Arch Linux

df3n5

Member

Registered: 2009-04-08

Posts: 25

Unable to connect to AP with hidden SSID

On Arch x86_64 I'm having trouble connecting to an AP which is not broadcasting its SSID. I thought at first it was a WPA_Supplicant problem but when I try to associate with the AP using :

iwconfig wlan0 essid AP_SSID

and then do :

iwlist scan

I can't find the AP I'm looking for. I've tried connecting using WICD and via just wpa_supplicant but to no avail.

I have a iw4965 card and am using the wext driver with wpa_supplicant and WICD.

I had it working before I did a system update using wpa_supplicant and it was great but now something has gone awry.

Any ideas on where I could have went wrong? Hope that's enough info.

Thanks.

Sekre

Member

From: The Rainy North

Registered: 2006-11-24

Posts: 116

Re: Unable to connect to AP with hidden SSID

You'r not alone,
I have the same problem. Wen't over to my mothers house fired up my laptop and wpa_supplicant and all of a sudden I could not connect to her wireless which I thought was weird since my wireless worked with my own network as well as that in uni. Thought it might be related to wpa_supplicant since I could do

iwconfig wlan0 essid <ESSID>

and get ahold of it and see relevant information in iwconfig but could not recieve an IP with dhcpcd.

Couldn't find a solution though.
Atheros AR242x card in mine using wext driver.

df3n5

Member

Registered: 2009-04-08

Posts: 25

Re: Unable to connect to AP with hidden SSID

Sounds like a problem, I'm not convinced its a problem from wpa_supplicant.

I tried reverting to an older stable release of wpa_supplicant but still the same problem, if I use the -d option I get lot's of lines like this :

  
   skip - SSID mismatch
   skip - SSID mismatch
   skip - SSID mismatch
No suitable AP found.
Setting scan request: 5 sec 0 usec

with wpa_supplicant.conf :

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel

ap_scan=1

network={
        scan_ssid=1
    ssid="ESSID"
    key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
    eap=LEAP
    identity="username"
    password="password"
}

I've tried every combination of ap_scan and scan_ssid variables possible. I have no clue what the problem is.