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Shagbag

Member

Registered: 2006-10-25

Posts: 259

WPA problems with Belkin Wireless G Notebook PCMCIA Card [RESOLVED]

I have the above card plugged in to my IBM Thinkpad T40:

[root@thinkpad etc]# lspci
:
:
02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1520 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
02:00.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1520 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 81)
03:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)
[root@thinkpad etc]#

I've installed the rt2500 kernel module:

[root@thinkpad etc]# lsmod | grep rt2500
rt2500                177124  0 
[root@thinkpad etc]#

Everything is working fine except when it comes to WPA.

I can connect to the internet without any problems as long as I don't use WPA encryption.  As soon as I switch it on it all goes pear-shaped.

I'm sure it's got to do with my lack of knowledge with this card and WPA in general, but I've edited my /etc/rc.conf to include:

MODULES=(rt2500)
NET_PROFILES=(Belkin)

and set up /etc/network-profiles/Belkin as:

DESCRIPTION="Default Network Profile"
INTERFACE=ra0
HOSTNAME=thinkpad
IFOPTS="dhcp"
GATEWAY=192.168.0.1
DOMAIN=localdomain
DNS1=192.168.0.1
ESSID=ShagNet
IWOPTS="mode managed essid $ESSID channel 10"
WIFI_WAIT=5
USEWPA="yes"
WPAOPTS=""
AUTOWPA="yes"
PASSKEY="jfklajfd;lkajf;dsajf;dsjfk;lsajdfs"

Obviously that's not my real passkey but I have entered the exact text and checked it (I presume I shouldn't be entering the wpa_passphrase output??).

Can someone please point out to me the error of my ways as I don't like operating an open 'trousers-down' network?

Last edited by Shagbag (2007-04-09 15:53:16)

AlmaMater

Member

Registered: 2007-02-28

Posts: 97

Re: WPA problems with Belkin Wireless G Notebook PCMCIA Card [RESOLVED]

This is how I do it

pacman -S wpa_supplicant

then i edit the wpa_supplicant.conf  in /etc/  like this:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={
    ssid="xxxxxxxxxxx"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    proto=WPA
    #pairwise=TKIP CCMP
    #group=TKIP
    psk="myWPAkey"
}

Then i do a chmod 600

and then in terminal as root:

wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -iath0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
dhcpcd ath0

ath0 being of course my wireless interface

and i added those line to rc.local to automactly connect to my wireless network : )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i know is not the answer to your question, but its an alternative

Shagbag

Member

Registered: 2006-10-25

Posts: 259

Re: WPA problems with Belkin Wireless G Notebook PCMCIA Card [RESOLVED]

Thanks for the suggestion.  However, when I try it I get the errors:

[root@thinkpad ~]# wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -ira0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf dhcpcd ra0
ioctl[SIOCSIWAUTH]: Operation not supported
WEXT auth param 7 value 0x1 - ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCSIWAUTH]: Operation not supported
WEXT auth param 4 value 0x0 - ioctl[SIOCSIWAUTH]: Operation not supported
WEXT auth param 5 value 0x1 - [root@thinkpad ~]#

Any idea what they mean?

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: WPA problems with Belkin Wireless G Notebook PCMCIA Card [RESOLVED]

The rt2500 driver does not support wpa_supplicant, please try rt2x00-cvs from unstable instead.

James

Shagbag

Member

Registered: 2006-10-25

Posts: 259

Re: WPA problems with Belkin Wireless G Notebook PCMCIA Card [RESOLVED]

Thanks.  I tried rt2x00-cvs and followed the wiki for wpa_supplicant.  I can get it working now with a few commands but I can't configure things to work properly at start up.  I'm going to close this thread and make another one.  Thanks for everyone's help - I'm gradually getting there.

Shagbag

Member

Registered: 2006-10-25

Posts: 259

Re: WPA problems with Belkin Wireless G Notebook PCMCIA Card [RESOLVED]

I'm posting this as I've FINALLY got things working.  After experiencing a kernel panic using the rt2x00 driver (I've logged the kernel panic at www.serielmonkey.com) I tried ndiswrapper.  That was not good either so I went back to the rt2500 driver.  With hindsight, I should never have left the rt2500 driver.  After a lot of experimentation I got it to work.

I used the iwpriv command to configure things (instead of wpa_supplicant).  The missing piece was to run 'dhclient' afterwards.  I spent a good hour scratching my head wondering why it wasn't working after I'd entered all the iwconfig/iwpriv commands.  Then I tried 'dhclient' and that was it!  The final piece of the jigsaw was found and my Belkin card is now working.

Now I just need to learn BASH scripting to it initialise automatically at boot.