Arch Linux

matthew

Member

Registered: 2010-03-27

Posts: 3

Can I setup WPA wireless before installation?

I started using linux (ubuntu) about a year ago but I havn't used the command line very much yet. Is it possible to set up wireless with WPA before installing Arch? I tried to follow the Wiki on wireless and wpa supplicant, but when I ran "wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf" I got "-bash: /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant : Input/output error". Is it possible to set up WPA before installing so that I can use the network install?

cesura

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Tallinn, Estonia

Registered: 2010-01-23

Posts: 1,867

Re: Can I setup WPA wireless before installation?

I can set up WEP wireless beforehand on the live cd. Let me see if I can find something that might solve your issue...

Welcome to Arch

Last edited by cesura (2010-03-27 02:06:22)

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Mektub

Member

From: Lisbon /Portugal

Registered: 2008-01-02

Posts: 647

Re: Can I setup WPA wireless before installation?

I started using linux (ubuntu) about a year ago but I havn't used the command line very much yet. Is it possible to set up wireless with WPA before installing Arch? I tried to follow the Wiki on wireless and wpa supplicant, but when I ran "wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf" I got "-bash: /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant : Input/output error". Is it possible to set up WPA before installing so that I can use the network install?

I just did a network install using  wireless. I found these instructions posted by Zensonymous on a lenghty thread:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=626481

Resuming:

backup your /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Then modify your /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf in my case i deleted all example configurations except the first one and changed the ssid and psk to that of my WLAN.

Start the Wlan interface

ifconfig wlan0 up

You should now be able to scan for available Wireless Networks

iwlist wlan0 scan

Thats nearly it. Log in to another tty (Alt + F2) and start the wpa_supplicant.

wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -d

Go back to tty1 and dhcpd the wlan interface

dhcpcd wlan0

after dhcpcd is finished you should be able to ping any network adress

Mektub

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matthew

Member

Registered: 2010-03-27

Posts: 3

Re: Can I setup WPA wireless before installation?

Thanks for the quick replies! I'm a lot closer now, I can see my network when I do "iwlist wlan0 scan" but I don't really understand the tty thing. I used alt-F2 to switch from root to arch and then tried to run the wpa_supplicant but it got an error. Then I typed logout and went back to root and ran the same command. Now it seems like it's in a infinite loop and it says it's "Try to find non-WPA AP" but the only one it see's is my WPA network so then it says "No suitable AP found." and retries. Is there any way to make it break out of cycles like this?

brianhanna

Member

Registered: 2009-10-30

Posts: 157

Re: Can I setup WPA wireless before installation?

What wireless card are you using?  It sounds like you're very close but the card you're using may not have good WPA support?  Are you sure your /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf is set up right?

matthew

Member

Registered: 2010-03-27

Posts: 3

Re: Can I setup WPA wireless before installation?

Thanks. I figured out that I had just made a mistake when I was following the Wiki. I didn't really understand the line "iwconfig wlan0 essid [ssid]" and that's probably why it wasn't connecting to my network. I got everything working by following the wiki after I figured out that line (I was putting my network's name where it says essid and the pass key where it says ssid). I think that originally I had set up my wpa_supplicant.conf badly but now I think I figured it all out. Thanks!