Slackware 12

Slackovado · 07-19-2007, 09:08 AM

I have Slackware 12 installed on my laptop (Tecra M2) and am trying to set up wireless.
The intel 2200bg wireless chip works fine.
My access point uses WPA so I understand that I have to use wpa_supplicant.
I got all that working from command line.
I start wpa_supplicant first with
wpa_supplicant -B -ieth1 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

I have the configuration for my AP entered in wpa_supplicant.conf and that part works fine now.
Next I just obtain an IP address with
dpcpcd eth1
That's it. I'm connected and networked.
Now, what I don't know is how do I automate it all?
I use rc.local to start wpa_supplicant for now
and then run dhcpcd from cli manualy.

KDE's wifi manager is useless as it doesn't work with wpa.
Any suggestions?
In particular, at point during boot and from where do I start the wpa_supplicant?

Thanks.

randomsel · 07-19-2007, 11:34 AM

might want to put all those commands together in a script, and run it from rc.local from background, that way the commands will work one after the other and won't slow down the bootup process.

I think rc.local is a fine place for placing those.

etienne · 07-19-2007, 12:08 PM

This is how I did it and works well for me :

Edit the file /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf
You have to put here the configuration of your wireless card.
I have something like this :
Code:
```
*)
    INFO="My Network"
    ESSID="MyESSID"
    ;;
```
The important thing here is the ESSID. If you need more option, the file is well documented.
Edit the file /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf
You set here the configuration for each of your network interface. If you use eth1 you should have something like this :
Code:
```
IPADDR[1]=""
NETMASK[1]=""
USE_DHCP[1]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[1]=""
WLAN_WPA[1]="wpa_supplicant"
WLAN_WPADRIVER[1]="wext"
```
USE_DHCP="yes" says that you get your IP address by DHCP.
WLAN_WPA="wpa_supplicant" says that you use wpa_supplicant for authentification.
WLAN_WPADRIVER="wext" is the WPA driver for Intel 2200BG.
There are others configuration attributes but I don't use any of them (see the file itself for all possibilities).
Be sure that /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 and /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless are "executables" and at the next boot your connexion will be automatically up

Vincent_Vega · 07-19-2007, 04:53 PM

Or you could just add a couple lines to your /etc/rc.local file as mentioned above:

Code:

iwconfig ath0 essid "YOUR_NETWORK"
ifconfig ath0 up
wpa_supplicant -iath0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf &
dhcpcd ath0

That's all I have and my laptop, using madwifi and the 'ath0' interface, starts just fine.

Slackovado · 07-19-2007, 05:30 PM

Thanks to all for your replies and help.
The rc.local solution is certainly an option but the downside is that any services that depend on a network interface being up and running will not function correctly.

So I like etienne's solution best and I think it's how Slackware meant for the network to be configured.
I will test it later today and see if it'll work for me.

Maybe suitable for a new thread, and if so let me know, but I'll ask anyway.
I've used wpa_gui for the first time and see that it has the ability to update wpa_supplicant.conf if run as root.
Is it something that would be useful when connecting to public wifi AP, or any AP outside of my regular network?
How do people with Slackware scan for wifi AP's? And subsequently connect to them?

Thanks again for your help.

Slackovado · 07-21-2007, 03:34 PM

Well, it's working great.
I followed etienne's advice and entered the settings there.
I did have wpa_supplicant.conf configured beforehand though.
The only thing I had to do is download and install the firmware.
Now when I boot, I'm automaticaly connected to my wireless AP.
However, dmesg doesn't show any info, ip, mac etc, like it used to for regular wired connection, but I can live with that.
Thanks all for your help.

randomsel · 07-21-2007, 05:00 PM

Wasn't it ifconfig and iwconfig that showed the ip/mac of the interface?

windrose · 07-22-2007, 03:20 AM

I'd like to share my solution here which is to edit rc.wireless.conf. The original rc.wireless.conf after a clean installation is a case driven script. I think it too complicated for my need. So I just replace it with my own one:

Code:

    INFO="Intel ipw2200"
    # ESSID (extended network name)
    ESSID="mywifi"
    NWID=""
    # Operation mode : Ad-Hoc, Managed, Master, Repeater, Secondary, auto
    MODE="auto"
    # Frequency or channel : 1, 2, 3 (channel) ; 2.422G, 2.46G (frequency)
    FREQ=""
    CHANNEL="6"
    # Sensitivity (cell size + roaming speed) : 1, 2, 3 ; -70 (dBm)
    SENS=""
    # Bit rate : auto, 1M, 11M
    RATE=""
    # Encryption key : 4567-89AB-CD, s:password
    KEY=""
    # RTS threshold : off, 500
    RTS=""
    # Fragmentation threshold : off, 1000
    FRAG=""
    # Other iwconfig parameters : power off, ap 01:23:45:67:89:AB
    IWCONFIG=""
    # iwspy parameters : + 01:23:45:67:89:AB
    IWSPY=""
    # iwpriv parameters : set_port 2, set_histo 50 60
    IWPRIV=""
    # WPA support, set KEY="" above
    WPA="wpa_supplicant"
    # wpa_supplicant driver
    WPADRIVER="wext"