From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1QDz8u-00068a-Oo for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 24 Apr 2011 13:14:28 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id AA71EE0517; Sun, 24 Apr 2011 13:12:51 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-wy0-f181.google.com (mail-wy0-f181.google.com [74.125.82.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 427A9E0517 for ; Sun, 24 Apr 2011 13:12:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wyi11 with SMTP id 11so1636869wyi.40 for ; Sun, 24 Apr 2011 06:12:50 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:from:reply-to:to:subject:date:user-agent :references:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:message-id; bh=AeRySBL/YtAoQZZcXlEuBgGWNZPcmBQSNhlJNi7ar28=; b=QX6tmDkBmdvg+6Rgblpe+Sx25av7JfCigYVVugV0TxWhyNAtt/PolJnXhHCtBVzrXt 3/OdnOdiVbEENwiH5Eb22/TvasnbrTagKCre8A9NahYj0nK2mO0XyZc/dmNamNq9KkOj P7rwFIl3nysTNFXiG2xLQRHfJkkyPx5v9Ckk4= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=from:reply-to:to:subject:date:user-agent:references:in-reply-to :mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:message-id; b=LxISwC7J0wulW4RLbONlCsvzps6Y4EyXrhWE+M9psLco1P/FpUDz75G/tdOXcomi9O ljLLdhdGVsoCg57+nQgk1G3Ib3qr4w/R43tD5L8rwdCsE4GcsrApH9usf5+cwat46q9A GH9Apbh/J3Kke9kR7rZAlbuMAVTO5gqyNb3tA= Received: by 10.227.210.136 with SMTP id gk8mr3076854wbb.79.1303650770522; Sun, 24 Apr 2011 06:12:50 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dell_xps.localnet (230.3.169.217.in-addr.arpa [217.169.3.230]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id u9sm2756034wbg.0.2011.04.24.06.12.49 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Sun, 24 Apr 2011 06:12:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Mick To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] WPA Supplicant Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:12:52 +0100 User-Agent: KMail/1.13.5 (Linux/2.6.37-gentoo-r4; KDE/4.4.5; x86_64; ; ) References: In-Reply-To: Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="nextPart1418037.JfAtFFYkSD"; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; micalg=pgp-sha1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <201104241413.19743.michaelkintzios@gmail.com> X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: ca13cdc2e66b59a96f0b832b9f472c34 --nextPart1418037.JfAtFFYkSD Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Sunday 24 April 2011 13:37:03 dhkuhl@optonline.net wrote: > I'm trying to get wireless working reliably on my laptop. I have followed > the documentation, but still have a lot of questions . . . especially > since it only seems to work sometimes. >=20 > First, I'm using WPA Supplicant without the gui tools. run wpa_gui from a terminal and a lot of what you're asking below will beco= me=20 self-explanatory. > Second, I'm in NYC and there are a lot of networks I can use around town. >=20 > Third, Is there a way I can control the services I use from the Grub menu= ?=20 > Since the laptop has a wireless card and an RJ45 jack, I'd like to be able > boot and not use one or the other. Since I know if I'm not physically > connected to a network, there's really no reason to even try eth0. Check /etc/conf.d/rc and in particular: # RC_NET_STRICT_CHECKING allows some flexibility with the 'net' service. # The following values are allowed: # none - The 'net' service is always considered up. # no - This basically means that at least one net.* service besides net= =2Elo # must be up. This can be used by notebook users that have a wifi= =20 and # a static nic, and only wants one up at any given time to have the # 'net' service seen as up. # lo - This is the same as the 'no' option, but net.lo is also counted. # This should be useful to people that do not care about any speci= fic # interface being up at boot. # yes - For this ALL network interfaces MUST be up for the 'net' service= to # be considered up. RC_NET_STRICT_CHECKING=3D"no" (or you can use "lo") > Forth, The problem. I'm not sure how wpa_supplicant works or how it shou= ld > work. The wpa_supplicant man page gives a few examples on how to run it, > but when I look at the process list it seems to be run by another program > called wpa_cli. There's also a shell script in /etc/wpa/supplicant that > looks like it can start or stop it with CONNECT or DISCONNECT. 1) Do I > need to enter networks in wpa_supplicant.conf or does wpa_supplicant scan > for networks and connect to whatever's available?=20 The latter. You can however enter manually in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf=20 particular parameters (keys and what not) of known networks to which you=20 connect as a matter of preference. > 2) If I have multiple > networks available how does wpa_supplicant choose which to connect to and > can I specify which one I want?=20 It'll connect to: a) Any network you have specified in your=20 /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf according to the preference you hav= e=20 set up therein. b) Any network it finds. c) Any network you select with wpa_cli, or select/enable/disable in wpa_gui. > 3) How should wpa_supplicant be started, > stopped and restarted? What should be used for this: wpa_supplicant, > wpa_cli, or wpa_cli.sh? I don't see anything in /etc/init.d for that, but > it looks like netmount may be doing it.=20 You need to define it in /etc/conf.d/net: modules=3D( "wpa_supplicant" ) wpa_supplicant_wlan0=3D"-Dwext" =20 (adjust this according to the name of your wireless iface and driver). > 4) The documentation doesn't say > to, but the way I got wireless working is by creating a link net.wlan0 -> > net.lo in the /etc/init.d directory. Is this correct? =20 It depends which documentation you are looking at. I am sure that this is= =20 explained in the gentoo Handbook and associated documentation. This is the link you need: lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Dec 16 14:26 net.wlan0 -> net.lo but you should have also configured /etc/conf.d/net with your desired setti= ngs=20 or just defaults will run. > I think that's why > it's starting automatically when I boot too, because I never added it with > rc-update so netmount must be picking it up.=20 > 5) This is the most puzzling > thing. When wpa_supplicant starts even though I get a inet address I > can't always get to the internet. Why does the panel applet says I'm > connected and ifconfig shows an inet address but firefox and ping can't > reach a site like yahoo or google?=20 This could well be a dns server/repeater issue. If you can ping the IP address of google, but not the domain name of it, th= en=20 the problem is that you do not have access to a DNS repeater. Look in your= =20 /etc/resolve.conf to see if there is a line saying: nameserver XXX.XXX.XX.XX if it is absent then you have not connected to a namesever. This is a rout= er=20 issue and it could be controlled by some authentication scheme. A lot of=20 wireless services offered by coffee shops, libraries, etc. may give you an = IP=20 address automatically, but then require you use your browser to register wi= th=20 their authentication server (using a passwd that they provide after you pay= =20 them for the privilege). Open access points with no encryption and no DNS authentication requirement= s=20 should allow you to connect seamlessly to the Internet. > 6) For networks where I have a > password, should that go in wpa_supplicant.conf as plain text or should it > be encrypted? This can be a confusing endeavour because some routers will only accept=20 certain characters in a passphrase, so you could be failing to connect due = to=20 the peculiarities of the router. The passphrase should be entered as provi= ded=20 by the router owner, then a hex key generated with wpa_passphrase (look at = man=20 wpa_passphrase). Then enter the hex key in your wpa_supplicant.conf, or yo= ur=20 wpa_gui. HTH for now, ask more as you need it. =2D-=20 Regards, Mick --nextPart1418037.JfAtFFYkSD Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (GNU/Linux) iEYEABECAAYFAk20Ie8ACgkQVTDTR3kpaLbo3gCfYhq0VxBoill5143cbmxsGIr3 BxQAnjogCsiAxk6r4GN9FeTuTx6edv0y =boTe -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --nextPart1418037.JfAtFFYkSD--