[gentoo-user] Wiress Question...

[gentoo-user] Wiress Question...

[BRM]

I have a Dell D600 Laptop that I've got Gentoo installed on. It pretty much uses Gentoo full-time now. (Yeah!)
I very frequently use the Wireless with it, which works great for the most part. However, it seems that the connection drops every once in a while, and the system doesn't detect it.
A quick restart of the wlan0 interface (/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 restart) resolves the issue.

I was wondering what the normal procedure is for this.

I have WPA Supplicant installed, but it doesn't seem to be managing my wireless at all. (Would be great to get it to do so.)

I'd really like to get this working properly. It's the probably the last thing to making the system 100% usable 100% of the time, and the only annoyance right now.

Ben

Re: [gentoo-user] Wiress Question...

[Joshua Murphy]

On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 9:42 AM, BRM <bm_witness@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I have a Dell D600 Laptop that I've got Gentoo installed on. It pretty much uses Gentoo full-time now. (Yeah!)
> I very frequently use the Wireless with it, which works great for the most part. However, it seems that the connection drops every once in a while, and the system doesn't detect it.
> A quick restart of the wlan0 interface (/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 restart) resolves the issue.
>
> I was wondering what the normal procedure is for this.
>
> I have WPA Supplicant installed, but it doesn't seem to be managing my wireless at all. (Would be great to get it to do so.)
>
> I'd really like to get this working properly. It's the probably the last thing to making the system 100% usable 100% of the time, and the only annoyance right now.
>
> Ben

Write a quick script to run from cron every 2 or 5 minutes that tests
the connection and restarts if needed? Also straight from the
handbook...

# Prefer wpa_supplicant over wireless-tools
modules=( "wpa_supplicant" )

And if that doesn't do the trick, there's always a means of forcing
modules, but I don't have it handy, should be in net.example
somewhere.

-- 
Poison [BLX]
Joshua M. Murphy

Re: [gentoo-user] Wiress Question...

[Florian Philipp]

BRM schrieb:
> I have a Dell D600 Laptop that I've got Gentoo installed on. It pretty much uses Gentoo full-time now. (Yeah!)
> I very frequently use the Wireless with it, which works great for the most part. However, it seems that the connection drops every once in a while, and the system doesn't detect it.
> A quick restart of the wlan0 interface (/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 restart) resolves the issue.
> 
> I was wondering what the normal procedure is for this.
> 
> I have WPA Supplicant installed, but it doesn't seem to be managing my wireless at all. (Would be great to get it to do so.)
> 
> I'd really like to get this working properly. It's the probably the last thing to making the system 100% usable 100% of the time, and the only annoyance right now.
> 
> Ben
> 
> 

Could you please provide more info? What kind of WLAN-hardware do you 
use, maybe Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG or Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN?

What is your current kernel version?

Do you use WPA or WEP encryption on your WLAN?
Is it ad-hoc or infrastructure mode?
How have you configured your network? Can you please provide your 
/etc/conf.d/net file (please gzip/zip/bzip2 the file before attaching it)?
If you ever touched it, please also provide 
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.

If this is all too much fuss for you, you could try using 
net-misc/networkmanager.

When you notice that your WLAN just lost its connection, take a look at 
the last few lines of the output of dmesg. If you can't make sense out 
of it, please send it to the list.

Re: [gentoo-user] Wiress Question...

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:42:36 -0800 (PST), BRM wrote:

> I very frequently use the Wireless with it, which works great for the
> most part. However, it seems that the connection drops every once in a
> while, and the system doesn't detect it. A quick restart of the wlan0
> interface (/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 restart) resolves the issue.

I've been using wicd to manage my wireless for the last couple of months.
As well as handling the nuts and bolts of connecting to
encrypted networks, it will also reconnect automatically.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

A Smith & Weason beats Four Aces everytime.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Wiress Question...

[BRM]

I'll have to look into that one.

I started playing around with WPA Supplicant; and got it working with my wireless NIC; however, it doesn't like my AP configuration.
So I was thinking of changing the configuration to make it work better; but this might give me what I need.

Thanks!

Ben



----- Original Message ----
From: Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk>
To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 12:01:32 PM
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Wiress Question...

On Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:42:36 -0800 (PST), BRM wrote:

> I very frequently use the Wireless with it, which works great for the
> most part. However, it seems that the connection drops every once in a
> while, and the system doesn't detect it. A quick restart of the wlan0
> interface (/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 restart) resolves the issue.

I've been using wicd to manage my wireless for the last couple of months.
As well as handling the nuts and bolts of connecting to
encrypted networks, it will also reconnect automatically.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

A Smith & Weason beats Four Aces everytime.

Re: [gentoo-user] Wiress Question...

[Iain Buchanan]

BRM wrote:
> I'll have to look into that one.
>
> I started playing around with WPA Supplicant; and got it working
> withmy wireless NIC; however, it doesn't like my AP configuration.
> So I was thinking of changing the configuration to make it work
> better; but this might give me what I need.

wpa_supplicant is _very_ configurable, so I would guess that it can 
handle your AP configuration, but you just haven't configured it enough! 
  Not that this is slack on your part - it took me a while to figure out 
all the options I needed for some of my AP's too...

-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

Re: [gentoo-user] Wiress Question...

[BRM]

True it is. I have a simple 128-bit WEP setup presently - I use to have a system that couldn't handle WPA so I didn't set it up for WPA; I think I could now, but I don't have the time quite at the moment. Any how...wpa_supplicant didn't like the key (see below); thus my original e-mail.

network={
        ssid="my-network-here"
        key_mgmt=NONE
        wep_key0=hexkeyhere
        priority=1
        auth_alg=SHARED
}

I did try wicd, which seemed to be working for the most part, but still having a little trouble...I restarted the router and it still didn't want to connect...so still working on it. wicd is nice though.

TIA,

Ben


----- Original Message ----
From: Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au>
To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 10:47:53 PM
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Wiress Question...

BRM wrote:
> I'll have to look into that one.
> 
> I started playing around with WPA Supplicant; and got it working
> withmy wireless NIC; however, it doesn't like my AP configuration.
> So I was thinking of changing the configuration to make it work
> better; but this might give me what I need.

wpa_supplicant is _very_ configurable, so I would guess that it can handle your AP configuration, but you just haven't configured it enough!  Not that this is slack on your part - it took me a while to figure out all the options I needed for some of my AP's too...

-- Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."