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    Getting Linux to do wireless authentication?

    Discussion in 'Linux Compatibility and Software' started by J. J. Ramsey, Sep 23, 2006.

  1. J. J. Ramsey

    J. J. Ramsey Notebook Enthusiast

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    I bought a dual-boot laptop to run Linux: the Thinkpad R60e. It has a ipw3945 wireless card. It runs Ubuntu Dapper, and as far as I can tell, the driver is installed correctly. The ipw3945d daemon runs in the background, and if I run "iwlist scan", I get a list of access points at my university. Unfortunately, I have not been able to connect to any of them on Linux. On Windows XP, it works.

    The university uses LEAP authentication. I know my user name and password, and even the domain name: UANET. I've tried xsupplicant, which so far has been good at segfaulting but nothing else (and its documentation is out of date, too), and I've tried wpa_supplicant, which doesn't crash, but isn't helping me connect either, so far. You can see the configs I've tried here:

    http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=260440

    and also here:

    http://lists.shmoo.com/pipermail/hostap/2006-September/014191.html

    As you can see, I've consulted several places, but haven't found anything that actually helps. Googling finds me a lot of people with similar problems, but no real solutions.

    What the heck is going wrong? Linux can be tricky sometimes, but here I'm dealing with a situation where I seem to be following the documentation, and things are failing anyway. It's enough to make me consider just going with Windows + Cygwin, or scrounging up the money for a MacBook. :(
     
    J. J. Ramsey, Sep 23, 2006
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  2. noahsark

    noahsark Notebook Evangelist

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    You might not be using the right parameters for wpa_supplicant. I didn't check any of what you tried, but you can go to this page: http://kanotix.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-19518.html
    and see if you are using the same kinds of things I used. Also, the link in the page was useful, too.
     
    noahsark, Sep 23, 2006
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  3. gusto5

    gusto5 Notebook Deity

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    gusto5, Sep 24, 2006
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  4. J. J. Ramsey

    J. J. Ramsey Notebook Enthusiast

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    If you Googled for "ipw3945", you would have found that there are already native Linux drivers for my wireless.

    Maybe, but what I've tried so far is already in the documentation and sample config files. That's why I find this so frustrating. Usually, between RTFM and STFW, I can find a solution, but not this time.
     
    J. J. Ramsey, Sep 24, 2006
    #4