a few wireless questions

unregistered · 2008-05-01 14:50:50

1) how do i implement menu in the networks() line?
in the wiki it says:
In rc.conf set NETWORKS=() to menu.
so do i simply put NETWORKS=(menu) to give me a menu of network profiles to choose from?

2) for an open wireless network, do i still need the KEY="" field or can i comment it out?

3) what if i have a network on a different channel than 6, will it work if i copy the line in the complete.example and edit the channel # ?

4) am i correct to say that there are 2 main automatic ways to implement wireless networks in arch linux? one of them being profiles in /etc/network.d/ and the other being profiles in here: /etc/rc.conf/wireless-profiles/ as stated in the wiki here:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sam … ss_Profile

I've been experiencing wireless association failed problems but everything seems fine, i could connect to one wep enabled network occasionally(my take is signal problem) but not another open network, all my configuration seems fine except for the doubts i have above and i could connect to it manually using iwconfig and dhcpcd too, what do you think is the most plausible problem?

Last edited by unregistered (2008-05-01 15:14:36)

cemsbr · 2008-05-03 06:01:35

1) Moreover you should install netcfg and write your profiles in "/etc/network.d/" (follow "/etc/network.d/examples").

2) Don't need that. Use SECURITY=none

3) You don't need that line. But if you want to use it, just remove "channel 6".

4)
/etc/conf.d/wireless does not depend on netcfg. I don't know how it works, 'cause I'm happy with netcfg menu.
An open wireless example:

CONNECTION="wireless"
DESCRIPTION="Open Example wifi"
IP="dhcp"
ESSID="Example ESSID"
SECURITY=none
SCAN="YES"

I hate wireless networks. I loose connection a lot of times. Once it was easier (and more stable) to connect typing commands in CLI (I don't know why) and then I wrote my commands in a script and used PRE_UP to launch it. Here's the result:

# file /etc/network.d/FISL2008
CONNECTION="wireless"
DESCRIPTION="FISL wifi"
INTERFACE=wlan0
HOSTNAME=silverhawk
IP="dhcp"
ESSID="fisl"
SCAN="yes"
PRE_UP="my-wifi-fisl"

# file my-wifi-fisl
#!/bin/bash
# Notes about my computer:
# wlan0 is wireless through ndiswrapper module
# eth1 is wireless through bcm43xx module
# fisl is the essid
# 
# Clearing the house and reloading the wireless module
# that works better in this case
killall dhcpcd
ifconfig wlan0 down
ifconfig eth1 down
ifconfig eth0 down
rmmod ndiswrapper
rmmod bcm43xx
modprobe ndiswrapper

# keeps trying to associate with the AP (can take a while)
while [ -z "`iwconfig wlan0 | grep fisl`" ]
do
    clear
    iwconfig wlan0 essid fisl
    date
    iwconfig wlan0
    sleep 2
done
ifconfig wlan0 up
#dhcpcd wlan0

tomk · 2008-05-03 09:00:29

The 'Sample Wireless Profile' page is obsolete, and has been superceded by netcfg. I have edited it accordingly.

unregistered · 2008-05-04 02:19:04

3) yea, it was much easier for me to associate to the ap manually. for my netcfg profiles, how would netcfg know that the wlan is on channel 11 without the line, is it automatic?

4) my profiles were more or less the same as your example with the exception of the previous line and the 2 timeouts( 1 for dhcp the other for connecting to the network), i guess it must have been signal level problems then

cemsbr · 2008-05-04 14:29:36

3) It knows the channel by the essid.

4) My example? It has no timeouts. Yes, I also think there were another issues in the wireless network, that's because a lot of people were having the same problem.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-01 14:50:50

a few wireless questions

#2 2008-05-03 06:01:35

Re: a few wireless questions

#3 2008-05-03 09:00:29

Re: a few wireless questions

#4 2008-05-04 02:19:04

Re: a few wireless questions

#5 2008-05-04 14:29:36

Re: a few wireless questions

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