wpa_supplicant in start script - how does it work?

[henner]

Hi,

 

the reason why my wlan is crypted by WEP-key is, that i have no success with enter the wpa_supplicant command line in the start script (/etc/init.d/network).

 

What is to do that wpa_supplicant comes up with the WLAN initiation at boot time?

 

wpa_supplicant works when i start it manualy.

 

thx for yor help.

 

Henner

[coverup]

I did all configuration by editing config scripts but that what a while ago. You might be able to achieve the same result using GUI tools. Here is what you need to do:

 

1. In the interface config script (in my case it's /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1), you need to add lines

ENCRYPTION=ON
WPA=y

2. The script ifup-wireless must include the lines which start wpa supplicant when the interface is up. Append these lines in the end of the file (assuming that wpa_supplicant is in /usr/local/bin/, change as necessary):

 
if [ "$WPA" = "y" -a -x /usr/local/bin/wpa_supplicant ]; then
   /usr/local/bin/wpa_supplicant -Bw -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -i$DEVICE
fi

 

3. Check if you have the script /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-wireless. If not, create it, it should contain these two lines:

#!/bin/bash
killall wpa_supplicant

 

This script will have to be called from /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown. You must have these lines in ifdown:

DEVICETYPE=`echo $DEVICE | sed "s/[0-9]*$//"`
[ -z "$REALDEVICE" ] && REALDEVICE=`echo ${DEVICE} | sed 's/:.*//g'`

# is the device wireless?
is_wireless_device ${DEVICE} && . ./ifdown-wireless

If you don't have the last two lines, add them. That's all. Now restart network:

# service network restart

 

Edit: Of course, you need to be root to edit the scripts. All scripts you create must be made executable:

# chmod a+x <scriptname>

[Qchem]

Please post back if this solves the problem, seems like a good tip that may need to be pinned!!

[coverup]

Please post back if this solves the problem, seems like a good tip that may need to be pinned!! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It worked on my MDK 9.2 system :P - unless I missed something, it's been a while since i got it working - never had to tweak it again.

[tamathumper]

Tried it - no joy :( I can connect with no security, and my XP machines all connect with WPA, but something is wrong with wpa_supplicant

[Qchem]

Tried it - no joy :( I can connect with no security, and my XP machines all connect with WPA, but something is wrong with wpa_supplicant

 

If WPA supplicant won't work from the CLI, it's not going to work by adding those commands to start up.

[ianw1974]

What is the contents of your wpa_supplicant.conf file? I've had it working perfectly fine under Mandriva 2006.

[tamathumper]

What is the contents of your wpa_supplicant.conf file? I've had it working perfectly fine under Mandriva 2006.

 

I've tried a lot of different contents based on different threads I've Googled... Currently the contents are:

 

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

ctrl_interface_group=0

eapol_version=1

ap_scan=1

 

network={

ssid="linksys"

key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

proto=WPA

pairwise=TKIP

group=TKIP

psk="my really secret passphrase"

}

 

I can see my access point from the Mandriva One laptop, and it has a new Linksys wireless card and I have a new Linksys WAP54G access point and a new Linksys WRT54G router, but it will not connect to either of them using WPA.

[coverup]

Here is mine

#ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
#ctrl_interface_group=wheel
ap_scan=2

network={
 ssid="MySSID"
 scan_ssid=0
 key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
 proto=WPA
 pairwise=TKIP
 group=TKIP
 psk="my really secret passphrase"
}

As you can notice, I have scan_ssid=0 in combination with ap_scan=2. This is because my AP does not broadcast SSID. It took a while for me to get it to work with SSID broadcast disabled, and I had to try several versions of the supplicant. Currently, I use version 0.3.9 built from the source.

 

Try to enable the broadcast (if it's disabled) and also try the combination ap_scan=1, scan_ssid=1. Also, make sure that the WPA key on the router is set to ASCII and that the key length is within the limits (30 ASCII characters if I am not mistaken).