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Recrof

Member

Registered: 2006-09-30

Posts: 12

Can't get WPA wireless working.

I've searched through many threads and read up on Wiki and while doing that has helped me get this far, I'm still unable to connect to my wireless router.

When booting up it gives me the following after waiting for several seconds with [BUSY]:

Starting Network Profile: eth2 [FAIL]
Starting Network  [FAIL]

The computer in question is a Sony Vaio VGN-FE770G which has an Intel Pro/Wireless 3945AGB and I'm am using the ipw3945 driver for it. It can scan for access points with no problems & I'm also able to connect to the internet using the old fashion but reliable ethernet cable.

I'm using dhcp & WPA with mac address filtering with a Linksys WRT54GS wireless router. The wireless signal is currently not hidden.

Here's my /etc/rc.conf

LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
TIMEZONE="USCentral"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"

MOD_BLACKLIST=()

MODULES=(ipw3945)

USELVM="no"

HOSTNAME="Io"
lo="lo 127.0.0.1"
INTERFACES=(lo eth0 eth2)
eth0="dhcp"
eth2="dhcp"

NET_PROFILES=(eth2)

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng !hotplug !pcmcia ipw3945d hwd network netfs crond)

my /etc/network-profiles/eth2

DESCRIPTION="Wireless Profile"

INTERFACE=eth2
HOSTNAME=Io

#IFOPTS="192.168.0.104 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
IFOPTS="dhcp"
#GATEWAY=192.168.1.1

ESSID=Labyrinth
IWOPTS="mode managed essid $ESSID"

#WIFI_INTERFACE=eth2

WIFI_WAIT=3
DRIVER=ipw3945
USEWPA="yes"
WPAOPTS="-D ipw"

/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

update_config=1
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

network={
        ssid="Labyrinth"
        scan_ssid=1
        psk="Passkey Removed For Forums"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        proto=WPA
        pairwise=TKIP
        group=TKIP
}

/etc/conf.d/wireless

WLAN_INTERFACES=(eth2)
wlan_eth2="eth2 essid Labyrinth"

These are the only files I know to work with & have modified.

iwconfig

iwconfig
lo             no wireless extensions.

eth0         no wireless extensions.

eth1         no wireless extensions.

eth2        unassociated ESSID:"Labyrinth"
              Mode: Managed  Frequency=nan kHz Access Point: Not-Associated
              Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power:16 dBm
              Retry limit:15   RTS thr:off    Fragment thr:off
              Encryption key:off
              Power Management:off
              Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
              Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
              Tx excessive retries:0   Invalid misc:409 Missed beacon:0

This is my first time dealing with wireless and I have no idea what to do next or if I've done too much, etc.. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

toxic

Member

Registered: 2006-06-05

Posts: 117

Re: Can't get WPA wireless working.

Well, to finger the problem might be somewhat harder with scattered configuration files. My recomendations are that you only have INTERFACES=(lo eth0), NET_PROFILES=(profile_name) in rc.conf, then keep all your settings in your profile.

Also, the information you have in /etc/conf.d/wireless is another redundant source, preferably you uncomment it's comment and put that as well in /etc/network-profiles/eth2.
This way you can easily see if you have defined excess information.

toxic

Member

Registered: 2006-06-05

Posts: 117

Re: Can't get WPA wireless working.

WPAOPTS="-D ipw" 

is for wpa_supplicant. You can try the generic driver

WPAOPTS="-D wext"

Then you should probably add a channel to your iwopts

IWOPTS="mode managed essid $ESSID channel $CHAN

Also make sure to ask dhcp specifically to fetch an IP address from your wlan interface: dhcpcd eth2.

Recrof

Member

Registered: 2006-09-30

Posts: 12

Re: Can't get WPA wireless working.

Thanks! I got it working by doing what you said.

You = awesome .

jakob

Member

From: Berlin

Registered: 2005-10-27

Posts: 419

Re: Can't get WPA wireless working.

As far as `man iwconfig` says, defining a channel might be a disadvantage e.g. if you're sitting at your university and have more Access Points available. Defining a channel would bind you to these certain APs who use the channel. Omitting a channel, the driver will automatically associate with the AP giving the strongest link...

toxic

Member

Registered: 2006-06-05

Posts: 117

Re: Can't get WPA wireless working.

defining a channel might be a disadvantage

Well, if there are many Access points who share the same ESSID then a small script like this might be useful to automatically associate with the strongest AP.