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Thread: HOWTO: WPA on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

  1. #1
    0. Preface

    First of all, I'd like to thank luca_linux for posting the great ipw2200+wpa HOWTO, which helped me get my own WPA set up. However, that HOWTO is a little old (based on an older wpasupplicant and Ubuntu 5.04?) and assumed that one had internet access from the WPA-needing system (how else to apt-get wpasupplicant?). Also, the newer wpasupplicant package provides its own startup script. So here is my updated version, most specifically targeted at newer users not as familiar with Linux.

    1. Assumptions

    • You have access to a computer setup with internet access that can download a small file (156KB) and transfer it to some portable media (e.g. a floppy disk).
    • You have successfully installed Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) on the system that needs WPA-enabled wireless access.
    • You have your wireless card driver installed and correctly configured.


    2. Download wpasupplicant

    On the internet-enabled computer, download wpasupplicant from the Ubuntu repository. On a Linux machine, it would look like this:

    Code:
    wget http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/w/wpasupplicant/wpasupplicant_0.4.5-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
    And then copy it to a floppy drive (or whatever you plan to copy it to):

    Code:
    mount /media/floppy
    cp wpasupplicant_0.4.5-0ubuntu1_i386.deb /media/floppy
    umount /media/floppy
    3. Install wpasupplicant

    Now get on your Breezy Badger machine, mount the disk with wpasupplicant, and install it:

    Code:
    mount /media/floppy
    sudo dpkg -i /media/floppy/wpasupplicant_0.4.5-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
    4. Edit wpasupplicant configuration files

    First I would recommend backing up the default configuration files:

    Code:
    sudo cp /etc/default/wpasupplicant /etc/default/wpasupplicant_backup
    sudo cp /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf_backup
    Then begin by editing /etc/default/wpasupplicant:

    Code:
    sudo gedit /etc/default/wpasupplicant
    Change line 5 to:
    Code:
    ENABLED=1
    and change line 16 to something like:
    Code:
    OPTIONS="-D madwifi -i ath0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -w"
    Values in red need to be customized to match your system. The first parameter indicates the driver being used, in my example madwifi for my Netgear WG311T, but can be one of: hostap, hermes, madwifi, atmel, wext, ndiswrapper, broadcom, ipw, wired, bsd, and ndis. If not sure which one to use, consult the wpa_supplicant README.

    Now we will edit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

    Code:
    sudo gedit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
    Comment out the last 4 lines like so:

    Code:
    #network={
    #        ssid=""
    #        key_mgmt=NONE
    #}
    Then we will append the appropriate information to the end of this file from the terminal:

    Code:
    wpa_passphrase your_ssid | grep -v "#psk" | sudo tee -a /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
    Once again, your_ssid needs to be customized to match your setup. This step allows us to store the passphrase in something other than plain text. The operation will appear to halt: it is waiting for you to enter in your WPA passphrase. Type it in, and press enter. Some output will appear: that information has just been added to your configuration file. Then we will only allow root to read the file:

    Code:
    sudo chmod 600 /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
    Now we are done editing the configuration files!

    5. Configure wpasupplicant to start when booting

    It is essential that wpasupplicant run after your wireless card driver is loaded but before Ubuntu attempts to configure it via DHCP or whatever. Since the scripts in /etc/rcS.d are executed in ascending alphanumeric order, this meant, in the case of my setup, after the hotplug (run level 40) but before networking (also run level 40). Therefore, I needed the startup script to be alphabetically between "hotplug" and "networking", so I called it "iwpa":

    Code:
    cd /etc/rcS.d
    sudo ln -s ../init.d/wpasupplicant S40iwpa
    Now wpasupplicant will startup at the appropriate time each time you have to reboot.

    6. Start wpasupplicant

    Fortunately, we don't have to reboot to enjoy the newly configured WPA. Just bring up the startup script and restart your networking:

    Code:
    sudo invoke-rc.d wpasupplicant start
    sudo invoke-rc.d networking restart
    Enjoy!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Palermo, Italy
    Beans
    28

    Question Re: HOWTO: WPA on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

    Is there any wpasupplicant package for PPC Macs?

    EDIT: it looks like this one should work http://packages.ubuntu.com/cgi-bin/s...zy&release=all
    Last edited by Caesar; November 16th, 2005 at 11:55 PM.
    Testing UBUNTU on a 466 SE iBook

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Beans
    66

    Re: HOWTO: WPA on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

    Thanks! This worked a treat on my system. I use a 3Com OfficeConnect 11g card with ndiswrapper. The encryption on my wifi router is WPA-PSK/TKIP.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Beans
    15

    Re: HOWTO: WPA on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

    I attempted to use this howto to set up wpa on my laptop. It was connecting fine to my router without WPA, but upon setting the router to WPA and installing wpasupplicant using this tutorial, it no longer connects. It just blinks at me (where before I was getting a solid connection light).

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Beans
    366

    Re: HOWTO: WPA on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

    Any suggestions in how to use wpa in an environment where the laptop will be roaming from network-to-network with different (or nonexistent) wpa keys?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Palermo, Italy
    Beans
    28

    Unhappy Re: HOWTO: WPA on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

    Any idea about the driver I'm supposed to use with an Apple AirPort card (802.11b not 802.11g AirPort Extreme)?

    The card works great with WEP-configured access points... but at home I use a WPA secured network and I still can't use Ubuntu to login on my Wi-Fi network
    Testing UBUNTU on a 466 SE iBook

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Beans
    10

    Re: HOWTO: WPA on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

    Is networking supposed to automatically detect/configure the interface? For some reason I'm not getting an IP. Is there some config file I should edit to tell it to configure wlan0?

    FIXED

    I had to alter /etc/network/interfaces so everything that had eth0 was replaced with wlan0. I wasnt getting an IP even with that or dhclient, but turns out that was my router, restarted the router and it worked like a charm.
    Last edited by Spider-One; November 30th, 2005 at 02:45 AM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Beans
    514

    Re: HOWTO: WPA on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

    Good work.
    I've been very busy lately and my HowTos haven't been updated. I'm now downloading Breezy.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Beans
    1

    Re: HOWTO: WPA on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

    Most of it went smoothly until I tried to run the service and it said the hermes driver was not supported. I have a Dell TrueMobile 1150 which is using the hermes driver and works with WEP. Do I have to custom-compile this?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Groningen, The Netherlands
    Beans
    27
    Distro
    Kubuntu Breezy 5.10

    Re: HOWTO: WPA on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

    Would just like to say that it worked smoothly with the default ipw drivers and WPA-PSK.
    Simply restarting the services nor my old fashioned way of /etc/init.d/networking restart didn't bring it to life, though.
    But it worked after a restart.

    Cheers for this, I couldn't get it to work with the default wpa_supplicant package oddly enough, but this one works great.

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