Configure Wireless Manually

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This requires you to do some other more complicated things. It also assumes that you have some knowledge of how to use a unix terminal, and that you have already installed your wireless driver.

Contents

[edit] iwconfig

Check what your wireless interface is by typing this

iwconfig

Look at the output. You should see a list of your network interfaces on the left side. The interface that you are looking for is the one WITHOUT the following:

no wireless extensions

It should be something like "wlan0" or "eth1" or "ath0.", and should never be eth0.


[edit] wpa_suppliant.conf

Now, find your wpa_supplicant.conf. It is usually at /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, or /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. Open it with your favorite text editor, and add this section to it:

network={
	ssid="cavalier"
	proto=WPA
	key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
	pairwise=TKIP
	group=TKIP
	eap=TLS
	identity="mst3k@Virginia.EDU"
	private_key="/path/to/certs/mst3k-cert.p12"
	private_key_passwd="YOUR-UVA-PASSWORD"
	priority=1 # You may want to comment this line out when you aren't at UVa
} 

If the file does not exist yet, then you should make sure that wpa_supplicant is installed. If it is, then stick this at the top first:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=2
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1


[edit] Connecting

Now, try running this:

wpa_supplicant -i<INTERFACE_NAME> -D<WLAN_DRIVER> -c<CONFIG_FILE>

INTERFACE_NAME = the interface name found above WLAN_DRIVER = usually wext<\tt>, unless you are using madwifi, then it's <tt>madwifi CONFIG_FILE = /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

If all worked, then the wpa_supplicant will stop spitting out text, and will mention something that looks like:

CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx completed (auth) [id=0 id_str=]

If it never reaches that point, your configuration is erred. Check it. If the configuration is correct, and still mentions CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED, then there is likely a driver problem. Try upgrading your kernel, or suffer through it.  :-)

Once that is done, you can run a dhcp client (dhcpcd or dhclient) as root in another terminal:

dhcpcd -d <IFNAME>

You should get an IP address. You might want adjust your system's init scripts, or put that in its own init script. Where the init scripts are is beyond the scope of these instructions.


[edit] Also See

The following are gui

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