Can Anyone Explain the over-all view of Wireless Networking?
Kent West
working last year.
Last week the power supply died, and rather than scrounge up another, I
just moved the hard drive and wireless card to another computer. I'm
doing the work on the computer in a different location, with a different
wireless provider than where the computer normally sits.
Now I get no dhcp offers received. I don't understand how ifup/down and
/etc/modules and udev and /etc/network/interfaces and "wpa-conf
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" and iwlist/spy/scan/whatever
and eth0 vs wlan0 vs sit0 and auto eth1 vs allow-hotplug eth1 and wep vs
wep-key vs open vs wpa, etc, all work together.
If I understood all that, I bet I could figure out how to get my
wireless network working. However, I've been googling/studying off and
on for the past year, everytime I try to put Debian (or Ubuntu, or
whatever) on a laptop that comes across my path (and failing pretty much
every time on the wireless), but I've never found a site that actually
has gotten me to an understanding of the process. Some sites talk about
gui configuration clients I don't have, or compiling drivers manually
which I don't need to do, or using ndiswrapper (?!), etc.
Maybe the process is just WAY too complex to be explained for mere
mortals who aren't in the mechanics of Linux networking on a daily basis.
So if there's no good explanation out there, perhaps someone can just
help me get it working, without me understanding what's going on. Here's
some relevant information, I believe:
01:08.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One
54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Linksys WMP54GS version 1.1 [Wireless-G PCI Adapter]
802.11g w/SpeedBooster
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
Region 0: Memory at feade000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:1A:1E:A2:55:20
Channel:11
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality=42/70 Signal level=-68 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"ACUwireless"
Bit Rates:5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
Bit Rates:48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000000060a63181
Extra: Last beacon: 100ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000B414355776972656C657373
IE: Unknown: 01088B8C121618243048
IE: Unknown: 03010B
IE: Unknown: 2A0102
IE: Unknown: 3202606C
IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010000000000
Cell 02 - Address: 00:0B:86:45:2F:A0
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=63/70 Signal level=-47 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"ACUwireless"
Bit Rates:5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
Bit Rates:48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000000f73f1e1e8
Extra: Last beacon: 796ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000B414355776972656C657373
IE: Unknown: 01088B8C121618243048
IE: Unknown: 030101
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 3202606C
IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010000000000
Cell 03 - Address: 00:1A:1E:A6:08:C0
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=55/70 Signal level=-55 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"ACUwireless"
Bit Rates:5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
Bit Rates:48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000000dc5708181
Extra: Last beacon: 436ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000B414355776972656C657373
IE: Unknown: 01088B8C121618243048
IE: Unknown: 030106
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 3202606C
IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010000000000
Cell 04 - Address: 00:1A:1E:A5:E6:C0
Channel:11
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality=36/70 Signal level=-74 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"ACUwireless"
Bit Rates:5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
Bit Rates:48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=00000008090fd181
Extra: Last beacon: 120ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000B414355776972656C657373
IE: Unknown: 01088B8C121618243048
IE: Unknown: 03010B
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 3202606C
IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010000000000
Cell 05 - Address: 00:1A:1E:A6:0D:00
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=27/70 Signal level=-83 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"ACUwireless"
Bit Rates:5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
Bit Rates:48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=00000004cabd5181
Extra: Last beacon: 788ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000B414355776972656C657373
IE: Unknown: 01088B168C1218243048
IE: Unknown: 030101
IE: Unknown: 050400010000
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 3202606C
IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010000000000
Cell 06 - Address: 00:1A:1E:B8:A5:20
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=34/70 Signal level=-76 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"ACUwireless"
Bit Rates:5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
Bit Rates:48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=00000007ef20c181
Extra: Last beacon: 848ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000B414355776972656C657373
IE: Unknown: 01088B8C121618243048
IE: Unknown: 030101
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 3202606C
IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010000000000
Cell 07 - Address: 00:0B:86:45:30:60
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=27/70 Signal level=-83 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"ACUwireless"
Bit Rates:5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
Bit Rates:48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=00000022e6e3437b
Extra: Last beacon: 780ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000B414355776972656C657373
IE: Unknown: 01088B168C1218243048
IE: Unknown: 030101
IE: Unknown: 050400010000
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 3202606C
IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010000000000
Cell 08 - Address: 00:1A:1E:A5:EF:20
Channel:11
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality=27/70 Signal level=-83 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"ACUwireless"
Bit Rates:5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
Bit Rates:48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000000082150618
Extra: Last beacon: 116ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000B414355776972656C657373
IE: Unknown: 01088B8C121618243048
IE: Unknown: 03010B
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 3202606C
IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010000000000
westk@evoljasen:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
# The primary network interface
#allow-hotplug eth0
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
# wireless_essid humanslivehere
wireless-essid ACUWireless open
wireless-keymode open
#wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
(the wired interface works with the above setup. the wireless works at
the other location (humanslivehere) when that line and the wpa-conf
lines are uncommented and the other two uncommented lines are not in the
file)
westk@evoljasen:~$ cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=users
#
# humanslivehere
network={
ssid="humanslivehere"
psk="it's a secret"
}
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwspy
lo Interface doesn't support wireless statistic collection
eth1 Interface doesn't support wireless statistic collection
wmaster0 Interface doesn't support wireless statistic collection
wlan0 Interface doesn't support wireless statistic collection
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may not
enable again some interfaces ... (warning).
Reconfiguring network interfaces...There is already a pid file
/var/run/dhclient.eth1.pid with pid 17310
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/eth1/00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
Sending on LPF/eth1/00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on eth1 to 150.252.128.107 port 67
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.wlan0.pid with pid 18812
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on wlan0 to 192.168.1.1 port 67
send_packet: Network is unreachable
send_packet: please consult README file regarding broadcast address.
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/eth1/00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
Sending on LPF/eth1/00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 9
DHCPOFFER from 150.252.8.1
DHCPREQUEST on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 150.252.46.1
bound to 150.252.12.59 -- renewal in 79090 seconds.
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
done.
What other info can I provide?
Thanks!
--
Kent West <*)))><
http://kentwest.blogspot.com
Praise Yah! \o/
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Chance Platt
Sure.
I admittedly don't understand the plumbing of wireless networking, but
I've broken it and fixed it enough to notice a couple of things.
Step One - from what you've shown, it appears your card is being
recognized by the appropriate kernel driver and is functioning. That's
a big step, and it's working for you.
Step Two - comment out everything in your /etc/network/interfaces file
that has to do with wlan0 and wireless. Mine is simply:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
allow-hotplug eth0
<Don't change yours to this since your eth1 is working fine, just
comment out the wireless and wlan lines.)
You do this to uncomplicate....
Step Three - don't worry about the plumbing. Use either NetworkManager
or WICD. These take care of the plumbing, and they work. If they don't
work with your particular network, try connecting to an unsecured
network first to check the above assumptions (kernel working, etc.) and
then troubleshoot the secured network.
WICD and NetworkManager have a boot-time service and a per-user client.
Once installed, either reboot or start the appropriate service, and
then as your user, start the client and configure.
http://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse
Matthew Moore
> Step Three - don't worry about the plumbing. Use either NetworkManager
> or WICD. These take care of the plumbing, and they work. If they don't
> work with your particular network, try connecting to an unsecured
> network first to check the above assumptions (kernel working, etc.) and
> then troubleshoot the secured network.
If you are using a CLI-only system, try wicd-curses and wicd-client (both are
in sid).
MM
Johannes Wiedersich
Hash: SHA1
Kent West wrote:
> If I understood all that, I bet I could figure out how to get my
> wireless network working. However, I've been googling/studying off and
> on for the past year, everytime I try to put Debian (or Ubuntu, or
> whatever) on a laptop that comes across my path (and failing pretty much
> every time on the wireless), but I've never found a site that actually
> has gotten me to an understanding of the process. Some sites talk about
> gui configuration clients I don't have, or compiling drivers manually
> which I don't need to do, or using ndiswrapper (?!), etc.
>
> Maybe the process is just WAY too complex to be explained for mere
> mortals who aren't in the mechanics of Linux networking on a daily basis.
I was in a similar situation like you before I started using wicd.
(People on lenny should use backport's wicd). It just hides all the
unnecessary complexity of wireless behind a rather intuitive and simple
interface. You configure it once for a new environment and it will work
henceforth. I have multiple different wireless and wired networks
configured on my laptop that "just work", now.
- --
Johannes
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the
humble reasoning of a single individual. -- Galileo Galilei, physicist
and astronomer (1564-1642)
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Florian Kulzer
[...]
> Now I get no dhcp offers received. I don't understand how ifup/down and
> /etc/modules and udev and /etc/network/interfaces and "wpa-conf
> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" and iwlist/spy/scan/whatever
> and eth0 vs wlan0 vs sit0 and auto eth1 vs allow-hotplug eth1 and wep vs
> wep-key vs open vs wpa, etc, all work together.
[...]
> 01:08.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
[...]
> westk@evoljasen:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
> # This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
> # and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).
>
> # The loopback network interface
> auto lo
> iface lo inet loopback
>
> # The primary network interface
> #allow-hotplug eth0
> auto eth1
> iface eth1 inet dhcp
>
> auto wlan0
> iface wlan0 inet dhcp
> # wireless_essid humanslivehere
> wireless-essid ACUWireless open
^^^^
This seems wrong to me.
> wireless-keymode open
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I would try "wireless-key off" instead.
> #wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Check with "/sbin/iwconfig wlan0" if the system has taken over the essid
correctly and if it actually associates with the right access point.
Also run the command as root to make sure you see "Encryption key:off".
--
Regards, |
Florian |
Kent West
>> westk@evoljasen:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
>> # This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
>> # and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).
>>
>> # The loopback network interface
>> auto lo
>> iface lo inet loopback
>>
>> # The primary network interface
>> #allow-hotplug eth0
>> auto eth1
>> iface eth1 inet dhcp
>>
>> auto wlan0
>> iface wlan0 inet dhcp
>> # wireless_essid humanslivehere
>> wireless-essid ACUWireless open
>> wireless-keymode open
>> #wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
>>
>> (the wired interface works with the above setup. the wireless works at
>> the other location (humanslivehere) when that line and the wpa-conf
>> lines are uncommented and the other two uncommented lines are not in the
>> file)
did an "aptitude install wicd", which installed/configured four or five
packages, and gave this error:
Setting up python-wicd (1.7.0-3) ...
Setting up wicd-daemon (1.7.0-3) ...
Starting Network connection manager: wicd failed!
Setting up wicd-gtk (1.7.0-3) ...
Setting up wicd (1.7.0-3) ...
Now when I run ifconfig, I get:
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo ifconfig
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
inet addr:150.252.12.59 Bcast:150.252.15.255 Mask:255.255.248.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20d:56ff:fe2c:5ed6/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:679852 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:179791 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:650585566 (620.4 MiB) TX bytes:14268638 (13.6 MiB)
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:317 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:317 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:21912 (21.3 KiB) TX bytes:21912 (21.3 KiB)
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:18:f8:29:b5:96
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
And when I run "wicd-client -n" as per the instructions at the wiki site
you reference, I get a gui window that says "No wireless networks found".
Also, a negative to this approach is that it requires X to be working,
which is okay in this case, but it'd be nice to have some documentation
that explains how to step-by-step diagnose things in a bare minimum
environment. But that's less important right now than just getting the
network running. Any suggestions from this point?
Thanks!
Oh, wait, wait. I just found in the preferences a place to enter
"wlan0". Now I'm getting something. It now sees several ACUWireless
connections, but when I click on Connect on one, the program froze. I'm
giving it a few minutes before I kill it....
Oh, wait; it froze up the box. I was ssh'd into it. So I walk over to
the box in question; yep, it's frozen.
Now I've bounced the power.
Mathew Moore suggested I use wicd-curses.
So I did; found the ACUWireless node; tried pressing "c" to connect;
nothing happened; then tried "C", and the machine froze up again.
Arg.
--
Kent West <*)))><
http://kentwest.blogspot.com
Praise Yah! \o/
--
Kent West
> Mathew Moore suggested I use wicd-curses.
>
> So I did; found the ACUWireless node; tried pressing "c" to connect;
> nothing happened; then tried "C", and the machine froze up again.
>
>
Wait, wait. The machine came back to life after a few minutes.
But still, no indication of being connected wirelessly:
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo ifconfig
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
inet addr:150.252.12.59 Bcast:150.252.15.255 Mask:255.255.248.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20d:56ff:fe2c:5ed6/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:12718 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2407 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1514585 (1.4 MiB) TX bytes:1717887 (1.6 MiB)
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:19 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:19 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1112 (1.0 KiB) TX bytes:1112 (1.0 KiB)
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:18:f8:29:b5:96
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:108 (108.0 B)
wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr
00-18-F8-29-B5-96-65-74-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP RUNNING MTU:0 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Jochen Schulz
>
> Now I get no dhcp offers received. I don't understand how ifup/down and
> /etc/modules and udev and /etc/network/interfaces and "wpa-conf
> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" and iwlist/spy/scan/whatever
> and eth0 vs wlan0 vs sit0 and auto eth1 vs allow-hotplug eth1 and wep vs
> wep-key vs open vs wpa, etc, all work together.
/etc/modules contains module names that should always be loaded. You
shouldn't need that for your wireless card, the kernel generally loads
kernel modules for hardware it can find automatically.
Udev is responsible for naming the device and, I think, calling
userspace programs like ifplugd when a new device is inserted. Unless
you don't like the device naming, you can probably ignore it.
/etc/network/interfaces contains the configuration of all your network
devices. You can manually specify IP addresses or use DHCP and there are
some special commands you can use to configure wireless settings, VPNs,
bridges and probably loads of other things as well. You can even declare
"virtual" devices which don't really exist that can be used by other
tools (like wpa-supplicant).
Wpa-supplicant is a special tool for configuring wireless encryption
settings. Additionally, it can use virtual device names from the
`interfaces` file so that a specific network card can use different
configurations depending on the available networks. As I understand it,
your computer is stationary and doesn't use wireless encryption, so you
can ignore wpa-supplicant as well.
In your case you just need to:
- Make sure the right module (and possibly a related firmware blob) gets
loaded for your hardware. That already appears to work correctly.
- Determine the device name udev assigns. That appears to be wlan0 in
your case.
- Find out the SSID you want to connect to. That's probably "ACUwireless".
- Find out whether this network uses encryption. ACUwireless doesn't.
- Find out whether you have to configure a static address, gateway and
DNS server or whether you just need to enable DHCP.
For DHCP and no encryption put the following in the `interfaces` file:
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid ACUWireless
That should be it. Just run '/etc/init.d/networking restart' and
everything should be fine. You just might want to kill all dhclient
instances before doing that.
If it doesn't, first check whether your card is actually associated to
an AP. Just run 'iwconfig wlan0' and look for the second line:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"landfill"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:90:4C:5F:00:2A
After "Access Point" there should be a hexa-decimal string just like in
my example. If this looks fine but DHCP still doesn't work, I am
temporarily out of ideas. :)
J.
--
In public I try to remain calm and to appear perceptive.
[Agree] [Disagree]
<http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html>
Kent West
> Kent West:
>
>> Now I get no dhcp offers received. I don't understand how ifup/down and
>> /etc/modules and udev and /etc/network/interfaces and "wpa-conf
>> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" and iwlist/spy/scan/whatever
>> and eth0 vs wlan0 vs sit0 and auto eth1 vs allow-hotplug eth1 and wep vs
>> wep-key vs open vs wpa, etc, all work together.
>>
>
> /etc/modules contains module names that should always be loaded. You
> shouldn't need that for your wireless card, the kernel generally loads
> kernel modules for hardware it can find automatically.
>
Except sometimes you manually have to add modules and sometimes you
don't. However, that seems to be less of an issue in recent years, so
I'm not really worried about that right now.
> Udev is responsible for naming the device and, I think, calling
> userspace programs like ifplugd when a new device is inserted. Unless
> you don't like the device naming, you can probably ignore it.
>
I'm beginning to get a handle on udev renaming eth0 to eth1, so I'm not
terribly worried about this right now either.
> /etc/network/interfaces contains the configuration of all your network
> devices.
Well, that's what I thought, except a couple of people on this thread
told me to remove my wireless from this file and use wicd or
NetworkManager, so it's not always true; and there's this warning when I
run /etc/init.d/networking restart:
> Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may
> not enable again some interfaces ... (warning).
That's the sort of thing that confuses me.
> Wpa-supplicant is a special tool for configuring wireless encryption
> settings. Additionally, it can use virtual device names from the
> `interfaces` file so that a specific network card can use different
> configurations depending on the available networks. As I understand it,
> your computer is stationary and doesn't use wireless encryption, so you
> can ignore wpa-supplicant as well.
>
Now that starts getting confusing.
> In your case you just need to:
>
> - Make sure the right module (and possibly a related firmware blob) gets
> loaded for your hardware. That already appears to work correctly.
>
> - Determine the device name udev assigns. That appears to be wlan0 in
> your case.
>
> - Find out the SSID you want to connect to. That's probably "ACUwireless".
>
> - Find out whether this network uses encryption. ACUwireless doesn't.
>
> - Find out whether you have to configure a static address, gateway and
> DNS server or whether you just need to enable DHCP.
>
> For DHCP and no encryption put the following in the `interfaces` file:
>
> auto wlan0
> iface wlan0 inet dhcp
> wireless-essid ACUWireless
>
>
> That should be it. Just run '/etc/init.d/networking restart' and
> everything should be fine. You just might want to kill all dhclient
> instances before doing that.
>
> If it doesn't, first check whether your card is actually associated to
> an AP. Just run 'iwconfig wlan0' and look for the second line:
>
> wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"landfill"
> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:90:4C:5F:00:2A
>
> After "Access Point" there should be a hexa-decimal string just like in
> my example. If this looks fine but DHCP still doesn't work, I am
> temporarily out of ideas. :)
>
Ah, a clue!
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"ACUWireless"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
So, how do I associate an Access Point?
Kent West
> Kent West wrote:
>
>> Mathew Moore suggested I use wicd-curses.
>>
>> So I did; found the ACUWireless node; tried pressing "c" to connect;
>> nothing happened; then tried "C", and the machine froze up again.
>>
>>
>>
>
> Wait, wait. The machine came back to life after a few minutes.
>
> But still, no indication of being connected wirelessly:
>
>
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo ifconfig
>
>
> UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
> RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
> RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:108 (108.0 B)
>
> wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr
> 00-18-F8-29-B5-96-65-74-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
> UP RUNNING MTU:0 Metric:1
> RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
> RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
>
>
After a couple of reboots, and after running wicd-client from the actual
machine instead of over ssh, the machine did not lock up; it did see the
various ACUWireless networks, but when I tried clicking on the first
one, it thought for a minute or two, then reported "Connection failed:
Unable to get IP Address".
Kent West
> After a couple of reboots, and after running wicd-client from the actual
> machine instead of over ssh, the machine did not lock up; it did see the
> various ACUWireless networks, but when I tried clicking on the first
> one, it thought for a minute or two, then reported "Connection failed:
> Unable to get IP Address".
>
And so I tried the second ACUWireless network, and the machine froze.
Arg.
Matt Zagrabelny
>
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
> wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"ACUWireless"
> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
> Tx-Power=27 dBm
> Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
> Encryption key:off
> Power Management:off
> Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
>
> So, how do I associate an Access Point?
I didn't see that you were already associated...
sudo iwconfig wlan0 ap any
--
Matt Zagrabelny - mzag...@d.umn.edu - (218) 726 8844
University of Minnesota Duluth
Information Technology Systems & Services
PGP key 4096R/42A00942 2009-12-16
Fingerprint: 5814 2CCE 2383 2991 83FF C899 07E2 BFA8 42A0 0942
He is not a fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot
lose.
-Jim Elliot
Matt Zagrabelny
> So, how do I associate an Access Point?
Associate to a wireless network:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid UMD-Wireless
Associate to a AP, I wouldn't do this step:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 ap mac-address-of-ap-radio
sudo ifup wlan0
Jochen Schulz
> Jochen Schulz wrote:
>>
>> /etc/network/interfaces contains the configuration of all your network
>> devices.
>
> Well, that's what I thought, except a couple of people on this thread
> told me to remove my wireless from this file and use wicd or
> NetworkManager, so it's not always true;
I don't really know these tools, so I cannot comment on that. If they
work for you and you can live with them - fine! I only tried both of
them for a very short time to find out they couldn't do what I
needed/wanted them to do.
> and there's this warning when I
> run /etc/init.d/networking restart:
>> Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may
>> not enable again some interfaces ... (warning).
> That's the sort of thing that confuses me.
Never seen this, but it rings a bell. Does running the script with
'stop' and 'start' give this warning, too?
>> Wpa-supplicant is a special tool for configuring wireless encryption
>> settings. Additionally, it can use virtual device names from the
>> `interfaces` file so that a specific network card can use different
>> configurations depending on the available networks. As I understand it,
>> your computer is stationary and doesn't use wireless encryption, so you
>> can ignore wpa-supplicant as well.
>
> Now that starts getting confusing.
True, but it works great here. :)
>> After "Access Point" there should be a hexa-decimal string just like in
>> my example. If this looks fine but DHCP still doesn't work, I am
>> temporarily out of ideas. :)
>>
>
> Ah, a clue!
-- snip
> So, how do I associate an Access Point?
Usually, wireless cards do that by themselves when you set the SSID. My
experience with different wireless cards is that they sometimes need a
slight kick in the butt in order to restart scanning. Running 'iwconfig
wlan0 mode managed' or 'iwconfig wlan0 essid any && iwconfig wlan0
ACUwireless' usually does the trick. Another option is to remove the
module and load it again. However, that shouldn't be needed after a
fresh boot.
J.
--
I wish I was gay.
[Agree] [Disagree]
<http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html>
Kent West
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid any && sudo iwconfig wlan0
ACUWireless
iwconfig: unknown command "ACUWireless"
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid any && sudo iwconfig wlan0
essid ACUWireless
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"ACUWireless"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
Kent West
> On Tue, 2010-02-02 at 16:00 -0600, Kent West wrote:
>
>
>> So, how do I associate an Access Point?
>>
>
> Associate to a wireless network:
>
> sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid UMD-Wireless
>
> Associate to a AP, I wouldn't do this step:
>
> sudo iwconfig wlan0 ap mac-address-of-ap-radio
>
> sudo ifup wlan0
>
>
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"ACUWireless"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may not
enable again some interfaces ... (warning).
Reconfiguring network interfaces...There is already a pid file
/var/run/dhclient.eth1.pid with pid 2126
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/eth1/00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
Sending on LPF/eth1/00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on eth1 to 150.252.128.107 port 67
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.wlan0.pid with pid 2219
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on wlan0 to 192.168.1.1 port 67
send_packet: Network is unreachable
send_packet: please consult README file regarding broadcast address.
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/eth1/00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
Sending on LPF/eth1/00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
receive_packet failed on eth1: Network is down
receive_packet failed on eth1: Network is down
receive_packet failed on eth1: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
DHCPOFFER from 150.252.8.1
DHCPREQUEST on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 150.252.8.1
bound to 150.252.12.59 -- renewal in 82914 seconds.
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 20
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
done.
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"ACUWireless"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 ap any
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"ACUWireless"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.457 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid ACUWireless
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"ACUWireless"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
--
Jochen Schulz
>
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid any && sudo iwconfig wlan0
> essid ACUWireless
Thanks for fixing my errors.
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
> wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"ACUWireless"
> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Did you wait a few seconds before running this command? Association does
not necessarily instantly, it can take a few seconds (but considerably
less than a minute). Did you try 'modprobe -r'ing the module and
modprobing at again? Do you see any related kernel messages in the
syslog/dmesg? The kernel output from the time when the module got loaded
the first time might help, too.
J.
--
The houses of parliament make me think of school bullies.
[Agree] [Disagree]
<http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html>
Kent West
> Kent West:
>
>> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
>> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
>>
>
> Did you wait a few seconds before running this command? Association does
> not necessarily instantly, it can take a few seconds (but considerably
> less than a minute). Did you try 'modprobe -r'ing the module and
> modprobing at again? Do you see any related kernel messages in the
> syslog/dmesg? The kernel output from the time when the module got loaded
> the first time might help, too.
>
>
westk@evoljasen:~$ dmesg | grep wlan
[ 29.774646] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 267.661574] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 267.684535] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 try 1
[ 267.688726] wlan0 direct probe responded
[ 267.688733] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40
[ 267.693471] wlan0: authenticated
[ 267.693478] wlan0: associate with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40
[ 267.697112] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 (capab=0x21
status=10 aid=0)
[ 267.697118] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
[ 267.767604] wlan0: deauthenticating by local choice (reason=3)
[ 268.029480] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 269.839385] wlan0: deauthenticating by local choice (reason=3)
[ 270.101325] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 568.919592] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 try 1
[ 568.923397] wlan0 direct probe responded
[ 568.923404] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40
[ 568.924702] wlan0: authenticated
[ 568.924709] wlan0: associate with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40
[ 568.936988] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 (capab=0x21
status=10 aid=0)
[ 568.936994] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
[ 568.940475] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 (capab=0x21
status=10 aid=0)
[ 568.940480] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
[ 568.949586] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 (capab=0x21
status=10 aid=0)
[ 568.949591] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
[ 569.124031] wlan0: associate with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40
[ 569.136360] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 (capab=0x21
status=10 aid=0)
[ 569.136366] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
[ 569.324024] wlan0: associate with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40
[ 569.342655] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 (capab=0x21
status=10 aid=0)
[ 569.342660] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
[ 569.524024] wlan0: association with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 timed out
[ 574.720561] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40
[ 574.721758] wlan0: authenticated
[ 574.721766] wlan0: associate with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40
[ 574.728300] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 (capab=0x21
status=10 aid=0)
[ 574.728306] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
[ 574.920032] wlan0: associate with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40
[ 574.923358] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 (capab=0x21
status=10 aid=0)
[ 574.923363] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
[ 575.120029] wlan0: associate with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40
[ 575.125691] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 (capab=0x21
status=10 aid=0)
[ 575.125696] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
[ 575.321089] wlan0: association with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 timed out
[ 594.893308] wlan0: deauthenticated (Reason: 1)
[ 652.178643] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 try 1
westk@evoljasen:~$
Matthew Moore
> Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
> Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
> Sending on Socket/fallback
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 20
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
> No DHCPOFFERS received.
> No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
> done.
Does your wireless network use static IP's, or does it use DHCP?
MM
Celejar
Kent West <we...@acu.edu> wrote:
...
> Now I get no dhcp offers received. I don't understand how ifup/down and
> /etc/modules and udev and /etc/network/interfaces and "wpa-conf
> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" and iwlist/spy/scan/whatever
> and eth0 vs wlan0 vs sit0 and auto eth1 vs allow-hotplug eth1 and wep vs
> wep-key vs open vs wpa, etc, all work together.
Basic idea:
1) Hardware support is required for the network card. If you're using
a stock kernel, it's probably there, with some caveats (e.g.,
firmware). In your case, see below.
2) Manually scanning for available networks (iwlist wlan0 scan) - this
is not generally required for routine operation, but is useful for new
locations, or for troubleshooting.
3) Associating the card with the wireless AP - done with 'iwconfig',
or the Debian way, via /etc/network/interfaces. This means that the
card is now 'connected' to the AP, and this sort of parallels the step
of plugging in a cable between a wired card and a switch. If
encryption is being used, you'll need to invoke wpa_supplicant, or some
other application that invokes it. Again, this can be done
via /etc/network/interfaces
4) Configuring IP on the card - you have to do this for wired or
wireless, and the procedure is identical. You can do this manually
(ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.7) or via dhcp (dhcp wlan0), and once again,
there's the Debian way, via e.n.i.
It should be clear by now that e.n.i. is just a standardized Debian way
of invoking the manual procedures mentioned above. The ifupdown
scripts read the file, and invoke the various underlying commands
(ifconfig, iwconfig, wpa_supplicant) in the appropriate fashion.
> If I understood all that, I bet I could figure out how to get my
> wireless network working. However, I've been googling/studying off and
Of course you could!
> on for the past year, everytime I try to put Debian (or Ubuntu, or
> whatever) on a laptop that comes across my path (and failing pretty much
> every time on the wireless), but I've never found a site that actually
> has gotten me to an understanding of the process. Some sites talk about
> gui configuration clients I don't have, or compiling drivers manually
> which I don't need to do, or using ndiswrapper (?!), etc.
>
> Maybe the process is just WAY too complex to be explained for mere
> mortals who aren't in the mechanics of Linux networking on a daily basis.
>
> So if there's no good explanation out there, perhaps someone can just
> help me get it working, without me understanding what's going on. Here's
> some relevant information, I believe:
>
> 01:08.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One
> 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
I have this same Broadcom chipset.
> Subsystem: Linksys WMP54GS version 1.1 [Wireless-G PCI Adapter]
> 802.11g w/SpeedBooster
Well, I certainly don't have this subsystem.
> Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
> Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
> Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort-
> <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
> Latency: 64
> Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
> Region 0: Memory at feade000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
> Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
>
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
> wlan0 Scan completed :
Okay, so you have a bunch of cells with the same ESSID, but different
addresses. IIUC, that sounds like an enterprise setup, but it
shouldn't make a difference, or be a problem for us. Encryption is not
in use.
> westk@evoljasen:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
...
> auto wlan0
> iface wlan0 inet dhcp
> # wireless_essid humanslivehere
> wireless-essid ACUWireless open
> wireless-keymode open
> #wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
I'd leave the 'open' out of the wireless-essid line.
> (the wired interface works with the above setup. the wireless works at
> the other location (humanslivehere) when that line and the wpa-conf
> lines are uncommented and the other two uncommented lines are not in the
> file)
>
> westk@evoljasen:~$ cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
> ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
> ctrl_interface_group=users
> #
> # humanslivehere
> network={
> ssid="humanslivehere"
> psk="it's a secret"
> }
wpa_supplicant (generally?) isn't relevant where encryption isn't in
use. It may be helpful for roaming, but shouldn't be necessary for a
basic connection.
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwspy
> lo Interface doesn't support wireless statistic collection
>
> eth1 Interface doesn't support wireless statistic collection
>
> wmaster0 Interface doesn't support wireless statistic collection
>
> wlan0 Interface doesn't support wireless statistic collection
You don't need to bother with this.
> westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
You can also simply do 'ifup wlan0'.
...
> Listening on LPF/eth1/00:0d:56:2c:5e:d6
This is the networking subsystem activating eth1 (the wired interface).
Okay, so configuration of the wired interface is working fine.
> Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.3
> Copyright 2004-2009 Internet Systems Consortium.
> All rights reserved.
> For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
>
> Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
This is the networking subsystem attempting to configure the wireless
interface.
> Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
> Sending on Socket/fallback
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
> No DHCPOFFERS received.
> No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
> done.
It is failing. Now, IME, most such failures are due to the card not
being properly associated with the AP. You can determine this by
either looking at syslog, or by calling 'iwconfig wlan0'. If it's
properly associated, the first two lines should be something like this:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"nnnnnnn"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 12:34:56:78:99:aa
If it's not, you'll see something like this:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated
Information in syslog will be helpful in determining the cause of failure.
Celejar
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Kent West
status=10 aid=0)
[ 575.125696] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
[ 575.321089] wlan0: association with AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 timed out
[ 594.893308] wlan0: deauthenticated (Reason: 1)
[ 652.178643] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:0b:86:bb:83:40 try 1
But, I gave up on it for now, having to move the machine back to its
original location, where when I set things back to the way they were
before I replaced the box around the hard drive, the wireless network
worked perfectly first time booting. So it must have something to do
with the ACUWireless network rejecting my system somehow.
I thought I was through with the machine, but I may have to bring it
back up to the ACUWireless network, so I might get to play with it some
more. The freeze/lock-ups I've mentioned are apparently not related to
the wireless setup, but to a more generalized flakiness in the box
itself. I ran memtest86+ (interestingly, memtest86 just rebooted the
machine everytime), and it didn't find any errors after about an hour's
worth of testing, but after about three minutes of me playing around in
memtest86+'s configuration screens, the machine froze (well, the
keyboard froze - previously freezings allowed the mouse cursor to move,
but not to click, and the keyboard also was frozen). Since memtest86+ is
just a simple app running directly on the hardware just after the
BIOS/POST (i.e., it's it's own mini-OS), that tells me the freezes are
definitely hardware-related. I'll swap the RAM sticks around a bit,
maybe play with the BIOS settings, but I think the mobo is probably
flakey, and I'll have to find yet another computer to replace this one; arg!
Thanks for all the help, folks! I'm still no where close to seeing the
big picture of how all the components of networking fit together, but
I'm a little less in the dark than I was. I appreciate it!
--
Kent West <*)))><
http://kentwest.blogspot.com
Praise Yah! \o/
--
Jochen Schulz
>
> westk@evoljasen:~$ dmesg | grep wlan
> [ 267.697118] wlan0: AP denied association (code=10)
Well, there you have it. The access point does not want to talk to you.
You said it works using the same card in a different machine? -Otherwise
I would suspect the access points have MAC filtering enabled and you
need to talk to your wireless provider in order to have your card
whitelisted.
What I find a little bit strange is that the card always tries to
associate with the same AP. You could try using another one from the
list provided by running 'iwlist wlan0 scan'. Get the address from one
AP with a high quality and set it manually by running 'iwconfig wlan0 ap
<hex-address-of-ap>'.
J.
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Kent West
> On Tuesday February 2 2010 3:21:33 pm Kent West wrote:
>
>> Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
>> Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:18:f8:29:b5:96
>> Sending on Socket/fallback
>> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
>> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15
>> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
>> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 20
>> DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
>> No DHCPOFFERS received.
>> No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
>> done.
>>
>
> Does your wireless network use static IP's, or does it use DHCP?
>
> MM
>
>
DHCP
--
Kent West <*)))><
http://kentwest.blogspot.com
Praise Yah! \o/
--
Andrew Sackville-West
[...]
>
> After a couple of reboots, and after running wicd-client from the actual
> machine instead of over ssh, the machine did not lock up; it did see the
> various ACUWireless networks, but when I tried clicking on the first
> one, it thought for a minute or two, then reported "Connection failed:
> Unable to get IP Address".
in the properties of the "ACUWireless" network (in wicd's interface)
there is a check box for "treat all networks with this name the same
way" or something to that effect. Select that box and then it will
automatically work it's way through the list of available APs
attempting to connect until it finally works.
A
Andrew Sackville-West
I have seen this exact behavior at my uni. The wireless tools are
picking, generally, the AP with the strongest signal and trying to
associate with it. But that AP denies association for whatever reason
(too busy perhaps), but the tools aren't smart enough to realize this
and move on to the next AP and try associating.
My solution, for quite a while, was repeated issuances of:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 ap off
while watching a syslog tail. Then I would see it finally associate
and *hopefully* do it before dhclient times out.
In my experience, this means that your wireless is essentially working
correctly, but is just not getting association with a free AP. Around
my school, this behavior is correlated with the number of running
laptops in the vicinity. For example, over in the liberal arts areas,
there are relatively few laptops and the AP's are generally
available. I can associate on the first or second try. Meanwhile in
the CS and engineering areas, laptops proliferate like bunnies and it
can take several attempts to get association.
[...]
> I thought I was through with the machine, but I may have to bring it
> back up to the ACUWireless network, so I might get to play with it some
> more.
I finally installed wicd and it is sophisticated enough to handle this
situation. Now my wireless just works. It can be slow to come alive if
there is a lot of traffic around, but it still gets me connected with
no fiddling on my part.
very much my .02
A