Arch Linux

Grimn

Member

Registered: 2006-12-23

Posts: 136

Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

I have been trying for months to configure my laptop (uses ipw3945 driver) to use my college's network with wpa_supplicant and, later, with network manager.

My college's website has a wpa_supplicant configuration example:

eapol_version=1
ap_scan=2
fast_reauth=1

network={
   ssid="eduroam"
   scan_ssid=1
   key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
   eap=PEAP

   identity="user@fct.unl.pt"
   password="a_minha_password"
   
   phase2="MSCHAPV2"
   priority=2
}

I have tried this using a network-profile file along with 'network' in the DAEMONS() on rc.conf but didn't work at all.

Then I installed network manager and a KDE frontend and disabled 'network' in DEAMONS() for it to work correctly but when I try connecting to my college's network it doesn't show the 'WPA Enterprise' option so it seems it doesn't recognise it correctly (I also tried to connect to the network manually with networkmanager but didn't work either).

So it seems network manager and this driver doesn't work properly (I have seen other versions of the driver and network manager wirk correctly for this network in Ubuntu though) wich leaves me with no way to connect to my college's wireless network

I need to know if: for all that I explained previously, did I do something wrong? Is there a way to connect to a WPA Enterprise network using ipw3945 driver? How? Is netcfg2 an alternative? How to configure it to this network (I think wpa_supplicant file has enough information?)?

I am newbie in network configurations, specially wireless so please try to be as specific as possible or link to -good- howtos.

Thank you for your time.

blu3ness

Member

From: Edmonton, Canada

Registered: 2007-12-28

Posts: 169

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

why don't you try to use wpa_supplicant?

wiki entry at:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wpa_supplicant

Last edited by blu3ness (2008-02-29 17:25:09)

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Archlinux on Compaq Presario v5000 laptop

Grimn

Member

Registered: 2006-12-23

Posts: 136

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

Ok, maybe I didnt make it clear on my first post but I did try wpa_supplicant and didn't work

Edit: Also according to both the wiki and the wpa_supplicant webpage my driver isn't supportted O_o

Last edited by Grimn (2008-02-29 18:52:18)

blu3ness

Member

From: Edmonton, Canada

Registered: 2007-12-28

Posts: 169

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

did you try -Dwext?  My ndiswrapper didn't work but wext worked fine, you might want to try ndiswrapper and use your windows driver if that will help.

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Archlinux on Compaq Presario v5000 laptop

Grimn

Member

Registered: 2006-12-23

Posts: 136

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

I have no clue what you are talking about :?
And changing drivers? I only have trouble with this network, I would rather keep using a driver specific to my card (iwl3945 I think and this ipw3945) and not a windows driver x_x

Oh btw, thanks for your posts

Last edited by Grimn (2008-02-29 21:29:46)

MoonSwan

Member

From: Great White North

Registered: 2008-01-23

Posts: 881

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

The windows driver he's referring to would be specifically for your card but usually only loaded in windows.  The idea is to use a windows driver with a piece of software called ndiswrapper which fools the driver into thinking its being run on a windows machine...in reality you're using it in a linux environment.  A rather slick little bit of code imo that works well for problematic chipsets (a la Airforce-One card, from Broadcom, which is notoriously difficult to get working with a native linux driver).

Look on the wiki for Ndiswrapper and your chipsets driver there will be a page full of drivers and how to get them to work.

MS

Grimn

Member

Registered: 2006-12-23

Posts: 136

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

Ok but how is that related to my issue? My chipset has a linux driver so why going for a windows driver that needs a wrapper?
My problem is configuring because of the WAP Enterprise protocol which networkmanager seems to dislike highly.

MoonSwan

Member

From: Great White North

Registered: 2008-01-23

Posts: 881

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

Its relevant to your issues in-so-much as it may be worth trying a win driver + ndiswrapper to see if that might be easier to use/configure to work with WAP for your chip.  Certain cards, even with linux binaries available, still refuse to play nice with encryption...Broadcom's chips & RA Links are 2 of the worst offenders for this.  Because so much of the open source drivers around were written after their hardware and/or driver was reverse engineered, most (until recently) don't function with 100% of their capabilities as they might on windows.  As a result, its often the case that its just simpler to use ndiswrapper & the windows driver to get all your hardware to function.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

the windows driver won't help. the intel drivers are all capable at wpa, more so than any ndiswrapper crud.

It's a configuration thing.

Install netcfg v2, and the modify the wpa-config example in /etc/network.d/examples. There's documentation for netcfg2 on the wiki. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_Profiles

Grimn

Member

Registered: 2006-12-23

Posts: 136

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

Thank you both for your replies. I am trying iphitus ideia but am having trouble and the wiki doesn't have much info (not related to this issue at least).

ifconfig -a related to the wireless interface:

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:19:D2:1A:56:35
          inet6 addr: fe80::219:d2ff:fe1a:5635/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:12 dropped:1347 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:38366 (37.4 Kb)  TX bytes:3727 (3.6 Kb)
          Interrupt:16 Base address:0x4000 Memory:d8000000-d8000fff

lsmod | grep ipw:

ipw3945               200484  0
ieee80211              30664  1 ipw3945

sudo /usr/bin/netcfg-auto-wireless eth1

:: Scanning for networks                                                                                                      [DONE]
:: eduroam up  - Configuration generation failed: ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant                                      [BUSY]
ctrl_interface_group=0
Passphrase must be 8..63 characters

sudo netcfg2 eduroam

:: eduroam up  - Configuration generation failed: ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant                                      [BUSY]
ctrl_interface_group=0
Passphrase must be 8..63 characters

eduroam profile in /etc/network.d/:

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE=eth1
SCAN="yes"
SECURITY="wpa"
ESSID="eduroam"
KEY=<censored>
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT=30

I don't think this information in the profile is enough, doesn't say which WPA protocol uses, nor the user (in the WPA Enterprise case) so I believe the problem might be related to that lack of info in the profile. The wiki didn't have an example for WPA enterprise though

EDIT: Also my wpa_supplicant.conf is like the one on my first post with these aditional lines:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0

Last edited by Grimn (2008-03-03 09:51:53)

Grimn

Member

Registered: 2006-12-23

Posts: 136

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

Ok, with some help I managed to connect using wpa_supplicant and dhcpclient to get the ip.
I had 3 extra lines not commented on the wpa_supplicant.conf that I didn't notice before, one of them was to use the opensc engine:

#opensc_engine_path=/usr/lib/opensc/engine_opensc.so
#pkcs11_engine_path=/usr/lib/opensc/engine_pkcs11.so
#pkcs11_module_path=/usr/lib/pkcs11/opensc-pkcs11.so

So after I commented these lines the wpa_supplicant started to work. Unfortunely netcfg2 doesn't work yet:

wpa_supplicant did not start, possible configuration error

I don't understand how there's a configuration error in the wpa_supplicant since I can run it perfectly fine and connect.

I also changed the profile of the network on netcfg2 to use the supplicant:

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE=eth1
SCAN="yes"
SECURITY="wpa-config"
ESSID="eduroam"
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT=30
WPA_CONF="/etc/wpa-supplicant.conf"

Any clues on how to configure the profile so netcfg2 can connect to the network without problems?
Thanks

zenlord

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2006-05-24

Posts: 1,221

Website

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

Did you try iwl3945 instead of ipw3945? I know it should not make a difference, but it could rule out the driver-issue...

Everything else looks fine. There is an option WPA_OPTS="" with which you could pass on wpa options, but that's as far as my knowledge goes...

Zl.

Grimn

Member

Registered: 2006-12-23

Posts: 136

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

I found out the issue (or rather someone did for me ), I spelled wpa-supplicant.conf instead of wpa_supplicant.conf.

zenlord

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2006-05-24

Posts: 1,221

Website

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

ouch!

(don't worry - I've been there myself numerous times... )

Zl.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

Another thing... if you set wpa-config and don't specify a WPA_CONF, it should just default to wpa_supplicant.conf

Grimn

Member

Registered: 2006-12-23

Posts: 136

Re: Help configuring a WPA Enterprise network

Would have been much easier if I had not use the WPA_CONF
Btw, is there a way to make a netcfg2 profile without using the wpa-config (so people don't have to configure wpa_supplicant as well) to connect to a WPA Enterprise network?