Atheros wireless cannot set access point to use

disi1 · 2013-09-18 08:38:07

I got this strange thing across distributions and thought you guys might be able to help me. It works with Ubuntu 12.04, doesn't work on Fedora 19, Debian 7.1 and Archlinux so far. All minimal installations without GUI, NetworkManager properly disabled etc.

Current distribution:

Linux XXX 3.10.10-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Aug 30 11:30:06 CEST 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux

# lsmod | grep ath
ath5k                 135660  0
ath                    15681  1 ath5k
mac80211              455139  1 ath5k
cfg80211              406112  3 ath,ath5k,mac80211

I can see the AP I want to connect to.

# iwlist scanning | grep ALOE
enp0s25   Interface doesn't support scanning.

                    ESSID:"ALOE_VERA_TEST"
lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

but whatever I do with wpa_supplicant, it never changes the setting for the SSID:

# iwconfig
enp0s25   no wireless extensions.

wlp20s0   IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

lo        no wireless extensions.

Current /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf:

# cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=DIR=/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel
update_config=1

network={
        ssid="ALOE_VERA_TEST"
        #psk="XXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
        psk=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
}

# wpa_supplicant -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -i wlp20s0
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
dbus: wpas_dbus_bss_signal_prop_changed: Unknown Property value 7

But it stays: Access Point: Not-Associated

//edit: I will try to downgrade wpa_supplicant (need to read up, how to do that with pacman ). Since there are no error messages, I believe it just doesn't work any more.
//edit: Ubuntu 12.04 has version 0.7.x, Archlinux and all the others tested/not working have version 2.x
//edit: The AUR package for the former version is nowhere to be found, this means I have to find a distribution which either provides the old wpa_supplicant with newer userland or an easy way to downgrade...

update: the same with CentOS 6.4, I tried another laptop (same model FSC Celsius H250) with the same result...

# wpa_supplicant -v
wpa_supplicant v0.7.3
Copyright (c) 2003-2010, Jouni Malinen <j@w1.fi> and contributors

Last edited by disi1 (2013-09-18 14:41:34)

DarkCerberus · 2013-09-21 08:46:49

Hi, Welcome to the Arch Linux Forums - first things first did you read the Arch Linux wiki site concerning Network-Manager https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network-manager & it might be wise to have a look here http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/NetworkManager/ for updated/outdated packages - since arch linux is a rolling release you should have been updated to the very latest though going on the gnome site and downloading the packages manually can also help if you've got the experience.

Pse · 2013-09-21 15:36:24

I realize you probably want to do this manually, but might I suggest Arch's own netctl as a lightweight, non-X11 solution for managing wireless connections? It does the job, and is simple enough to set up.

Edit: relevant link: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Netctl

Last edited by Pse (2013-09-21 15:37:26)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-09-18 08:38:07

Atheros wireless cannot set access point to use

#2 2013-09-21 08:46:49

Re: Atheros wireless cannot set access point to use

#3 2013-09-21 15:36:24

Re: Atheros wireless cannot set access point to use

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