Network Manager, IPW-2915, WPA/WPA2 FC5 Issues Solved

[chocobanana]

jhc, take a look at this post. It is still unsolved, but it might have a solution soon....

http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/sho...d.php?t=101545

[Mickey79]

Originally Posted by Iron_Mike

4. Next comes the wpa_supplicant config files, go to the directory /etc/wpa_supplicant. Using a editor open the "wpa_supplicant.conf" and edit it, here is mine

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
ap_scan=1 <--------This is because I'm broadcasting SSID, If not broadcasting it will be 2
update_config=1
network={
ssid="mesa_wifi" <-----You need the quote marks
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
proto=WPA
pairwise=CCMP <-----This is AES, you can use TKIP also
psk="my password!" <-----Plain text, with quotes
}

ONE NOTE, it seems WPA_SUPPLICANT doesn't like weird control characters in the password!.

Save and exit.

5. Next go to /etc/sysconfig With a editor open wpa_supplicant mine looks like this:

# wlan0 and wifi0
# INTERFACES="-iwlan0 -iwifi0"
INTERFACES="-ieth1" <----Changed to correspond to my interface with quotes
# ndiswrapper and prism
# DRIVERS="-Dndiswrapper -Dprism"
DRIVERS="-Dwext" <-----Added this as I couldn't get -Dipw to work with quotes

BIG NOTE, even with FC4 I could not get the -Dipw option to work, I had to switch to the -Dwext which is Fedora's wireless extension.

I do not think these steps are necessary if you want to use Network Manager. My objections are that it works no matter wpa_supplicant.conf is configured or not but it does not work if I turn off SSID broadcast in my access point configuration (tried Netgear WG602v2 and Checkpoint VPN-1 Edge). If I use neat even ap_scan=2 does not help. The only thing that helps in my configuration is the option scan_ssid=1. But until now I could not find a way to tell Network Manager that it should use this option.

[Iron_Mike]

If you are not going to broadcast your SSID, you will have to open NetworkManager and select "Create Network Connection" and enter the SSID, key type, etc.....

[aschreiber1]

Originally Posted by jhc

Hi, I am able to get through the whole WPA hurdle and can finally connect to my wireless network, but I cannot gain access to the internet . Am I still missing something from my setup? Help/suggestions would be much appreciated.

Make sure that you have "Automatically obtain DNS information from provider" checked off for your wireless card (or any card for that matter) under System => Administration => Network. You have to select the card and click "Edit" to modify.

[aschreiber1]

I am in quite a pickle because I have spent the last week tinkering with everything wireless and encryption related in FC5 and the only way I can connect to the internet via WiFi is if I run the following two commands after I login.

1. iwconfig wlan0 essid 'myssid'
2. dhclient wlan0

I can't use encryption b/c I can't get any of the necessary services to work. When I try running wpa_supplicant by itself it freezes my OS and when I try to run NetworkManager it reboots my computer.

Any ideas?

[Iron_Mike]

Originally Posted by aschreiber1

I am in quite a pickle because I have spent the last week tinkering with everything wireless and encryption related in FC5 and the only way I can connect to the internet via WiFi is if I run the following two commands after I login.

1. iwconfig wlan0 essid 'myssid'
2. dhclient wlan0

I can't use encryption b/c I can't get any of the necessary services to work. When I try running wpa_supplicant by itself it freezes my OS and when I try to run NetworkManager it reboots my computer.

Any ideas?

Do you happen to have the wpa_supplicant service enabled under services?? If so turned it off, does Networkmanager still cause a reboot???

[jhc]

There is a wpa_supplicant update at http://fedoranews.org/cms/node/548 . I have not tried it yet, but it may solve some problems that quite a few of us are having.

[chocobanana]

Hi there

I have another question

I'm connecting to a wpa protected network. How do I make network manager connect automatically without always asking me a password?

Thanks

[Mickey79]

Originally Posted by Iron_Mike

If you are not going to broadcast your SSID, you will have to open NetworkManager and select "Create Network Connection" and enter the SSID, key type, etc.....

Of course. But this "hint" does not help.

[aschreiber1]

wpa_supplicant is stopped by default. So when I try and run NetworkManager it just reboots.

[aschreiber1]

Will this update work with the Belkin Pre-N wireless card that uses the Netgear drivers?

If you check out this page http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...=379814&page=2 about midway down the page a user named "ben666" provides a wealth of information that enabled me to at least get to the point where I am now.

The two key pieces of information he provides are:

1. If you download the Netgear WPNT511 driver (the firmware download) you'd find the timestamp is newer (as opposed to using ndiswrapper with the actual drivers for the Belkin card).

2. Add pci=assign-busses to the boot parameter of the kernel in grub.conf.

Using that information and running these commands from a terminal window:

1. iwconfig wlan0 essid 'myssid'
2. dhclient wlan0

get me online but without encryption.

[Iron_Mike]

Originally Posted by chocobanana

Hi there

I have another question

I'm connecting to a wpa protected network. How do I make network manager connect automatically without always asking me a password?

Thanks

I don't think there is a way, it will ask for the "network password" or the "keyring manager" password. It would make it a little more convienent to have it automatically logon to a wpa network.

[aschreiber1]

It worked!!! Wow! I am so thrilled! No if only I could get NetworkManager to work too so I can have everything running automatically at startup.

Updating wpa_supplicant from this url (http://fedoranews.org/cms/node/548) worked!!!

[Iron_Mike]

Originally Posted by aschreiber1

wpa_supplicant is stopped by default. So when I try and run NetworkManager it just reboots.

How are you trying to start NetworkManager?? From a terminal window or did you enable the services from the "services" menu???

[dr.destroyer]

I also managed to get wireless network working using WPA2 encription, but in my case it was achieved in simpler way without editing any configuration files.
1. I turned on NetworkManager and NetworkManager Dispatcher in runlevels 3,4,5 (4 is probably not required)
2. I downloaded ipw2200 firmware and extracted them to /lib/firmware
3. I rebooted my notebook, NetworkManager appeared in gnome's notification area.
4 I left clicked NetworkManager icon and chose my network, it was already there.
5. In window that appeared I chose WPA2 and automatic encryption (you can also explicily choose TKIP or AES I think) and typed in WPA2 passphrase and passwords for keyring and voila, it worked.
6. In network configuration I turned off automatic activation of my wired connection.

The network works perfectly. But in System/Administration/Network there are no entries for wireles connection, only one entry for ethernet connection. But it works.

I don't know where NetworkManager stores the configuation. Does anybody know where it is stored?