Why WPA always fails on reboot unless...

[Gandurash]

Hello,

I am still new to Linux and its been a week I am trying to figure-out my problem with WPA.

I recently installed Atheros wireless LAN card and it went smoothly. Than continuing to setup the wpa_supplicant. The problem is that my WPA won't connect me to internet on reboot unless I enter this line:

# wpa_supplicant -iath0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dmadwifi -dd

and the console in which I enter the line will need to stay opened. If I close the console, then the network connection will fails.

Could anyone tell me what to do to automatically start the wireless connection upon restart?

Thank you.

[HaydnH]

Run "chkconfig wpa_supplicant on" to make the wpa service start at boot - to control the service manually you should use "service wpa_supplicant start|stop|restart".

[bbfuller]

Hello Gandurash

Normally you wouldn't need to resort to the command line to start a wireless card.

If your wireless card is installed you will get some sensible output from the commands:

iwconfig

and

iwlist scan

Then the usual way to control the card is with NetworkManager.

If you have installed from a DVD and have Gnome running you should be able to left click on the icon top right of the top tool bar and select your network.

If you have KDE running from the DVD then you will have to fetch KNetworkManager from the Main Menu - System. Sometimes in KDE you need to log out and back in, or even reboot, before the KNetworkManager appears in the system tray.

If you are running from an install from one of the Live CD's then the underlying NetworkManager Service is not usually started as default.

service NetworkManager status

will tell you if it is.

system-config-services

will in any event allow you to start it and save the changes so it starts at boot if necessary.

If you are using NetworkManager to manage the card then in:

system-config-network

the card should not be set to "Activate on boot"

NetworkManager does not like sharing control of the card with anything else.

If you are able to use NetworkManager then wpa_supplicant should not be set to run. NetworkManager will call it when needed.

Hope those get you going. We'll be looking for any results.