Can't find a GUI to configure wireless in CentOS 5

pauls69p · 04-18-2007, 06:39 PM

I recently posted a challenge with Broadcom wireless on an HP computer. I had the opportunity to exchange the computer for a Toshiba with an Atheros card. I was able to get the machine to recognize the wireless card using madwifi. The challenge I have now is actually configuring and using the wireless. The system sees the card but will not activate it because it is not configured... I have gone through the gui but cannot find a place to set the SSId, Wep Key, etc. I have looked under System, Administratin, Network. It only has options to set IRQ, DMA, etc. I am running CentOS 5 and it is completely updated. Anyone have any thoughts? I have read online about Network Manager but cannot seem to install it with yum. I would be ok with manually configuring it through a shell but cannot seem to get that going either trying to use iwconfig. Any help is much appreciated.

Lenard · 04-19-2007, 06:24 AM

Just create a file in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts named something like ifcfg-wifi0 and another called keys-wifi0 for your WEP key. Examples below;
ifcfg-wifi0 file;

TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=wifi0
HWADDR=
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
IPADDR=
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=
DHCP_HOSTNAME=MyCoumpterNameHereIfDesired
DOMAIN=
ONBOOT=yes
ONHOTPLUG=yes
USERCTL=yes
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=no
ESSID=MyRoutersSSID
CHANNEL=X

keys-wifi0 file;
KEY=<some HEX number here>

or

KEY=s:<some ascii string here>

Also make sure that the wireless device has a line entry in /etc/modpobe.conf like;
alias wifi0 madwifi

Then restart the network service as root: service network restart

Use the typed command 'iwlist wifi0 scan' minus the single quoutemarks to find out things like which CHANNEL (see the ifcfg-wifi0 example) to use, example;

Code:

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:0A:E9:09:EC:60
                    ESSID:"MyRouter"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.422 GHz (Channel 3)
                    Quality:81/100  Signal level:-44 dBm  Noise level:-96 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=1000
                    Extra:atim=0

It is betyer to start with WEP off until you get your connection the first time.

Try using the Network GUI (system-config-network) if you cannot find it in the menu then open a terminal as root and type: system-config-network

If you get no response then check if the package is installed or not;

rpm -qa system-config-network

richardbaxter · 07-05-2011, 10:45 PM

This seemed to work;

gedit /etc/sysconfig/hwconf
search for the reference to "wlan0", and find the name of the deviceId
su root
cd /sbin
modprobe wirelessDeviceIdName
./chkconfig network off
./chkconfig wpa_supplicant off
./chkconfig NetworkManager on
./service NetworkManager start