[gentoo-user] wpa_supplicant.conf incongruity

[gentoo-user] wpa_supplicant.conf incongruity

[Mick]

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This must be the third if not fourth time the syntax in wpa_supplicant.conf 
bit me - I don't learn easily!  ;-)

The comments in the example configuration file installed with wpa_supplicant 
provided under /usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant-2.6-r10/wpa_supplicant.conf.bz2 
explain a Unix control socket for external programs (wpa_cli, wpa_gui, etc.) 
to access will be created in a (default) directory:

/var/run/wpa_supplicant

To set access controls for socket(s) which will be created in this directory 
you can define a GROUP in the wpa_supplicant.conf file, so non-root users may 
scan for APs and set passwords for them using cli/gui applications.  A syntax 
is given in this file to explain how to go about specifying a GROUP name for 
managing the cli/gui interface:

# When configuring both the directory and group, use following format:
# DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel
# DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=0
# (group can be either group name or gid)
#
# For UDP connections (default on Windows): The value will be ignored. This
# variable is just used to select that the control interface is to be created.
# The value can be set to, e.g., udp (ctrl_interface=udp)

Here's where things go a bit off-piste.  There's an uncommented entry  in the 
next paragraph specifying not an IP protocol, but a Unix socket like so:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant


Having read the above and more in the example file, I thought the way to 
define a GROUP would be to just add a single directive, e.g.:

GROUP=users

But this causes wpa_supplicant to fail complaining about my GROUP entry above.  
Fair enough, from what it says I should also specify the directory.  So I 
copied and pasted verbatim:

DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel

Again wpa_supplicant fails to start complaining about the whole line I just 
added.  :-/

So, I look at older wpa_supplicant.conf files of mine and discover the 
directive needed to specify a GROUP is:

ctrl_interface_group=wheel

which works faultlessly each time.

Am I missing something here, or is the example provided for 
wpa_supplicant.conf incorrect/incomplete and merits a bug report?

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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[gentoo-user] Re: wpa_supplicant.conf incongruity

[Ian Zimmerman]

On 2019-06-19 10:32, Mick wrote:

> Having read the above and more in the example file, I thought the way
> to define a GROUP would be to just add a single directive, e.g.:
> 
> GROUP=users

I remember doing just this some time ago and it worked.  I think this is
a case of the code leaving the documentation in dust.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: wpa_supplicant.conf incongruity

[Mick]

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On Wednesday, 19 June 2019 19:41:08 BST Ian Zimmerman wrote:
> On 2019-06-19 10:32, Mick wrote:
> > Having read the above and more in the example file, I thought the way
> > to define a GROUP would be to just add a single directive, e.g.:
> > 
> > GROUP=users
> 
> I remember doing just this some time ago and it worked.  I think this is
> a case of the code leaving the documentation in dust.

Thanks Ian, it's probably just that and the docs need updating.

While working with the same wireless USB dongle I noticed its MAC address 
changes randomly, (almost) every time restart it.  I can't recall what setting 
(kernel or wpa_supplicant) may be causing this.  Although this is good for 
anonymity, it messes up my WAP access control list ...

Any idea what setting generates random MAC addresses?

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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