Installing arch with wireless

SiegeMachine · 2010-05-22 21:00:31

So I've been trying to follow the guide using wireless_tools and wpa_supplicant to get the wireless fired up on my other desktop computer. The computer is using a DWA-542 desktop adaptor from D-Link. It works nicely on my other desktop without any crazy drivers. Now I've been following the wpa_supplicant configuration on the wiki and I've come up with

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel
network={
ssid="Robot"
proto=RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=TKIP CCMP
group=TKIP
psk=xxxxxxxx
}

but then it says to do

iwconfig wlan0 ssid Robot

and it seems that this creates a wpa_supplicant file because when I try to do the next step which is for the passphrase thingy

wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.config

I get that error that the /var/run/wpa_supplicant/wlan0 file already exists and that I have to delete it. If I ignore the iwconfig wlan0 essid Robot step then I can do the wpa_supplicant command and then when I iwconfig wlan0 I get a mac address in the Access Point spot and it shows the correct ESSID as Robot. My only concern is that its saying Encryption Key:off when there is a passkey in the wpa_supplicant.config because my router is setup as WPA 1 with Passkey or WPA-PSK (also shown when I iwlist wlan0 scan). So the next step the guide says once the access point is associated is to dhcpcd wlan0 but then I get

Waiting for carrier
carrier acquired
carrier lost
waiting for carrier

over and over and over again and I'm wondering if the router is rejecting the computer because its not trying to use the passkey?

If anyone can spot something I'm doing wrong, or why doing iwconfig wlan0 essid Robot makes it that I can't wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.config afterwards would really make my day.... I'm about to just tear out all the cords and move it to the other room so I can just plug into the wire and set it up so that I can get wicd setup and then it should be ok to run on the wireless in the other room.

P.S. I don't know if this means anything but in windows when the computer boots the card connects to the router for about a minute and then for some reason it will disconnect and say no servers are available and if I do a scan no networks will show up and I have NO idea why it is doing that. The card is seated properly and my laptop can see all the networks around here its just that for some reason the desktop doesn't like the router or vice versa. Yes it is getting full signal as well.

Last edited by SiegeMachine (2010-05-22 21:02:06)

RobF · 2010-05-22 22:58:11

I'm not sure I understand all the ins and outs of setting up wlan for WPA-PSK in Arch any better than you do but I did have the same situation as yours, i.e. having to install Arch and set up wlan0 for WPA-PSK without access to a wired ethernet connection over which I could have pulled in wicd. I had installed a second instance of Arch on an external USB HDD, and that install was what I had to set up. Here is what I did and what worked for me (adapted to your situation):

0. In the Networking section of /etc/rc.conf put:

wlan0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(wlan0)
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"          (or whatever your gw address is)
ROUTES=(!gateway)

1. Get the psk passkey:

# wpa_passphrase Robot "your_network_key" > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

This will write your psk key to /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, i.e.
psk=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (some 60+ alphanumerical characters)

2. Then edit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf to fill in the rest:

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

network={
    ssid="Robot"
    proto=WPA
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    pairwise=CCMP TKIP
    group=CCMP TKIP
    #psk="your_network_key"
    psk=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
}

The proto=RSN suggested in the wiki didn't make sense to me, so I used proto=WPA, as I had done before.

3. Then

# ifconfig wlan0 up                  (bring up the wlan0 interface)
# iwconfig wlan0 essid Robot            (wait 10 sec for it to associate)
# wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf    (authenticate the connection)
# dhcpcd wlan0              (wait 10 sec to get an IP address)
# ping google.com          (you should be able to ping google now)

4. Once you have a wlan0 connection to the internet, install wicd. After you configure wicd from its GUI, you can comment out the four lines in the Networking section of /etc/rc.conf; they are not needed anymore.

I hope this helps.

SiegeMachine · 2010-05-22 23:54:26

Thanks a lot, I'll give that a shot. there's just 1 problem I have.

# iwconfig wlan0 essid Robot (wait 10 sec for it to associate)
# wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf (authenticate the connection)

Doing that gives me the wpa_supplicant is already running error and that I have to delete the /var/run/wpa_supplicant/wlan0 file. I'll try it with the rc.conf changes and see if that makes a difference or not.

firecat53 · 2010-05-22 23:56:26

I believe netcfg comes with 'core' -- it makes setting up WPA connections during install substantially easier, IMHO. Check out the wiki on it....

Scott

SiegeMachine · 2010-05-23 00:12:47

Ok so I get to the

dhcpcd wlan0

line and then it just sits there at

dhcpcd: wlan0: waiting for carrier.

My only issue once again is that after I fire up wpa_supplicant is that when I

iwconfig wlan0

it says

Encryption key:off

Another thing is when I

iwlist wlan0 scan

to get a list of networks, my network says for group cipher only TKIP not CCMP and TKIP like it has for the pairwise so I changed that but doesn't seem to make a difference in the end.

SiegeMachine · 2010-05-23 01:04:28

My biggest problem with not being able to set up the net is that I have the FTP Iso for arch linux so since I can't get the internet working I'm unable to get anywhere within the install program.

skottish · 2010-05-23 01:31:56

If your wireless device is supported by the Linux kernel, then the drivers should be on the install disc. You may need to install the proper firmware package.

As firecat53 already said, netcfg will make the process much easier. Once the drivers are installed, follow one of the netcfg examples to get things up and running. They're under /etc/network.d/examples. You'll want to put yours in /etc/network.d.

SiegeMachine · 2010-05-23 01:38:05

The net install cd doesn't have the netcfg package on it. At least that I can find

skottish · 2010-05-23 01:49:08

SiegeMachine wrote:

The net install cd doesn't have the netcfg package on it. At least that I can find

netcfg has been included on all Arch install installers for a long time. Assuming that the ISO or image that you're using is fairly recent, it should be there.

SiegeMachine · 2010-05-23 02:35:32

Yea I burned it yesterday and I mounted the CD but I can't find packages anywhere on the disk, when going through the installation you can select cd for packages location but it says /pkg/ doesn't exist!

hokasch · 2010-05-23 09:44:27

The pkg folder doesn't exist because you have the netinstall image... netcfg is included in the live system, no need to install it. But in your case I think it would be better to get more debug output with wpa_supplicant than setting up a network profile.

SiegeMachine wrote:

If I ignore the iwconfig wlan0 essid Robot step then I can do the wpa_supplicant command and then when I iwconfig wlan0 I get a mac address in the Access Point spot and it shows the correct ESSID as Robot. My only concern is that its saying Encryption Key:off when there is a passkey in the wpa_supplicant.config because my router is setup as WPA 1 with Passkey or WPA-PSK (also shown when I iwlist wlan0 scan). So the next step the guide says once the access point is associated is to dhcpcd wlan0 but then I get

Don't run "iwconfig wlan0 essid Robot". This is used for WEP connections and has nothing to do with wpa. You want to use wpa, so run wpa_supplicant only. As well you can ignore the EncryptionKey:off from iwconfig, it belongs to WEP and is perfectly normal to be "off" when using wpa_supplicant. Also, just because iwconfig shows you are connected to the AP doesn't necessarily mean you have successfully passed WPA-authentication.

Bring the wireless interface up with "ifconfig wlan0 up", then run wpa_supplicant as you did above. What is the output? Do you get an "CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to XX:XX:XX:XX:XX completed"? If so, switch to another terminal and run dhcpd. If there are error messages, you can follow up on them or post them here if you can't make sense of them.

Last edited by hokasch (2010-05-23 09:48:30)

dswann · 2010-05-23 14:31:54

Why not just install using Core?

SiegeMachine · 2010-05-23 18:36:49

Well yesterday when I ran the wpa_supplicant without the -B option it would say associating but then it would fail authentication and just keep cycling to that point. I'm not sure why its failing to authenticate for some reason, I think its more or my config options rather than a password error because I know my own password I'm on that network right now with my laptop.

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel
network={
ssid="Robot"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
psk=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
}

Thats what I have for the wpa_supplicant.conf on the other computer I'm trying to connect.. One question othough, when I iwlist wlan0 scan it says for Robot that group cipher is JUST TKIP and not both, does that make a difference to my config file?

SiegeMachine · 2010-05-28 06:43:10

Ok so skipping the iwconfig association command I tried this card in another computer while on the arch live cd using wpa_supplicant and I got it to connect just fine, yet in this computer (I think its the motherboard being a pain since without the harddrive being plugged in the card doesn't get detected for some reason) While running wpa_supplicant I'm getting a message that says

CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys

I think thats the biggest flag that I see popping up as it tries to connect. Any ideas?

hokasch · 2010-05-28 10:53:21

That's pretty unspecific. You could increase the debug level of wireless_supplicant, or turn of WPA in the router and try to connect with wep/no encryption.

SiegeMachine · 2010-05-29 05:29:17

Well its saying authentication failed but I can't figure out why its the exact same config file that works on the other motherboard lol this motherboard doesn't like this card because even in windows this card doesn't work properly and I can't find out why yet on my other 2 computers this card works absolutely fine, even with wpa_supplicant no problem

SiegeMachine · 2010-05-29 06:47:35

Ok I've found out that with the other motherboard the wireless card works not only in wpa_supplicant as well as windows and with wicd unlike the other motherboard (for a reason I can't fathom) My only problem now is that after fixing grub from mixing around hard drives the regular kernel doesn't seem to work anymore as I get to a point where it says "waiting 10 seconds for /dev/sda2" and if I boot the backup kernel it works fine and will load into arch no problem. I guess now my question is how do I fix the main kernel?

Arch Linux

#1 2010-05-22 21:00:31

Installing arch with wireless

#2 2010-05-22 22:58:11

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#3 2010-05-22 23:54:26

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#4 2010-05-22 23:56:26

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#5 2010-05-23 00:12:47

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#6 2010-05-23 01:04:28

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#7 2010-05-23 01:31:56

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#8 2010-05-23 01:38:05

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#9 2010-05-23 01:49:08

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#10 2010-05-23 02:35:32

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#11 2010-05-23 09:44:27

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#12 2010-05-23 14:31:54

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#13 2010-05-23 18:36:49

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#14 2010-05-28 06:43:10

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#15 2010-05-28 10:53:21

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#16 2010-05-29 05:29:17

Re: Installing arch with wireless

#17 2010-05-29 06:47:35

Re: Installing arch with wireless

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