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eduardosm

Member

Registered: 2011-02-26

Posts: 18

netctl fails to connect to a wireless network and does not give detail

If I try to connect to a wireless network (WEP, DHCP) using netctl I get "Jon for netctl@wlp2s0\x2dnetworkname.service failed." and two commands (journalctl -xn and systemctl status ...) that should give details about the error.
However, both of them give the following lines:

oct 05 14:44:25 laptop network[422]: Starting network profile 'wlp2s0-networkname'...
oct 05 14:44:30 laptop network[422]: Failed to bring the network up for profile 'wlp2s0-networkname'
oct 05 14:44:30 laptop systemd[1]: netctl@wlp2s0\x2dnetworkname.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
oct 05 14:44:30 laptop systemd[1]: Failed to start Networking for netctl profile wlp2s0-networkname.
oct 05 14:44:30 laptop systemd[1]: Unit netctl@wlp2s0\x2dnetworkname.service entered failed state.

Just one line saying that it was trying to connect and four lines repeating the same thing (connecting failed), but it does not give any detail at all.

The netctl profile is:

Interface=wlp2s0
Connection=wireless
Security=wep
ESSID=networkname
IP=dhcp
Key=\"hex-password

Last edited by eduardosm (2014-10-05 14:01:02)

MoonSwan

Member

From: Great White North

Registered: 2008-01-23

Posts: 881

Re: netctl fails to connect to a wireless network and does not give detail

Either this Key=\"hex-password was a typo when you cut & pasted that code or your issue is that you need a closing " symbol.  So your line should read:  Key=\"hex-password".

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: netctl fails to connect to a wireless network and does not give detail

Either this Key=\"hex-password was a typo when you cut & pasted that code or your issue is that you need a closing " symbol.  So your line should read:  Key=\"hex-password".

If you look at the netctl.profile man page, it explains some special quoting rules at the end.  The literal double-quote (or escaped double-quote) actually just results in a non-quoted string when passed from netctl to the underlying supporting software.  This is apparently necessary if the WEP key is in hexadecimal.