Wireless configuration and startup - The Gentoo way

[UberLord]

I'll try to find where pauses are needed, but I'm at work at the moment which may make things more difficult. We have wifi, but I won't be able to verify picking the right AP as there's only one in range.

You won't be able to test that until I post my new version - which I can't do atm as my home ADSL/server is down

Hopefully I can bring it online when I get home tonight

[Tripwire]

This shows that you're not getting anything that the driver can understand. The link quality is 0 - which means you'll get nothing
Invalid misc:35 - means that it is getting something but the driver is not sure what.

Are you hardcoding the access points MAC address?

Nope. In fact the MAC listed for the AP is actually the NIC's MAC. Nothing is hard coded except the network ID. I'm using the same laptop with the same card on the same network right now under XP to post this message. But if I boot into Gentoo, 0 link quality.

I have confirmed the network ID (SSID) indeed is "Wireless", so I'm out of ideas.

Why can I see the network under XP, but if I do not change anything except booting under Gentoo, I cannot see the network. Even the position/locationh of the laptop is unchanged.

One thing that may be of point. iwconfig says sensitivitiy is 1/3 (one third of max, right?). Under XP I can connect but the signal strength is routinely very low (<20%).

Might it find things ok if I set the sensitivity higher? How do I do that?

[UberLord]

Try the following

Code: Select all

ifconfig wlan0 down
iwconfig wlan0 essid "dddd"
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig

The essid should now be "dddd" and the MAC address should be either FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF or 44:44:44:44:44:44

now do

Code: Select all

iwconfig wlan0 essid any
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig

Now, iwconfig should report the ESSID of the AP, it's MAC address and the signal quality. If this works, then don't panic - I have a new script to cater for this scenario.

If you're running DHCP you can now do

Code: Select all

dhcpcd wlan0

and you should have working network!

[UberLord]

I've just spotted that the wireless mode you're running is "Master". It needs to be "Managed"

Code: Select all

iwconfig wlan0 mode master

[Tripwire]

Try the following

Code: Select all

ifconfig wlan0 down
iwconfig wlan0 essid "dddd"
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig

The essid should now be "dddd" and the MAC address should be either FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF or 44:44:44:44:44:44

Ok... I'll try it..

now do

Code: Select all

iwconfig wlan0 essid any
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig

Now, iwconfig should report the ESSID of the AP, it's MAC address and the signal quality. If this works, then don't panic - I have a new script to cater for this scenario.

If you're running DHCP you can now do

Code: Select all

dhcpcd wlan0

and you should have working network!

I mentioned before that my driver does not support essid of "any".

I'll try this though...

Thanks!

[UberLord]

I mentioned before that my driver does not support essid of "any".

Try

Code: Select all

iwconfig wlan0 ap any

instead then

[UberLord]

New versions posted I've added some more configuration options as well.

[maj]

heh - i was just thinking about trying to write a script to connect to found accesspoints in a specific order - quite glad i found this!!

i only have one problem with it though - an access point name that i use has .'s in it - "rdg.ac.uk"...

Code: Select all

./net.wlan0 start
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 66: wireless_iface_rdg.ac.uk=dhcp: command not found
/sbin/runscript.sh: line 67: wireless_dhcpcd_rdg.ac.uk=-h minimaj -D -t 5: command not found

havent tried connecting to this access point yet as am at home and not on campus, script continues to run fine and connect to the access point at home though

cheers for it!


[edit]...

hrm have just emerged something and a load of errors appeared in the output regarding the above lines - for some reason it gives the error 3 times regarding both lines... meh!!![/code]

[UberLord]

i only have one problem with it though - an access point name that i use has .'s in it - "rdg.ac.uk"...

Hmmmmmmm

I'll see if I can fix this tomorrow. Now, I'm off for some fine food and some fine wine

[maj]

i only have one problem with it though - an access point name that i use has .'s in it - "rdg.ac.uk"...

Hmmmmmmm

I'll see if I can fix this tomorrow. Now, I'm off for some fine food and some fine wine

heh, you have your priorities well laid out! good call!

[Tripwire]

Try the following

Code: Select all

ifconfig wlan0 down
iwconfig wlan0 essid "dddd"
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig

The essid should now be "dddd" and the MAC address should be either FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF or 44:44:44:44:44:44

after setting the mode to managed instead of master, which in turn enabled the essid any option to work, I have gotten this far.

now do

Code: Select all

iwconfig wlan0 essid any
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig

Now, iwconfig should report the ESSID of the AP, it's MAC address and the signal quality. If this works, then don't panic - I have a new script to cater for this scenario.

If you're running DHCP you can now do

Code: Select all

dhcpcd wlan0

and you should have working network!

After waiting litterally about 5 minutes , yes it worked. Signal strength is not bad compared to what I usually get under XP (16/92 in Gentoo, 14-22% under XP)


So now all that is left is three things:

1) a way to automate things
2) a way to speed up the wireless connection (waiting 5 minutes is kinda nuts)
3) to find a tutorial on using an 802.11b nic in my server at home to act as an AP since I don't have the $$ to buy a full AP but can probably scrounge up enough for an OK PCI NIC.

Any help on any of those is greatly appreciated, as is your help to date!

[viperlin]

gonna try this tomorow with a friends WiFi card, set it up ok i think got his driver support added into kernel, fingers crossed

without the card in i get this in /var/log/messages
modprobe: cannot locate module ath0

not sure why though. i'll just hope for the best.

[Rhysem]

Got the newest script. I tried setting delay to "1", but it's not having. It tries and fails to associate with my AP. It does select "jbooth" now out of the list of APs available, but fails to actually make the association. It looks like it's forgetting to set the wireless key.

Well it selects it sometime. Found (in order): decrepid13, linksys, jbooth, Apt, #103, NETGEAR. Chose to associate: decrepid13. Should have chose: jbooth. This happened when I had iface_wlan0 set to dhcp (see below). When I unset it, it cleared up and started using (but failing to associate) jbooth.


It gets upset if wlan0 isn't loaded to start with, complaining iface_wlan0 isn't set. If you set it, it loads the module but doesn't actually start a darn thing.

[Rhysem]

Argh. Okay, found the "why it won't pick jbooth"

Reason is you changed the spelling of preferred to have two rs (like it should, I think). The old script wanted only 1.

[Rhysem]

The reason it won't associate is because the key never gets set during the trying-to-associate phase.

Add in the keysetting lines right after setting the essid in associate_wireless() and it works great.

(keysetting lines I used:)

setup_essid_env
$IWCONFIG $IFACE key ${key_IFACE} 2>/dev/null || {
if [ "${key_IFACE}" != "off" ]; then
ewarn "${IFACE} does not support setting keys"
fi
}

[viperlin]

for the Orinoco driver do i need to change all "ath0" to "eth1" or something? i wil not have my pcmcia network card in so will that make it eth0? (this could get confusing, i hope someone replys quickly so i can have it ready (bout 15 mins till midnight)

[Rhysem]

Added wlan0 to modules.autoload, put net.wlan0 as a default boot script and VOLA, I get net. :-)

Well, okay, I had to back off and reload the ndiswrapper module because it decided that this boot it didn't really want to be able to scan for APs. But after that and running net.wlan0 by hand, it worked!

Thanks for the help and the script. *woot*

[Rhysem]

for the Orinoco driver do i need to change all "ath0" to "eth1" or something? i wil not have my pcmcia network card in so will that make it eth0? (this could get confusing, i hope someone replys quickly so i can have it ready :-)(bout 15 mins till midnight)

Change ath0 to whatever the orinoco driver calls your wifi card. It'll list it in 'iwconfig'.

[viperlin]

for the Orinoco driver do i need to change all "ath0" to "eth1" or something? i wil not have my pcmcia network card in so will that make it eth0? (this could get confusing, i hope someone replys quickly so i can have it ready (bout 15 mins till midnight)

Change ath0 to whatever the orinoco driver calls your wifi card. It'll list it in 'iwconfig'.

thanks for that, i'm pretty sure it uses standard eth0 format, eth1 eth2, etc.

sadly this will clash with my normal network card settings and i cannot have 2 plugged in at once, oh well. i will just hope and work on it tomorow, i'll try and remember to post my results back.

[UberLord]

sadly this will clash with my normal network card settings and i cannot have 2 plugged in at once, oh well. i will just hope and work on it tomorow, i'll try and remember to post my results back.

No it won't.
I have ethernet and an orinoco card in my lappy.
Ethernet is eth0
Orinoco is eth1

There's no clash

[UberLord]

The reason it won't associate is because the key never gets set during the trying-to-associate phase.

You should never need a key to associate with the access point! At least, I don't @ home and work and both AP's have WEP enabled. WEP is purely for encrypting the traffic - not for association.

Besides, I can't do that for orinoco users as to get "any" essid to pickup an AP I have to set the key after the AP is found.

[UberLord]

i only have one problem with it though - an access point name that i use has .'s in it - "rdg.ac.uk"...

New versions posted which solves this problem!

See the net file for configuring this

[maj]

i only have one problem with it though - an access point name that i use has .'s in it - "rdg.ac.uk"...

New versions posted which solves this problem!

See the net file for configuring this

works brilliantly cheers, you update the net.ath0 script aswell? got the version on the site just now, changed name to net.wlan0 and it works better than before (removed all refrence to rdg.ac.uk from the files this morning, put my home and preferred essid into the correct var but it would only connect to rdg.ac.uk even though it saw the preferred AP)

yay!

[Rhysem]

The reason it won't associate is because the key never gets set during the trying-to-associate phase.

You should never need a key to associate with the access point! At least, I don't @ home and work and both AP's have WEP enabled. WEP is purely for encrypting the traffic - not for association.

Besides, I can't do that for orinoco users as to get "any" essid to pickup an AP I have to set the key after the AP is found.

My intel pro/wireless 2100 and linksys wifi/router disagree with you. I can successfully set the essid to jbooth. IWconfig then reports ESSID: "" and AP: FF:FF...

Set the key with iwconfig (without setting anything else such as essid) and then; ESSID: "jbooth" and AP: 00:06:...

It doesn't matter if I set the essid first or the key first, I don't pick up the AP's mac addy until such time as I have the key and the essid set properly.

FWIW, I have WEP required on the AP, not just "allowed".

[UberLord]

works brilliantly cheers, you update the net.ath0 script aswell? got the version on the site just now, changed name to net.wlan0 and it works better than before (removed all refrence to rdg.ac.uk from the files this morning, put my home and preferred essid into the correct var but it would only connect to rdg.ac.uk even though it saw the preferred AP)

yay!

So does it work or doesn't it? I'm confused
If it's not picking the correct AP, then post the wireless_* part of the /etc/conf.d/net and I'll have a look