Trying to use WPA with Orinoco Gold WiFi card

[boatman9]

I have an Orinoco Gold WiFi card that I would like to use in WPA mode. This card was originally made for WEP with 128 bit encryption. Like many older WEP cards it is now supported for use with WPA (but not WPA2). I began by configuring the card with MLCC / Network & Internet / Set up a new network interface (LAN, ISDN, ADSL, ...)

 

The settings I used were; Operating Mode = Managed, "WPA Pre-Shared Key" and I entered my 8 digit ASCII pre-shared key (which works with the Orinoco card in Windows, and for my Nokia N800). When no connection was made I went back to MLCC / 'Network Center'. There I could see eth1, "Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE Version 01.01", and the spot to the left is red, not green, indicating no connection. Furthermore when I click "Configure" I see that it is set to "Open WEP", not "WPA Pre-Shared Key".

 

So then I had a look at the tail end of wpa_supplicant.conf, here is what I found. (For this post I replaced my pre-shared key with yyyyyyyyyy, and the ssid I changed to zzzzzzzzzz).

 

network={
psk="yyyyyyyyyy"
scan_ssid=1
ssid="zzzzzzzzzz"

 

This is my /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 file:

DEVICE=eth1
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
METRIC=35
MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=no
USERCTL=no
RESOLV_MODS=no
WIRELESS_MODE=Managed
WIRELESS_ESSID=zzzzzzzzzz
WIRELESS_ENC_KEY="open s:yyyyyyyyyy"
WIRELESS_WPA_DRIVER=wext
IPV6INIT=no
IPV6TO4INIT=no
DHCP_CLIENT=dhclient
NEEDHOSTNAME=no
PEERDNS=yes
PEERYP=no
PEERNTPD=no
}

 

Any idea what needs to be changed or added? Maybe someone can post an example of the tail end of a working wpa_supplicant.conf file that is working in WPA mode (not WPA2 mode).

Edited April 9, 2008 by boatman9

[Greg2]

Are you using a Lucent/Agere card, or a Proxim (Proxim made some Gold cards)? What is the firmware version? Please insert the card (or boot with the card inserted), and post the relevant section of your dmesg output for us to see?

 

I'm asking you these questions because its only been recently that David Kilroy has finished a patchset that enables WPA on Agere based firmwares.

 

Please read: sourceforge.net/mailarchive

[boatman9]

pccard: PCMCIA card inserted into slot 0

pcmcia: registering new device pcmcia0.0

eth1: Hardware identity 0001:0001:0004:0002

eth1: Station identity 001f:0001:0008:0048

eth1: Firmware determined as Lucent/Agere 8.72

eth1: Ad-hoc demo mode supported

eth1: IEEE standard IBSS ad-hoc mode supported

eth1: WEP supported, 104-bit key

eth1: MAC address 00:02:2D:75:78:CE

eth1: Station name "HERMES I"

eth1: ready

eth1: orinoco_cs at 0.0, irq 3, io 0x2100-0x213f

ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready

eth1: Lucent/Agere firmware doesn't support manual roaming

=================================================

 

Also, from lshw:

*-network

description: WaveLAN/IEEE

product: Version 01.01

vendor: Lucent Technologies

physical id: 0

slot: Socket 0

resources: irq:3

 

and this:

configuration: broadcast=yes driver=orinoco driverversion=0.15 firmware=Lucent/Agere 8.72 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b

[Greg2]

Then as I understand it, from what I've read in the orinoco-users mailing list: You are not going to be able to use WPA with your card properly, using your current Linux kernel with the existing module. I see that the patchset was made against the 2.6.24 kernel, and they will pick the cleanest patches to send them to the kernel. When these patches have been submitted and approved, then they will be added to the mainstream kernel.

 

You can find that info here: kernel.org

 

I have checked for you, and they haven't been added yet. So until they are included in the kernel, I would suggest that you upgrade to Mandriva 2008.1 with the Linux kernel 2.6.24.xx and apply the patchset that I've linked for you.

 

Sorry, that's the best suggestion I have to offer. :)

[boatman9]

Greg2,

 

Thanks for researching that issue. I will install 2008.1 as soon as I can be sure of getting the final release. When I booted 2008.1 RC1 from CD I noticed the wireless setup menu offers WPA2, a choice not found in 2008.0, so I'm hoping 2008.1 will bring some WiFi benefits.

 

I had forgotten about dmesg, but then used it to get some details enabling me to install an ACX111-based wireless network card. This card needed a firmware file, tiacx111c16, placed in /lib/firmware/ so it can be loaded each time the computer boots, or maybe it's each time the card is powered up. I got the ACX111-based card working, but not for WPA or WPA2.

[boatman9]

I got 2008.1 RC2 and ran it from CD in order to do some tests. I was able to make two WiFi cards work in unencrypted mode, and also WEP, but WPA and WAP2 modes do not work on 2008.1 RC2, at least not running from CD. The two cards I used are Orinoco Gold and Airlink AWLC3025. I have been reading past posts and I see where someone running 2007 was able to use WPA, but so far no one has actually come out and said "yes, I'm using 2008 with WPA". So after many hours spent I am going to make the pronouncement that WPA and WPA2 do not work in 2008.0 and 2008.1. Hopefully someone will prove me wrong about that!

[daniewicz]

I am using 2008.0 (2.6.22-18-desktop586-1mdv) with a ipw3945 wireless card and WPA2.

 

Belkin wireless router F5D9230-4

Edited April 8, 2008 by daniewicz

[coverup]

Mandriva overlooked WPA options in the 2008.0 drakconnect WiFi scripts except for WPA-PSK; see this post . After I applied the patch described in this post, I was able to connect to the network that uses WPA enterprise.

[boatman9]

Mandriva overlooked WPA options in the 2008.0 drakconnect WiFi scripts except for WPA-PSK

About the WPA drakconnect WiFi scripts you mentioned, are these scripts used only during WPA configuration or are they used whenever connecting with WPA? Do we have the same issue with WPA2 scripts?

 

If the WPA-PSK scripts are in 2008.0, then I'm not sure why I had a problem trying to set up WPA-PSK mode with my Orinoco and Airlink cards.

Edited April 8, 2008 by boatman9

[coverup]

About the WPA drakconnect WiFi scripts you mentioned, are these scripts used only during WPA configuration or are they used whenever connecting with WPA? Do we have the same issue with WPA2 scripts?

 

If the WPA-PSK scripts are in 2008.0, then I'm not sure why I had a problem trying to set up WPA-PSK mode with my Orinoco and Airlink cards.

A short answer is WPA-PSK is perfectly supported by Mandriva 2008 out of the box. WPA2 is not supported out of the box, but the post I mentioned previously shows that this finctionality can be added - tested, works.

 

A longer answer... WPA encryption is handled by the piece of software called wpa_supplicant. Using it, WPA and WPA2 were supported in Linux effectively from the day these standards were introduced. However, wpa_supplicant does not include any GUI and must be configured manually - naturally, given the variety of Linux distros it would be an impossible task for the developer of the wpa_supplicant to develop such GUIs. drakconnect (more precisely, the part related to WPA encryption) is a GUI to configure wpa_supplicant on Mandriva systems. Once the connection is configured, to connect/disconnect, Mandriva simply exercises appropriate ifup or ifdown commands.

 

Therefore, to debug your problem you must narrow down the problem to a specific issue. Try this...

 

1. If its only WPA-PSK that you need, make sure the card works under Windows (ie, it is not blocked by the router's firewall, etc).

 

2. Make sure your card works under Linux. Can you connect to an open network? Can you connect using WEP encryption?

 

3. Does WPA work when using a different distro? You may want to check a live CD such as Ubuntu.

 

4. Inspect /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf. Make sure all wpa_supplicant parameters for your network are set correctly. Also, inspect /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 (possibly ifcfg-eth1, etc). Try to establish connection from the CLI using the ifup command, and see what you get. Try different wpa_supplicant parameters.