Re: [gentoo-user] Completely lost regarding wifi

Re: [gentoo-user] Completely lost regarding wifi

[YoYo Siska]

On Mon, Feb 05, 2007 at 09:51:09PM -0500, Henk Boom wrote:
> (I had some trouble posting this message the first time, so I
> apologize if it appears twice)
> 
> Hi, last fall I spent some of my summer earnings on a ThinkPad X41
> tablet, and have been loving it ever since I installed Gentoo on it.
> There is one thing I have not yet been able to make work, though, and
> that is wifi. This is probably due to a combination of my own lack of
> wifi-related experience and the fact that my school (the only
> practical place I have to use wifi) seems to use a horrendously
> complicated setup >.<. I have heard that others with this laptop have
> managed to make wifi work.
> 
> I have been trying different things on and off for a few month now,
> but the fact is that I have very little idea of how to configure wifi,
> and there seems to be little documentation that I can find which is
> relevant to this situation. I've decided that there's little left to
> do except bug all of you with my problem =(.
> 
> My school has some Windows/Mac setup instructions here (scroll down a bit):
> http://rorschach.concordia.ca/neg/remote_access/wireless/
> They mention Xsupplicant in relation to Linux, but once again I find
> myself way out of my depth. . .
> 
> lspci lists my wifi card as:
> 04:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG
> Network Connection (rev 05)
> 
> I am using the ipw2200 module, and the wifi card shows up under
> iwconfig as eth1.
> 


Hi I have X41Tablet too, although with the 2915ABG wifi chipset (because
of the built-in bluetooth ;-) but it uses the same driver and should
work in the same way (I used to have R51 with 2200).

As for the wifi, there are basically 3 different modes, unencrypted, WEP,
and WPA (there are many kinds of WPA, but that doesn't really matter in
the way of configuring it under gentoo w ipw2200).

For the unencrypted and WEP cases, all you need are wireless-tools and
gentoo initscripts, good examples are in /etc/conf.d/wireless.  You
configure few things for the whole interface (such as preferred_aps) and
others per access point (essid) such as encryption key and actual tcp/ip
configuration.  Gentoo initscripts than choose an access point in range
and connect to it.

Just put these into any of the relevant config files ( wireless, net,
net.eth0 or net.eth1 depending on which is your wifi, all in
/etc/conf.d):


# this should be default and thus not needed
modules_eth0=( "iwconfig" )

config_ESSID1=( "dhcp" ) # not needed too
key_ESSID1="abcdefabcd"

config_ESSID2=( "10.0.0.13 netmask 255.255.255.0" )
routes_ESSID2=( "defualt via 10.0.0.1"  )

...

Then just start the interface...

As for WPA you need additional software to do the encryption (well, to
the key exchange and such stuff...). The best choice now is
wpa_supplicant. In the /etc/conf.d/net.eth0 just put
modules_eth0=( "wpa_supplicant" )
and relevant config_ESSID and probably routes_ESSID (for dhcp you can
just leave it). To set up the WPA options you have to edit
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.

There are many ways to do authentication/key exchange in WPA, from the
windows configuration on the page you mentioned it seems that you need
LEAP authentication (used by cisco) or PEAP + MSCHAPv2. The relevant part of the
wpa_supplicant should look like this:

network={
	ssid="REftRW2d"
	key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
	eap=LEAP
	identity="user"
	password="pass"
}

or for PEAP+MSCHAPv2:
network={
	ssid="REftRW2d"
	key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
	eap=PEAP
	identity="user"
	password="pass"
	# this shiould not be needed
	phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"
}

I haven't actually used LEAP myself, so this is only a guess, feel free
to google for LEAP wpa_supplicant, or try asking people that managed to
get it running on your school. 

As for the essids (ssids), under root, just run
iwlist eth0 scan
to see the list of wireless networks in range (or use some graphical
utility). wpa_supplicant uses to power down the wifi, so you may need to
do
iwconfig eth0 txpower on
to see some results.


If you need more help, feel free to mail me off list...

-- 
      _
      |
YoYo () Siska
========================
http://www.ksp.sk/

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Re: [gentoo-user] Completely lost regarding wifi

[YoYo Siska]

YoYo Siska wrote:
> As for WPA you need additional software to do the encryption (well, to
> the key exchange and such stuff...). The best choice now is
> wpa_supplicant. In the /etc/conf.d/net.eth0 just put
> modules_eth0=( "wpa_supplicant" )
> and relevant config_ESSID and probably routes_ESSID (for dhcp you can
> just leave it). To set up the WPA options you have to edit
> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.
> 
Forgot just the second important thig for wpa_supplicant and ipw2200,
beside modules_eth0:
wpa_supplicant_eth0="-Dwext"


yoyo
:w
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Re: [gentoo-user] Completely lost regarding wifi

[Henk Boom]

On 05/02/07, Sigfrido V. Ortiz C. <sigfridov@aim.com> wrote:
> Review next section, after your WiFi card be right installed:
>
> nano -w /etc/conf.d/wireless.example
>
> If you follow that instructions as well as the provided by your school,
> It will be so easy to you.
>
> About Gentoo Networking please look at here for x86 processor:
>
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=3
> and
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4
>
> Sigfrido
>

I'm much closer than I have been before. Following the LEAP example, I
seem to manage to connect. iwconfig tells me I have an encryption key.
The only issue now seems to be that I can't get dhcp working. Nothing
relevant runs automatically, and when I run dhcpcd manually it times
out. Then, after I have run dhcpcd, or if I just wait a while, when I
do iwconfig it tells me that I an unassociated. . .

I feel close, but I'm not quite there yet >.<.

Thanks,
        Henk Boom
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Re: [gentoo-user] Completely lost regarding wifi

[YoYo Siska]

Henk Boom wrote:
> On 06/02/07, Henk Boom <lunarc.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm much closer than I have been before. Following the LEAP example, I
>> seem to manage to connect. iwconfig tells me I have an encryption key.
>> The only issue now seems to be that I can't get dhcp working. Nothing
>> relevant runs automatically, and when I run dhcpcd manually it times
>> out. Then, after I have run dhcpcd, or if I just wait a while, when I
>> do iwconfig it tells me that I an unassociated. . .
>>
>> I feel close, but I'm not quite there yet >.<.
>>
> 
> Wow, I hibernated the laptop (after iwconfig told me I was
> unnasosiated), carried it out of the computer lab and onto another
> floor, then woke it up. I ran /etc/init.d/net.eth1 one more time for
> good measure (it complained that it had already been started). Then I
> tried to ping google, and it worked!
> 
> The only explanation I can think of for this is that the computer labs
> where I made my last post had bad reception.
> 
> Now I'm curious though, do I need to explicitly run a dhcp client, or
> does wpa_supplicant handle all that for me?

if you run wpa_supplicant _through_ gentoo initscripts, they should run
dhcp when wpa_supplicant associates with the AP
(unless you define something else in config_XXXX=(...) )

yoyo


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