[SATLUG] Continued knoppix problem

[Mitch Thompson]

John Champion wrote:

>where i stand on this...
>
>well i've tried forcing an ip into iwconfig ath0 and i have tried forcing an
>ip via the /etc/network/interfaces and still nothing.
>
>i'm out of ideas...i can work just fine with the WEP turned off but i think
>we all know why i don't want to run my home network that way.
>
>i just cannot seem to make ath0/eth0 see the network.
>
>the kwifimanager sees it, the other tools for configuring wifi see it...i
>just cannot figure out what's missing.
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "John Champion" <me at jchampion.com>
>To: <satlug at satlug.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 10:42 PM
>Subject: [SATLUG] Continued knoppix problem
>
>
>  
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I've spent several days now and I just don't understand what I could be
>>doing wrong. I have managed to configure the WiLan section so that my
>>    
>>
>system
>  
>
>>sees the encrypted wireless network.
>>
>>The problem is that the network adapter isn't able to pull DHCP info from
>>the router.
>>
>>I even tried putting in a static IP but it doesn't seem recognize the
>>network.
>>
>>There are a whole list of options that the configurator asks me but since
>>    
>>
>I
>  
>
>>cannot get it work, and I'm too tired to setup Samba to share with the
>>Windows side of this new laptop, I don't have all the different boxes that
>>pop open and their options.
>>
>>Does anyone have any ideas?
>>
>>Thanks!
>>john
>>
>>    
>>
John,

Apologies if this sounds redundant:  I didn't see all of your posts on this.

If I understand you correctly, you are attempting to get WPA running
instead of WEP on Knoppix, correct?

I just yesterday got WPA working with my laptop using Ubuntu 5.04
(Warty).  Since both are Debian based, maybe my configuration files will
provide some help.  If I'm totally off base, my apologies in advance for
wasting time.

First, my /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file (trimmed, of course):


ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1
network={
        scan_ssid=0
        ssid="TestAP"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        proto=WPA
        pairwise=CCMP TKIP
        group=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
#       psk="your ASCII keyphrase here"
        psk=the hex equivalent of your keyphrase here
}

To generate the psk, from the command line, type

wpa_passphrase <ESSID> <passphrase>

Cut and paste the result into your /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file.

Next, in /etc/network/interfaces, do something similar to the following:


iface ath0 inet dhcp
pre-up /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -Dmadwifi -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -i
ath0 -B
post-down /usr/sbin/wpa_cli terminate

auto ath0

This is all I did to get WPA working.  I have a 90% success rate getting
it to work every time.  Sometimes it takes a bit to get in sync.  To
watch your progress, open another terminal and type "wpa_cli".  This
will bring up a monitor program for wpa_supplicant.  Then, in the first
terminal, enter your "ifup ath0" command.  In the wpa_cli window, you
can see the handshaking between wpa_supplicant and the AP.  Once that is
negotiated, dhclient (or pump) will negotiate the IP address.  I have
occasionally seen timeouts where dhclient gave up before the WPA keys
were established.  Simply entering "dhclient ath0" worked after that. 
Probably could set a timeout value somewhere if this gets too annoying.

My card is a Netgear WG511T and the AP is a Netgear WGT-624 being used
as an AP/switch only...I have an old Dell Latitude laptop with SuSE 9.3
Pro set up as my firewall/NAT router, so I can play with Snort.

Hope this helped.

Mitch Thompson
RHCE