[SOLVED] Cannot get wpa_supplicant to connect to WPA network

Question

Hello everybody,
first of, thanks for the great wiki & forum. I am very new to linux (I've startet with Ubuntu last week) so configuring is something very new to me. Now, on topic:
I am using a Belkin Wireless G USB Network Adapter (F5D7050 / v.4003). The Ubuntu Wiki says that the zd1211rw driver is the correct one. But: if I don't have any encryption set
on my wireless network , I can simply connect using
# iwconfig
# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwconfig wlan0 essid <myssid>
# dhcpcd wlan0
so it is working, I can browse the web, etc.
But if I re-enable WPA/WPA2 (a mixed network), I cannot connect, neither using the method described above, nor using this:
# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwconfig wlan0 essid <myssid>
# wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
If I use the wpa_supplicant method, it gives me the following error:
Trying to associate with xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx (SSID='<myssid>' freq=2442 MHz)
CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: No such file or directory
Associated with xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Authentication with xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx timed out.
CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: No such file or directory
And it goes on and on like that, just reprinting these lines forever until I stop the session. I have also tried ndiswrapper, madwifi, prism54 (and zd1211rw, but it says it doesn't exist), without success.
Here's my wpa_supplicant.conf:
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=users
network={
ssid="<myssid>"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=TKIP
group=TKIP
proto=WPA
#psk="verysecretphrase"
psk=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
And here's (some of) my rc.conf:
INTERFACES=(!eth0 wlan0)
wlan0="dhcp"
interface=(wlan0)
gateway="default gw 192.168.01"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
Now, i don't know whether this is a driver problem (driver I'm using not working with WPA), a config problem (but why can I connect to unencrypted networks, then?) a router problem (I dont think so, because Windows can connect to the encrypted network without problems.), or anything else...
I have also tried netcfg, but according to the wiki it doesn't work without a properly configured wpa_supplicant anyway, so the fact that it isn't working is not surprising.
I have read in a lot of places about this, and many people seem to have wireless problems but none of the sollutions worked. I seem to be missing something crucial, like configurating a file. Could anyone give me a pointer? If you need additional files / outputs, let me know!
Last edited by MrAllan (2008-12-12 19:42:53)

Answer 1

First off, welcome to the Arch forums.
I had problems initially with wpa_supplicant, as well, but that was awhile ago so I'll try to see if I can give you a little assistance.  This is my /etc/wpa_suppicant.conf.
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1
network={
ssid="ssid_name"
psk=a_bunch_of_numbers_and_letters_with_no_quotation_marks
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=TKIP
group=TKIP
proto=WPA
So as you can see, I don't have the ctrl_interface=DIR=...etc, so I don't know if that is your problem.  Also, did you create a /var/run/wpa_supplicant directory (this messed me up at first, even though it was mentioned in the wiki)?
I do use netcfg, as well as wifi-radar to let me see what networks are available when I travel.  This is my /etc/network.d/wireless profile--if you want to try that.
CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE=wlan0
SCAN="yes"
SECURITY="wpa-config"
ESSID="ssid_name"
KEY=""
IP="static"
IFOPTS="192.168.0.101 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
GATEWAY="192.168.0.1"
TIMEOUT=30
My ip is static but I believe you just have to replace "static" with "dhcp" if you choose that.
Don't know if any of that will help but if you can connect without encryption, wpa is likely your culprit.