Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

Ethilien · 2006-01-21 20:14:32

I've been fooling around trying to get the wireless working on my arch machine, and since I couldn't figure out how to use the wireless profiles, I just tried using iwconfig to do it manually.

I successfully set the essid, but when I try to set the key, it gives me this error:

Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A)  :
Set failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

The command I tried when it gave me this was:

iwconfig wlan0 key restricted [1] 11111111111111111111111111

My network has a 128 bit wep encryption key (that isn't it), but I couldn't find any examples of how you enter the key. I use hex for it, but it still doesn't work.

I'm sure there is something incredibly simple I'm missing here, but I have no idea what it is. Any help is greatly appreciated

tomk · 2006-01-21 23:38:04

Post your wifi card make and model, and the driver you're trying to use.

Ethilien · 2006-01-22 03:36:18

I'm really not certain what the model/make of the wireless adapter is since its built into the laptop (a Toshiba satellite pro 6000), and I'm having an extremely hard time finding any information on its hardware.

From what I can figure out, it uses and orinoco chipset, and the driver was auto detected, but I think its using the orinoco_cs driver with pcmcia. If I run:

lsmod | grep orinoco
orinoco_cs
orinoco                       orinoco_cs
hermes                       orinoco_cs,orinoco
pcmcia                        orinoco_cs,hostap_cs

I don't know if that will help, but its about all I can find out.

Sorry I'm so inexperienced with linux

luca · 2006-01-22 07:45:59

Hi Ethilien,
try to use this command:

iwconfig wlan0 key restricted <wep_key>

where <wep_key> is your encryption key.
The term "restricted" means that your access-point is configured to accept only encrypted sessions.
Try also this:

iwconfig wlan0 key <wep_key>

For any error messages see /var/log/messages

Ethilien · 2006-01-22 21:37:22

Sorry, but that doesn't work either. I don't thing the key is supposed to be enclosed in <>.

It gives me this error:

iwconfig wlan0 key restricted [1] <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'

Here's the output if iwconfig, in case that will help. I just tried setting the key on wifi0 instead of on wlan0, but that gave the same error.

lo        no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wifi0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"xxxxx"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.457 GHz  Access Point: 44:44:44:44:44:44
          Bit Rate:2 Mb/s   Sensitivity=1/3
          Retry limit:4   RTS thr:off
          Power Management:off

wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"xxxxx"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.457 GHz  Access Point: 44:44:44:44:44:44
          Bit Rate:2 Mb/s   Sensitivity=1/3
          Retry limit:4   RTS thr: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:1   Missed beacon:0

tomk · 2006-01-22 21:48:05

This guy had a similar problem - see if that helps.

Ethilien · 2006-01-22 23:31:38

Hmmm, now hwdetect seems to be ignoring the blacklist. I changed that line to:
MOD_BLACKLIST=(hostap hostap_cs)
in rc.conf

But when I run lsmod, they still appear, even after rebooting several times...

phrakture · 2006-01-23 00:47:28

why do you have [1] in there - remove that

Ethilien · 2006-01-23 02:59:48

The [1] is specifying the index for the key. I guess that isn't necessary, but even when I remove it, it still gives me the same error.

Could this whole thing be caused if my wireless card isn't being properly detected? How would I check to see if it is?

Thanks for everyone's help so far

luca · 2006-01-23 19:52:59

Hi Ethilien,
post the output of this command:

lspci

If you don't have this command, install the package pciutils:

pacman -S pciutils

Ethilien · 2006-01-24 04:12:04

00:00.0 Host bridge: ALi Corporation M1644/M1644T Northbridge+Trident (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ALi Corporation PCI to AGP Controller
00:02.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
00:04.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c3)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 01)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV]
00:08.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 Power Management Controller [PMU]
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 0d)
00:10.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
00:11.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 32)
00:11.1 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 32)
00:12.0 System peripheral: Toshiba America Info Systems SD TypA Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XPAi1 (rev 82)

I believe the ethernet pro is the wired network, not the wireless...

luca · 2006-01-24 16:49:51

Is it possible that your wireless card is a pcmcia card?
Post the output of this command:

cardctl ident

Ethilien · 2006-02-06 21:03:13

Sorry its taken me so long to get back on this, thanks for all your help so far

For some reason I don't have cardctl, and I can't seem to figure out what package its in

However when I had ubuntu installed on here, I ran cardctl and it showed up as pcmcia, so I suppose it is one

Arch Linux

#1 2006-01-21 20:14:32

Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#2 2006-01-21 23:38:04

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#3 2006-01-22 03:36:18

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#4 2006-01-22 07:45:59

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#5 2006-01-22 21:37:22

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#6 2006-01-22 21:48:05

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#7 2006-01-22 23:31:38

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#8 2006-01-23 00:47:28

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#9 2006-01-23 02:59:48

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#10 2006-01-23 19:52:59

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#11 2006-01-24 04:12:04

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#12 2006-01-24 16:49:51

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

#13 2006-02-06 21:03:13

Re: Invalid Argument when setting wep key with iwconfig

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