[SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

Bapman · 2008-03-08 01:34:54

Hey there,

I have a little problem configuring my network-profiles (netcfg2) for my wifi network. I have put this :

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE=wlan0
SCAN="yes"
SECURITY="wpa"
ESSID="103"
KEY="5221c725e59e7c5fb844b5136d593510f74261b39e9d95f7cdbc3bf5bf7afc35"
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT=20

I have changed some characters in the key in the case you are my neighbor !

And I get this :

Configuration generation failed: ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
Passphrase must be 8..63 characters

What is weird is that it works flawlessly under Windows (WPA+TKIP configuration) whereas there are still 64 characters in the key.

Thanks for help !

Last edited by Bapman (2008-03-12 01:54:04)

synthead · 2008-03-08 08:05:33

I'm sorry, I don't have much to contribute, but I cracked up pretty good when I saw your password

I have changed some characters in the key in the case you are my neighbor !

bwahahahaha!

Bapman · 2008-03-08 17:08:40

Last edited by Bapman (2008-03-08 17:09:34)

finferflu · 2008-03-08 17:11:27

Try removing the quotes from the key.

.:B:. · 2008-03-08 17:27:47

I think the error message is pretty unequivocal. So what do you do? Be stubborn, or comply?

I know what you should do...

Bapman · 2008-03-09 19:16:42

It's not that simple, I can't change the key by now. I will have to wait my roomate to return.

Plus when I will ask to remove one character because it doesn't work under Linux but works under Windows, he will say that Linux sucks ! I know this is not true, but when people see small problems like that, they don't want to try Linux and verify by their own !

I've tried without ". Doesn't work but thanks

finferflu · 2008-03-09 19:22:24

That's odd, I had this problem when helping out a friend, and when I removed the quotes it just worked, even though that was with wpa_supplicant I realise...

.:B:. · 2008-03-09 20:25:54

Bapman wrote:

It's not that simple, I can't change the key by now. I will have to wait my roomate to return.

OK.... I didn't realise you weren't the 'sole ruler' on this network. Makes it difficult indeed.

Plus when I will ask to remove one character because it doesn't work under Linux but works under Windows, he will say that Linux sucks ! I know this is not true, but when people see small problems like that, they don't want to try Linux and verify by their own !

Are you trying to convince him to run Linux? I had my period of missionary enthusiasm... I know better now, most people are just fine with Windows and the daily clobbering, if only because that's what they know.

I've tried without ". Doesn't work but thanks

The double quotes can be replaced with single quotes as well, that wouldn't matter. It's just a way to tell the shell 'look that's the value i give to my variable don't act odd when you find some special characters'. That only goes for a space and stuff, '' can handle anything (except ' of course ).

How did you generate the key on Linux? did you copy it verbatim from the Windows one? Or did you recode it using wpa_passphrase that wpa_supplicant provides you with?

Bapman · 2008-03-10 02:37:47

I try to convince everyone I know that Linux is at least as good as Windows... but for free ! Unfortunately, my roomate is a gamer, so it is a big problem !

I directly put the key from Windows ! I did not know there was a change to do. I will look at wpa_passphrase. Thanks !

jbromley · 2008-03-10 08:18:36

I believe what is happening is you are entering the passkey (WPA PSK) when you really want to enter the passphrase. What's the difference? The passphrase must be 8-63 characters and is generally what one considers to be a password. The passkey is a 64-character (256-bit) hexadecimal number that is generated from your ESSID and your passphrase. You can do man wpa_passphrase to get more information on this.

So, you have the passkey PSK, but when you use KEY="..." with netcfg2, it thinks you are giving it a passphrase with the mentioned limits. Netcfg2 then goes off to generate the PSK itself. You either need to find the passphrase (there may not be one if your PSK was generated directly) or you need to figure out how to get netcfg2 to directly accept a PSK.

I briefly scanned the scripts for netcfg2 and it seems there is no way to pass the PSK directly to netcfg2. However it seems that you should be able to manually configure a wpa_supplicant.conf with your PSK and then use the line

SECURITY="wpa-config"

in the network profile you are using instead of configuring the KEY variable directly. It is a little bit messier, since you now have to maintain a wpa_supplicant.conf file, but it may be just what you needed.

Regards,
j

.:B:. · 2008-03-10 20:37:32

I am still using good ole netcfg (mainly because I don't need anything from netcfg 2, and because I don't bother to try to get it working), and I have it use wpa_supplicant directly.

Bapman · 2008-03-11 01:06:51

Hi thanks for the help but I can't have it work !

Now I get a new error from net-profiles :

wpa_supplicant did not start, possible configuration error

My /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf :

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={
        ssid="103"
        scan_ssid=1
        psk="it's a secret to everybody"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        proto=WPA
        pairwise=TKIP
        group=TKIP
        priority=9
}

I've also tried :

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={
        ssid="103"
        scan_ssid=1
        psk="it's a secret to everybody"
        priority=9
}

jbromley · 2008-03-11 04:12:58

OK, assuming that 64-character thing you have is really the PSK and not the passphrase, you should not put quotes around it in the wpa_supplicant.conf file. Using quotes makes wpa_supplicant think you are entering a passphrase, which is exactly what we don't want. To see how this should work take a look at my wpa_supplicant.conf (psk changed, of course):

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

network={
    ssid="Obatala"
    proto=WPA
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    pairwise=TKIP
    group=TKIP
    psk=84757b01c0b2f340569199ae075ee014b3dbc630c206384952d0e935e3164b42
    priority=9
}

In particular, note that the PSK is not in quotes. This is how wpa_supplicant knows it is the real PSK. I note that you used quotes around the PSK in all cases.

Here's the profile I use in /etc/network.d/home-wifi-wpa:

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE=eth1
SCAN="yes"
ESSID="Obatala"
SECURITY="wpa-config"
WPA_CONF="/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT=20

It seems kind of bogus that you have to specify the ESSID in the profile and in wpa_supplicant.conf, but it's a minor nit. I would recommend creating your wpa_supplicant.conf file and then testing it by hand using something like the following:

wpa_supplicant -B -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -ieth1 -Dwext 
dhcpcd eth1

in these two commands, be sure to replace eth1 with your wireless interface and use the appropriate driver after -D. Once you are sure that is working, then configure netcfg2 with a profile similar to the one I show above.

Good luck.
j

Last edited by jbromley (2008-03-11 04:32:06)

Bapman · 2008-03-12 01:53:25

Yeah ! It finally worked ! Thank you very much j !

Arch Linux

#1 2008-03-08 01:34:54

[SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#2 2008-03-08 08:05:33

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#3 2008-03-08 17:08:40

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#4 2008-03-08 17:11:27

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#5 2008-03-08 17:27:47

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#6 2008-03-09 19:16:42

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#7 2008-03-09 19:22:24

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#8 2008-03-09 20:25:54

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#9 2008-03-10 02:37:47

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#10 2008-03-10 08:18:36

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#11 2008-03-10 20:37:32

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#12 2008-03-11 01:06:51

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#13 2008-03-11 04:12:58

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

#14 2008-03-12 01:53:25

Re: [SOLVED] WPA Passphrase too long ?!?

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