wpa_passphrase trouble (both parts SOLVED)

market · 2010-09-02 19:00:17

wpa_passphrase won't generate a key if the ESSID has a space in the name.

For example:

wpa_passphrase Namewith Aspace "secretpassphrase" > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

It outputs into the file:

Passphrase must be 8..63 characters

I don't have access to change the router's name.
Do I need to insert a special character between the two words or do something else instead?

Last edited by market (2010-09-02 21:46:08)

skanky · 2010-09-02 19:23:16

There's two things that should work:

1) Put the ESSID in quotes - "MY ESSID"
2) Escape the space - MY\ ESSID

market · 2010-09-02 19:45:58

Thanks, that worked and will be useful in other terminal problems I've had.
But now I have a new problem when I try to connect.
After I added the settings required for WPA2, I used the following command:

iwconfig wlan0

The ESSID was there but the Access Point was not associated.
And when I tried connecting with:

dhcpcd wlan0

My results are:

dhcpcd: wlan0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd: wlan0: carrier acquired
dhcpcd: wlan0: carrier lost
dhcpcd: wlan0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd: wlan0: carrier acquired
dhcpcd: wlan0: carrier lost

It repeats until it times out.

I've been able to connect to the router when there used to be no encryption on my earlier installs so I think my /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf settings are wrong.

network={
          ssid="thessid"
          proto=RSN
          key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
          pairwise=CCMP TKIP
          group=CCMP TKIP
          #psk="thepassword"
          psk=generatedkey
}

I also tried waiting for the association to happen before using the dhcpcd command but it never does.

Last edited by market (2010-09-02 19:48:01)

skanky · 2010-09-02 20:15:00

What command are you issuing to make the connection, and what is it returning?

.:B:. · 2010-09-02 20:34:33

$ wpa_passphrase 
usage: wpa_passphrase <ssid> [passphrase]

If passphrase is left out, it will be read from stdin

Try what the app suggests . If you do it with stdin, you don't need any quotes - single or double - to escape special characters.

market · 2010-09-02 21:45:51

I had to do something else for a little while and when I booted into the live Arch session again, I performed the same commands (they were the ones exactly from the beginners' guide by the way Sanky) and it worked this time for whatever the reason. Thanks for the help and also to .:B:. for reminding me of the powers of stdin.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-02 19:00:17

wpa_passphrase trouble (both parts SOLVED)

#2 2010-09-02 19:23:16

Re: wpa_passphrase trouble (both parts SOLVED)

#3 2010-09-02 19:45:58

Re: wpa_passphrase trouble (both parts SOLVED)

#4 2010-09-02 20:15:00

Re: wpa_passphrase trouble (both parts SOLVED)

#5 2010-09-02 20:34:33

Re: wpa_passphrase trouble (both parts SOLVED)

#6 2010-09-02 21:45:51

Re: wpa_passphrase trouble (both parts SOLVED)

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