How to wpa_supplicant in Fedora

[letmein]

Originally Posted by Darkmage

When you click on "Desktop -> System Settings -> Network" and put in the root password. Do you have a wireless connection setup? If you do highlight the wireless connection and click on edit. Make sure the "nickname" matches /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicants entiries.
Check your "Wireless settings" tab and the "Mode" should be Managed, "Network ssid" should be Auto

Ok, I did that, the nickname is eth1, but it is still not working.

[Darkmage]

edit /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant and change INTERFACES="-iwlan0" to INTERFACES="-ieth1"
save your changes and click on Desktop -> Systems Settings -> Server Settings -> Services
type in the root password and scroll down to wpa_supplicant and restart the services or just restart your pc.
Basically everytime you make changes to wpa_supplcant, you to restart the running service.

[letmein]

Originally Posted by Darkmage

edit /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant and change INTERFACES="-iwlan0" to INTERFACES="-ieth1"
save your changes and click on Desktop -> Systems Settings -> Server Settings -> Services
type in the root password and scroll down to wpa_supplicant and restart the services or just restart your pc.
Basically everytime you make changes to wpa_supplcant, you to restart the running service.

Ok, I tried that already. wpa_supplicant is able to start successfully but if I go into wpa_gui, there is still nothing under the adapter box. I even tried restarting the computer, but stil the same thing. Is there a way to try if wpa_supplicant works without using wpa_gui?

[Darkmage]

@letmein
Do a search for wpa_supplicant in the "How To Articles" section and there is another section "how to" that explained the command line interface.

Also, if the gui interface is not working, I doubt the command line interface will work.
open a terminal/konsole and type in

ntsysv

scroll down to wpa_supplicant and does it have a checkmark on it?

[letmein]

I dont have ntsysv, that might be the problem.

[root@localhost Jim]# ntsysv
bash: ntsysv: command not found
[root@localhost Jim]#

[Darkmage]

Originally Posted by letmein

I dont have ntsysv, that might be the problem.

[root@localhost Jim]# ntsysv
bash: ntsysv: command not found
[root@localhost Jim]#

I meant /usr/sbin/ntsysv or navigate to Desktop menu -> System Settings -> Server Settings -> services, then you type the root password and what is the status of wpa_supplicant

[letmein]

I have decided to reformat my Fedora partition due to screwing up something else, hopfully it will work better after a reinstall.

[Darkmage]

Originally Posted by letmein

I have decided to reformat my Fedora partition due to screwing up something else, hopfully it will work better after a reinstall.

I have noticed wpa_supplicant is in fedora development and I have since rebuild the src.rpm file to make it work for FC4, if you want I can send you the rpms

[letmein]

Originally Posted by Darkmage

I have noticed wpa_supplicant is in fedora development and I have since rebuild the src.rpm file to make it work for FC4, if you want I can send you the rpms

Yes that would be greatly appericiated. I have reformated and reinstalled wpa_supplicant, but it is still giving me the same problem. The weird thing is if I uninstall and reinstall wpa supplicant, I would be able to see eth1 in wpa_gui, but if I try to connect to my network, I cannot get a IP address. After restarting the computer, the addapter section in wpa_gui is blank again.

[Darkmage]

Originally Posted by letmein

Yes that would be greatly appericiated. I have reformated and reinstalled wpa_supplicant, but it is still giving me the same problem. The weird thing is if I uninstall and reinstall wpa supplicant, I would be able to see eth1 in wpa_gui, but if I try to connect to my network, I cannot get a IP address. After restarting the computer, the addapter section in wpa_gui is blank again.

Okay here are the rpms, it does require some dependencies, so the best way to install them is
edit /etc/yum.conf and change gpgcheck to 0, save and exit.
and root, do yum localinstall wpa_supplicant-0.5.1-4.i386.rpm wpa_supplicant-gui-0.5.1-4.i386.rpm.
After the install, change gpgcheck back to 1.

[letmein]

Allright, I installed the packages using yum, and made the necessary changes to /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant, but when I go and start the service, I get the following:

wpa_supplicant failed. The error was: Starting wpa_supplicant: Line 539: unknown EAP method 'FAST'
You may need to add support for this EAP method during wpa_supplicant
build time configuration.
See README for more information.
Line 539: failed to parse eap 'FAST'.
Line 545: failed to parse network block.
Line 550: unknown EAP method 'FAST'
You may need to add support for this EAP method during wpa_supplicant
build time configuration.
See README for more information.
Line 550: failed to parse eap 'FAST'.
Line 556: failed to parse network block.
Failed to read or parse configuration '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf'.
[FAILED]

[Frelov]

Originally Posted by Darkmage

Okay here are the rpms, it does require some dependencies, so the best way to install them is
edit /etc/yum.conf and change gpgcheck to 0, save and exit.
and root, do yum localinstall wpa_supplicant-0.5.1-4.i386.rpm wpa_supplicant-gui-0.5.1-4.i386.rpm.
After the install, change gpgcheck back to 1.

the wpa_supplicant*0.5.1* is for FC5. will it work ok in FC4?

I used the rpms listed in your original howto post by going straight to ftp://ftp.silfreed.net/repo/fedora/4...freednet/RPMS/ and saving the files into home, then creating wpa_supplicant dir and moving them into it.

Everything appears to have installed correctly and the service started successfully

I am using FC4 on a sony vaio pcg-frv27 with a wpc54g installed via NDISwrapper. It works ok with open or wep (even wep with 128 bit keys) but won't work with wpa-psk. So after much searching I found your article and followed it to a T. whenever I run the wpa_gui I get

"Status: Could not get status from wpa_supplicant".

Also the adapter and network lists are not populated with anything. Scanning does nothing.

I reinstated the launcher with "run in terminal" and prefacing the command with sudo (I have sudo configured to allow my user account with a password), now it will scan and show wlan0 after entering the user password

However, after the gui comes up it just sits there with

"Status: Scanning"

then I manually clicked on scan and scan results window comes up with the wireless networks in range (2 of them, one wep and 1 wpa-psk)

I double click on the wpa-psk protected network and enter the key and then close the scan results. The wpa_gui continues to alternate between "associated" (with "authentication wpa-psk, encryption tkip, ssid, bssid, and blank ip) and "Disconnected" (with "disconnect event - remove keys").

I have tested the network under windows wireless and it works fine with the same key.

The wireless router is the 2wire home portal that at&t supplies with their broadband service.

Any suggestions? I feel bad asking you after you've answered so many questions for others but I have not found information as clearly and simply stated as yours and I'm not technically inclined in the least. I'm just a simple user trying to get away from windows if I can.

Thanks.

[letmein]

That sounds like the exact problem I am having, except for me, when I restart the computer, wpa_gui goes back to "cannot get status from wpa_supplicant".

[Darkmage]

Originally Posted by letmein

Allright, I installed the packages using yum, and made the necessary changes to /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant, but when I go and start the service, I get the following:

wpa_supplicant failed. The error was: Starting wpa_supplicant: Line 539: unknown EAP method 'FAST'
You may need to add support for this EAP method during wpa_supplicant
build time configuration.
See README for more information.
Line 539: failed to parse eap 'FAST'.
Line 545: failed to parse network block.
Line 550: unknown EAP method 'FAST'
You may need to add support for this EAP method during wpa_supplicant
build time configuration.
See README for more information.
Line 550: failed to parse eap 'FAST'.
Line 556: failed to parse network block.
Failed to read or parse configuration '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf'.
[FAILED]

verify that /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf is the same as this

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=10
opensc_engine_path=/usr/lib/opensc/engine_opensc.so
pkcs11_engine_path=/usr/lib/opensc/engine_pkcs11.so
pkcs11_module_path=/usr/lib/pkcs11/opensc-pkcs11.so
update_config=1

network={
        ssid="any"
        key_mgmt=NONE
        disabled=1
}

[Darkmage]

Originally Posted by Frelov

the wpa_supplicant*0.5.1* is for FC5. will it work ok in FC4?

I used the rpms listed in your original howto post by going straight to ftp://ftp.silfreed.net/repo/fedora/4...freednet/RPMS/ and saving the files into home, then creating wpa_supplicant dir and moving them into it.

Everything appears to have installed correctly and the service started successfully

I am using FC4 on a sony vaio pcg-frv27 with a wpc54g installed via NDISwrapper. It works ok with open or wep (even wep with 128 bit keys) but won't work with wpa-psk. So after much searching I found your article and followed it to a T. whenever I run the wpa_gui I get

"Status: Could not get status from wpa_supplicant".

Also the adapter and network lists are not populated with anything. Scanning does nothing.

I reinstated the launcher with "run in terminal" and prefacing the command with sudo (I have sudo configured to allow my user account with a password), now it will scan and show wlan0 after entering the user password

However, after the gui comes up it just sits there with

"Status: Scanning"

then I manually clicked on scan and scan results window comes up with the wireless networks in range (2 of them, one wep and 1 wpa-psk)

I double click on the wpa-psk protected network and enter the key and then close the scan results. The wpa_gui continues to alternate between "associated" (with "authentication wpa-psk, encryption tkip, ssid, bssid, and blank ip) and "Disconnected" (with "disconnect event - remove keys").

I have tested the network under windows wireless and it works fine with the same key.

The wireless router is the 2wire home portal that at&t supplies with their broadband service.

Any suggestions? I feel bad asking you after you've answered so many questions for others but I have not found information as clearly and simply stated as yours and I'm not technically inclined in the least. I'm just a simple user trying to get away from windows if I can.

Thanks.

the wpa_supplicant*0.5.1* is for FC5. will it work ok in FC4?
Yes it will work because it has been rebuilt against FC4 and some modifications have been made so it keeps ssid when you restart your pc. Also a bug report have been filed against wpa_supplicant in development

Thank you for an insightful question. I now remember what I did differently to make wpa_supplicant work.
Like you found out wpa_supplicant needs root-like acess, so what I did was click on Desktop -> System Settings -> Users and Groups. When prompted type in the user root password and hightlight your username and click on Properties. The User Properties windows comes up, then go to the Groups Tab and scroll all the way down to wheel group and put a check mark and Ok out of the window.

Open a terminal and become root and type in

 visudo 

# Same thing without a password
%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

This is the only section that needs to be changed - just remove the comment on %wheel. Save and exit