Need help with wpa_supplicant configuration

**eraker** · 10-22-2006

I'm having trouble getting my ibook with debian (testing) to use my router instead of a random one that it finds in my neighborhood. I got it to work with my router with WEP pretty easily, but then I switched to WPA because WEP is apparently highly unsecure. Anyway, I installed wpasupplicant and then I read many* different pages on configuring it.

I want to use my router while at home then default to "any" when I go somewhere else (like school, which has a huge wireless network). I have concluded that I am connected to someone else's router because the command 'arp -a' gives me a different mac address than the router's actual address (confirmed by running the same command at a computer that is wired directly to the router).

The following are my wpa_supplicant.conf file and my network/interfaces file:

wpa_supplicant.conf:

Code:

# default ctrl_interface path
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

# my home WPA-PSK secured AP
network={
    ssid="home"
    psk="myPassKey"
    priority=4
}

### Associate with any open access point
network={
        key_mgmt=NONE
}

/etc/network/interfaces:

Code:

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet manual
        wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

I made them really simple because it was the only way it seemed to work. Does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?
__________________________________________________ ____________
*The following are the pages I read to teach me how to do this:
-man wpa_action, wpa_cli, and wpa_supplicant
--http://www.vollink.com/gary/deb_wifi.html
--http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/pkg-wpa/trunk/wpasupplicant/debian/README.modes?op=file&rev=0&sc=0
--http://hostap.epitest.fi/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/checkout/hostap/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/plain

**antidrugue** · 10-22-2006

The easiest way to setup wpasupplicant is simply to not set it up.

Use network-manager instead (which in turns use wpasupplicant).

For example, if you use gnome :

Code:

apt-get install network-manager-gnome

Then make yourself part of the "net-dev" group with the "vigr" and "vigr -s" commands.

IMPORTANT :
Once network-manager is installed, comment every interface in /etc/netword/interfaces except the loopback one.

Once it is done you can simply erase /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Then restart.

That's all there is to it : you will have a nice icon in the system-tray to connect.

Post back if there is any complications.

**eraker** · 10-22-2006

Alright. I've been fiddling with it for probably four hours total now. It's time to try something like this. I kept thinking I was so close to sorting it out, but it just keeps connecting to some other network without any complaints.

**eraker** · 10-22-2006

Regrettably, I couldn't get the network manager to work. I use xfce on this computer because it only has 128 mb of ram. I did go back to playing with wpa_supplicant and I got an interesting and new set of error messages. I'll have to post those later.

**antidrugue** · 10-23-2006

Originally Posted by eraker

Regrettably, I couldn't get the network manager to work. I use xfce on this computer because it only has 128 mb of ram.

I used network-manager in XFCE on Etch for a while and it worked perfectly.

What doesn't work exactly ?

**eraker** · 10-23-2006

Hmm. You know, I was thinking about this today and it occurred to me that it should work fine in xfce. I think I was sort of set on configuring wpa_supplicant so I didn't give network manager much of a chance. In addition, I think there was some conflict with wpa_supplicant. I'll try it again tomorrow and post back with any problems. Thanks again for the suggestion.

**eraker** · 10-24-2006

okay, I've been doing some research, and there are problems (1, 2 3) apparently getting wpa to work with wpa_supplicant for the ibook. Since network-manager relies on wpa_supplicant, I am assuming this is why it didn't work for me. I get error messages relating to it being unable to use the selected driver in both wpa_supplicant and network-manager.

Still, I think there must be something I can configure differently to get it to work. Wireless internet works fine under wep. It seems strange to me that it would be a driver issue that would prevent it from working under wpa. I'm going to try some of the suggestions listed at that first page.

**eraker** · 10-24-2006

bad news from the last post of that last page I posted the link to:
3 Weeks Ago:
"WPA is a no-go right now. You could get by with WEP."

**antidrugue** · 10-24-2006

Which iBook model is it ? Which network card (output of lscpi) ? Which driver are you using for it ?

**eraker** · 10-30-2006

I had the stomach flu for a week and I pretty much did nothing. I'm going to try to fix this this week.

The ibook is an old g3 clamshell from 2001. It's the original blue and white clamshell and it has an airport card in it. I'll get the output from lspci later today, but so far I've just tried the standard linux drivers with it. Debian always loaded the module just fine and I've never had trouble before I switched to wpa, so I thought that I should just use the default drivers still.

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