How To: Manual Network Configuration without the need for Network Manager

[kevdog]

I got problems connecting by wifi on my Intel 3945 abg. Here are the step that worked for me:
1 - to connect to wifi the ASCI (text) password won't work so I generate the password and add it to /etc/network/interfaces prior to any other changes
$sudo wpa_passphrase mywifinetwork secretwpa2key >> /etc/network/interfaces
this added
wpa-ssid homezone
# hexadecimal psk is encoded from a plaintext passphrase
wpa-psk 000102030405060708090a0b0c0d0e0f101112131415161718 191a1b1c1d1e1f
to interfaces

2- After doing this I added the following
$sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Great tip -- not sure I can incorporate this into the original guide - but nice find none-the-less!!

[vosnack]

I can't do it. My Wireless Network is simply DISABLED and whatever I try doesn't work. If someone could point me in the right direction I would be more than thankful. I try to install Belkin N Wireless USB Adapter F5D8053 on Ubuntu 10.04. I tried almost everything I could find on the internet. I found that drivers for this device should already be here so I've got rt2870 and rt2860, disabled rt2800usb(blacklist). Tried all the modprobe commands etc. But because my linux understanding is limited I don't really know the processes and I think some link is missing. Anyway the dongle's light doesn't turn on. Please help

[vosnack]

Some output:
for lshw -C network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 01
serial: 00:11:43:ca:94:40
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.102 firmware=5751-v3.29a ip=192.168.1.64 latency=0 multicast=yes
resources: irq:16 memory:dfcf0000-dfcfffff
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
logical name: wlan0
serial: 94:44:52:44:0f:cf
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=802.11b/g

[vosnack]

km@km-desktop:~$ sudo lsmod | grep rt28*
[sudo] password for km:
rt2860sta 481561 0
rt2870sta 461811 0

[kevdog]

I don't know a lot about your device, only that the two kernel modules you have loaded rt2860sta, rt2870sta don't seem to be the correct drivers. Are you sure these are correct? Does dmesg give you any hint whats going on when the drivers are loaded either at boot or by hand with the modprobe statements?

[vosnack]

Hi. Thank you for your interest. You would have to walk me through it as I don't really know what you mean. As I mentioned I've got no idea how ubuntu works. how do I read the output? the problem i'm facing is that nothing happens even though i followed the exact instructions. At the moment I would need someone with the knowledge to help me as I tried few solutions and nothing. And I'm starting to wonder whether I didn't mess up something by following wrong instructions. The main problem is that there's no communication with dongle but usb can see it as 'belkin corporation' or something like that. I don't think it realizes it's a network card.

[vosnack]

Anyone willing to help me?

[nowifi]

Greetings - noticed rt2860 driver referred to - does

dmesg | grep RT2

show something like?:

[   35.973068] RtmpOSFileOpen(): Error 2 opening /etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat
[   35.973078] Open file "/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat" failed!
[   36.297303] RtmpOSFileOpen(): Error 2 opening /etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat
[   36.297312] Open file "/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat" failed!
[  200.006646] Read file "/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat" failed(errCode=0)!
[ 1894.184783] Read file "/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat" failed(errCode=0)!
[ 2373.659265] Read file "/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat" failed(errCode=0)!
[ 2405.543895] Read file "/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat" failed(errCode=0)!
[ 3581.869741] Read file "/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat" failed(errCode=0)!
[ 3635.055932] rt28xx_close call RT28xxPciAsicRadioOff fail !!
[ 3639.283087] Read file "/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat" failed(errCode=0)!
[ 3697.880831] Read file "/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat" failed(errCode=0)!

A RT2860STA.dat file must be created and Network Manager restarted using:

sudo su
mkdir -p /etc/Wireless/RT2860STA
touch /etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat
service network-manager restart
exit

OOB, out of the box, the UNR 10.04 Live CD is missing the file (ie. it is a bug)
/etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat which is required for the RT2860 driver as specified by the dmesg | grep RT messages.

The given script creates the file (with null content) so the driver "works".

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Another wrinkle (bug!) however is that it is exceedingly difficult to effect a connection with non-broadcasting SSID routers (the SSID is "hidden" but not the router service).

While this thread is about alternate (manual) methods to Network Manager the following process in this post will use NM with some "manual" labour to coerce such connections, because NM's Connect to Hidden Wireless Network ... left click menu option is ineffective.

Thus,

sudo iwconfig wlan0  essid  <hidden SSID> key s:<ASCII password string>

is needed while toggling the Enable Wireless right click function of Network Manager to make the wireless connection and then selecting the now visible SSID from NM's wireless service drop down menu list.

sudo iwlist scan

can be used for monitoring: when the router's ESSID:<hidden SSID> is seen instead of ESSID:"" then the router will be seen (eventually, in ~ 20 or 30 sec.) in NM's drop down menu at which point it can be selected.

Is there a simple and short script to totally dispense with the need for NM? hmmm ... not this:

sudo su
ifconfig wlan0 up
dhclient -r wlan0
iwconfig wlan0  mode Managed essid  <hidden  SSID> key s:<ASCII password string>
dhclient wlan0
exit

ref:
Re: Ubuntu 10.04 using the Ralink RT2860 WiFi chipset (e.g. EeeBox B202)

[kevdog]

I can add this information to the original post, however did this solution work for you?

[nowifi]

yes - original post 971 modified with more details