

Also, if you have wireless-tools installed, check if it can find it