Howto get an automatic Wifi connection?

[Patrick Lists]

Hi all,

I have a PC with F8 & a usb wifi dongle and I would like to configure
the PC that when it boots it will automagically negotiate a WPA2/PSK
802.11g link with my Access Point and get an IP address from the DHCP
server behind the AP.

Since the PC boots into runlevel 3 I can not use NetworkManager. Instead
I have the network service enabled. The kernel module for the wifi
dongle autoloads and the dongle is recognized, active and ready to go to
work.

Now how do I configure this WPA2/PSK link to my AP?

Your feedback is most appreciated.

Thanks,
Patrick

[Patrick Lists]

On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 19:53 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>  On Thu, 2008-05-01 at 01:34 +0200, Patrick wrote:
>  > Hi all,
>  > 
>  > I have a PC with F8 & a usb wifi dongle and I would like to configure
>  > the PC that when it boots it will automagically negotiate a WPA2/PSK
>  > 802.11g link with my Access Point and get an IP address from the DHCP
>  > server behind the AP.
>  
>  Given that the Wifi is via a USB dongle, the first order of business
>  would be to make sure your system recognizes it and has the appropriate
>  drivers. Can you use iwconfig, iwlist etc? 
It's a Speedtouch ST121G and it works fine with ndiswrapper. It lists
the available networks with iwlist wlan0 scan.

>  If that all works then you need to look at configuring
> wpa_supplicant,
>  which is where the WPA stuff is handled.  It in turn may need to
>  interact with dhclient and then of course you want to start it up on
>  boot. I've managed to do this once in a while on Ubuntu and Fedora, but
>  it is definitely a head-banger to get going. Once it works you don't
>  touch anything and it generally keeps working. Google is your friend :-) 
Ok that sounds like a start. I'll look into wpa_supplicant. Any idea if
I have to configure system-network-services too?

Thanks,
Patrick

[max]

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 7:49 PM, Patrick <fedora-list(a)puzzled.xs4all.nl&gt; wrote:
>  On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 16:35 -0700, Konstantin Svist wrote:
>  > Patrick wrote:
>  > > Hi all,
>  > >
>  > > I have a PC with F8 & a usb wifi dongle and I would like to configure
>  > > the PC that when it boots it will automagically negotiate a WPA2/PSK
>  > > 802.11g link with my Access Point and get an IP address from the DHCP
>  > > server behind the AP.
>  > >
>  > > Since the PC boots into runlevel 3 I can not use NetworkManager. Instead
>  > > I have the network service enabled. The kernel module for the wifi
>  > > dongle autoloads and the dongle is recognized, active and ready to go to
>  > > work.
>  > >
>  > > Now how do I configure this WPA2/PSK link to my AP?
>  > >
>  > > Your feedback is most appreciated.
>  >
>  > I believe Ubuntu does what you want: http://xkcd.com/416/
>  > :)
>
>  I saw that one earlier today and had a good laugh. Thanks for the
>  reminder.
>
>  > More serious, NetworkManager doesn't work in runlevel3 because it needs
>  > a GUI frontend to manage it.
>
>  Yup that's why I have turned off the NetworkManager service and turned
>  on the network service.
>
>  >  In Fedora 9 (which comes out soon), it should work in runlevel 3 without a
> problem.
>
>  That's good to know but doesn't really help configuring the current F8
>  based setup. Any suggestions howto setup an automatic WPA2/PSK link to
>  my Access Point?
>
>  Thanks,
>  Patrick
>  
Try making the keyring password the same as the login password, you
would of course have to put the wifi password in the keyring first.
This method is used by some with success but for others it appears not
to work. I saw a rough howto in one thread or another recently so you
will have to dig for it, I haven't gotten around to trying it myself
but I will eventually when I find the time. It involves(this is from
memory so i suggest you dig search the last few days archives for it)
deleting all refernces to the old keyring first and then starting a
new keyring with the same password as you use for login. As you can
see I don't remember much but i keep the old threads even if i don't
read them all, for searching.

Max

[Patrick Lists]

On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 16:35 -0700, Konstantin Svist wrote:
>  Patrick wrote:
>  > Hi all,
>  >
>  > I have a PC with F8 & a usb wifi dongle and I would like to configure
>  > the PC that when it boots it will automagically negotiate a WPA2/PSK
>  > 802.11g link with my Access Point and get an IP address from the DHCP
>  > server behind the AP.
>  >
>  > Since the PC boots into runlevel 3 I can not use NetworkManager. Instead
>  > I have the network service enabled. The kernel module for the wifi
>  > dongle autoloads and the dongle is recognized, active and ready to go to
>  > work.
>  >
>  > Now how do I configure this WPA2/PSK link to my AP?
>  >
>  > Your feedback is most appreciated.
>  
>  I believe Ubuntu does what you want: http://xkcd.com/416/
>  :) 
I saw that one earlier today and had a good laugh. Thanks for the
reminder.

>  More serious, NetworkManager doesn't work in runlevel3 because it
> needs 
>  a GUI frontend to manage it. 
Yup that's why I have turned off the NetworkManager service and turned
on the network service.

>   In Fedora 9 (which comes out soon), it should work in runlevel 3
> without a problem. 
That's good to know but doesn't really help configuring the current F8
based setup. Any suggestions howto setup an automatic WPA2/PSK link to
my Access Point?

Thanks,
Patrick

[Patrick Lists]

On Thu, 2008-05-01 at 17:09 +0000, Mike wrote:
>  Mike Burger <mburger <at> bubbanfriends.org> writes:
>  
>  > He's using wifi radar...it's a python based package.
>  > 
>  > There is a Fedora RPM package for it, though it's 2 releases behind. 
>  > Google turned it up at
>  > 
>  >
>
> http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/6/i386/repoview...
>  
>  It is available for F8 also:
>
> http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/8/Everything/...
>  /wifi-radar.html 
Thanks Mike. With the other helpful suggestion I now have two
approaches. Hopefully one will succeed. Wifi-radar looks interesting.
Will give it a try.

Regards,
Patrick

[mike cloaked]

Patrick <fedora-list <at> puzzled.xs4all.nl> writes:

>  Ok that sounds like a start. I'll look into wpa_supplicant. Any
> idea if
>  I have to configure system-network-services too? 
I posted on this thread earlier too.... with some suggestions for you.

http://marc.info/?l=fedora-list&m=120962531218585&w=2

[Mike Burger]

>  Mike Burger <mburger <at> bubbanfriends.org> writes:
>
> > He's using wifi radar...it's a python based package.
> >
> > There is a Fedora RPM package for it, though it's 2 releases behind.
> > Google turned it up at
> >
> >
>
> http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/6/i386/repoview...
>
>  It is available for F8 also:
>
> http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/8/Everything/...
>  /wifi-radar.html 
Which, when you get to it, still lists as an fc6 package, based on the
package's nomenclature. :-D
-- 
Mike Burger
http://www.bubbanfriends.org

Visit the Dog Pound II BBS
telnet://dogpound2.citadel.org or http://dogpound2.citadel.org

To be notified of updates to the web site, visit:

https://www.bubbanfriends.org/mailman/listinfo/site-update

or send a blank email message to:

site-update-subscribe(a)bubbanfriends.org

[mike cloaked]

Mike Burger <mburger <at> bubbanfriends.org> writes:

>  He's using wifi radar...it's a python based package.
>  
>  There is a Fedora RPM package for it, though it's 2 releases behind. 
>  Google turned it up at
>  
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/6/i386/repoview...

It is available for F8 also:
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/8/Everything/...
/wifi-radar.html

[Konstantin Svist]

Patrick wrote:
>  Hi all,
>
>  I have a PC with F8 & a usb wifi dongle and I would like to configure
>  the PC that when it boots it will automagically negotiate a WPA2/PSK
>  802.11g link with my Access Point and get an IP address from the DHCP
>  server behind the AP.
>
>  Since the PC boots into runlevel 3 I can not use NetworkManager. Instead
>  I have the network service enabled. The kernel module for the wifi
>  dongle autoloads and the dongle is recognized, active and ready to go to
>  work.
>
>  Now how do I configure this WPA2/PSK link to my AP?
>
>  Your feedback is most appreciated.
>
>  Thanks,
>  Patrick
>
>
>     

I believe Ubuntu does what you want: http://xkcd.com/416/
:)

More serious, NetworkManager doesn't work in runlevel3 because it needs 
a GUI frontend to manage it. In Fedora 9 (which comes out soon), it 
should work in runlevel 3 without a problem.

[Patrick Lists]

On Thu, 2008-05-01 at 13:22 +0000, Mike C wrote:
>  Patrick <fedora-list <at> puzzled.xs4all.nl> writes:
>  
>  > Ok that sounds like a start. I'll look into wpa_supplicant. Any idea if
>  > I have to configure system-network-services too?
>  
>  I posted on this thread earlier too.... with some suggestions for you.
>  
>  http://marc.info/?l=fedora-list&m=120962531218585&w=2 
Thanks Mike. I seem to have missed your initial response in the barrage
of email this list generates. Thanks for repeating it. Will give your
suggestions a try.

Regards,
Patrick

[Mike Burger]

>  Patrick <fedora-list <at> puzzled.xs4all.nl> writes:
>
> > Ok that sounds like a start. I'll look into wpa_supplicant. Any idea if
> > I have to configure system-network-services too?
>
>  I posted on this thread earlier too.... with some suggestions for you.
>
>  http://marc.info/?l=fedora-list&m=120962531218585&w=2 
I finally got madwifi, wpa_supplicant and my Acer Aspire 5100-3357 talking
to my home wifi network, last night.

I then remembered that a friend of mine was using a gui tool to manage his
wifi preferences, and decided to ask him about it.

He's using wifi radar...it's a python based package.

There is a Fedora RPM package for it, though it's 2 releases behind. 
Google turned it up at

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/6/i386/repoview...

while the project lives at:

http://wifi-radar.systemimager.org/

There's another project that looks promising...wicd...which lives at:

http://wicd.sourceforge.net/

I plan on giving wifi radar a try.
-- 
Mike Burger
http://www.bubbanfriends.org

Visit the Dog Pound II BBS
telnet://dogpound2.citadel.org or http://dogpound2.citadel.org

To be notified of updates to the web site, visit:

https://www.bubbanfriends.org/mailman/listinfo/site-update

or send a blank email message to:

site-update-subscribe(a)bubbanfriends.org

[mike cloaked]

Patrick <fedora-list <at> puzzled.xs4all.nl> writes:

>  > > I have a PC with F8 & a usb wifi dongle and I would
> like to configure
>  > > the PC that when it boots it will automagically negotiate a WPA2/PSK
>  > > 802.11g link with my Access Point and get an IP address from the DHCP
>  > > server behind the AP.
>  > >
>  > > Since the PC boots into runlevel 3 I can not use NetworkManager. Instead
>  
>  That's good to know but doesn't really help configuring the current F8
>  based setup. Any suggestions howto setup an automatic WPA2/PSK link to
>  my Access Point? 
I have been doing exactly this with three different laptops for quite a while.
I do not need Networkmanager at all.  I use wpa_supplicant which works like
a charm once set up properly.  The details of how I went over to this method
are given in my web page at:

http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~mdc1/fedora_wireless.html

I have one machine with ipw2200, another with iwl3945 and a third using
a usb wireless dongle. The key is making sure that the wireless drivers
are working first - then set up wpa_supplicant and then switch that on
during boot. I used WEP initially for tests and then went over to 
WPA - you can set it up so it will auto connect to specified APs.

Hope this helps.

[Tim]

On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 16:35 -0700, Konstantin Svist wrote:
>  More serious, NetworkManager doesn't work in runlevel3 because
> it
>  needs a GUI frontend to manage it. In Fedora 9 (which comes out soon),
>  it should work in runlevel 3 without a problem.  
I thought I read that you can use it, already, in runlevel 3 to connect.
The GUI allowing you to change how it works, but the system managing to
connect by itself if it can.

Sounds like it's worth an experiment, if you can fire up X temporarily
to get things going once, then see if it just works by itself without X.

-- 
(This computer runs FC7, my others run FC4, FC5 & FC6, in case that's
 important to the thread.)

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Thu, 2008-05-01 at 01:34 +0200, Patrick wrote:
>  Hi all,
>  
>  I have a PC with F8 & a usb wifi dongle and I would like to configure
>  the PC that when it boots it will automagically negotiate a WPA2/PSK
>  802.11g link with my Access Point and get an IP address from the DHCP
>  server behind the AP. 
Given that the Wifi is via a USB dongle, the first order of business
would be to make sure your system recognizes it and has the appropriate
drivers. Can you use iwconfig, iwlist etc?

If that all works then you need to look at configuring wpa_supplicant,
which is where the WPA stuff is handled.  It in turn may need to
interact with dhclient and then of course you want to start it up on
boot. I've managed to do this once in a while on Ubuntu and Fedora, but
it is definitely a head-banger to get going. Once it works you don't
touch anything and it generally keeps working. Google is your friend :-)

poc