wpa_supplicant + laptop

martin_legion · 2011-03-27 11:10:17

Hello everyone. I'm new to Arch, bot not to linux.
Anyway I must say that I see now that I have relied too much in auto-configurable distros, and I find myself a little lost when I have to configure some things by myself-

I've just installed Arch on a Compaq Presario C700 laptop.
Wired networking works fine, but I'm having some trouble setting up the wireless.

I followed the steps indicated in the wiki for manual setup:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wifi

I managed to "connect?" to my home wifi... or I though I did.
After the last step:

dhcpcd wlan0

everything looked right, no error reported or anything, but I couldn't even ping google.com or my own router (192.168.1.1).
As I said, wired networking works fine, I have DNS and gateway correctly configured and working, so I don't know what I am missing.

I've read in this forum that someone had a laptop of the same series of mine (C700) working with madwifi. I haven't tried that yet. Do you think it will me mandatory to use madwifi? Can I first try to make it work this way? (the manual setup indicated in the wiki I mean)

Thank you!

Martin

martin_legion · 2011-03-27 11:16:03

I've installed madwifi and I think my driver should be ath5k.
I've read on the wiki that is the most apropriate for AR5xxx chips, (I have an AR5001)
Modprobing ath5k worked without any errors.
Yet, I still don't get any ping response from any host I try.

I don't know what other info anyone needs for a better diagnose...

Thanks!

zcid · 2011-03-27 13:43:22

Does iwconfig show you're connected? What was the output when you ran dhcpcd? Does your adapter currently have an address?

martin_legion · 2011-03-28 14:33:27

Sorry for the delay, I'll try again tonight and post the output of "dhcpcd wlan0" and "iwconfig"

Thanks

tomk · 2011-03-28 16:37:22

Remove madwifi - it could complicate things by conflicting with the ath5k driver.

martin_legion · 2011-03-28 18:54:05

Ok, here I go.
Without madwifi, with ath5k and wpa_supplicant. Here's what I do:

/etc/rc.conf

# ifconfig
I see no wlan0 device.

# modprobe ath5k
(no output)

# iwconfig
I see wlan0 is created. ESSID: 0ff/any, Mode: Managed, Access Point: Not-Associated

# ifconfig wlan0 up
(no output)

# iwconfig wlan0 mode ad-hoc
(no output)

# ifconfig wlan0 up
(no output)

# iwlist wlan0 scan
I see the access points near me. I see mine: Quality=52/70, Signal level=-58 dBm

# wpa_passphrase mywireless "secretpassphrase" > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
(I did this once with the correct key, of course)

Now here happens something odd:
# wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
ioctl[SIOCSIWPMKSA]: Invalid argument

If I ran the command again, it gives no output, no error, nothing...
# wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
(no output)

#iwconfig
wlan0 ESSID:"MyESSID", Mode:Managed, (what happened to ad-hoc?)

Ok, I guess there's something wrong here on, but I still continue with the steps:
# dhcpcd wlan0
version, waiting for carrier, carrier acquired, rebinding lease, acknowledged..., checking... leased..., forked to background...
Everything looks good, but...

# ping google.com
ping: unknown host google.com

# ping 192.168.1.1 (my router)
Destination host unreachable

My resolv.conf has two lines with google's nameservers, 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

I now see something I haven't noticed:
in /var/log/messages I see a bunch of messages like the one from dhcpcd but the final line says carrier lost, and then starts all over again.
carrier acquired, rebinding, acknowlegded, checking, leased, carrier lost........

Hope this helps

Thanks

AurosGamma · 2011-03-28 20:09:15

Take a look to this topic:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 61#p907561

I post there some steps to connect to a WPA/WPA2 wireless network.
Taking a look to your last comment, you have put on resolv.conf your primary DNS server corresponding to your router configuration(not the google's nameserver).
whatever, take a look to that topic and tell me if you have any problems

Last edited by AurosGamma (2011-03-28 20:11:01)

the sad clown · 2011-03-29 00:45:56

I noticed that your wpa_supplicant command didn't specify a wireless driver ( like "-D wext").

martin_legion · 2011-03-29 08:00:19

Thank you two for the replies.
I will check that post you linked, AurosGamma and see if it works.
You're right the sad clown, I forgot to use -D. ¿How can I know which driver to use o which are available?

Thanks

milomouse · 2011-03-29 09:40:52

well, to see what's available to wpa_supplicant just type `wpa_supplicant' without any arguments. there's a drivers: section in the output. in 2.6.38 wext isn't that great for me, you might want to try nl80211 if it's available, though your results may vary.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-27 11:10:17

wpa_supplicant + laptop

#2 2011-03-27 11:16:03

Re: wpa_supplicant + laptop

#3 2011-03-27 13:43:22

Re: wpa_supplicant + laptop

#4 2011-03-28 14:33:27

Re: wpa_supplicant + laptop

#5 2011-03-28 16:37:22

Re: wpa_supplicant + laptop

#6 2011-03-28 18:54:05

Re: wpa_supplicant + laptop

#7 2011-03-28 20:09:15

Re: wpa_supplicant + laptop

#8 2011-03-29 00:45:56

Re: wpa_supplicant + laptop

#9 2011-03-29 08:00:19

Re: wpa_supplicant + laptop

#10 2011-03-29 09:40:52

Re: wpa_supplicant + laptop

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