L.E.A.P. functionality in linux (as in, what is it?)

tcaptain · 12-11-2003, 01:17 PM

I hope someone out there knows about this.

Basically I found out that my University has a wireless network for students. Naturally since I am there a lot of the time now, I want to use it as I am entitled.. However, the IT staff is EXTREMELY Windows centric...ie: If you don't have windows 2000 or XP they don't want to talk to you. Period. Even windows 98 they won't do...

After a while, and a lot of calling and surfing their webpages, I got into contact with the guy in charge...asking for network details so I could access the network through my account (ie: server address, SSID, WEP key, whatever...).

This is the ENTIRE reply (clear as mud):

"Presently, there is no stable PEAP client for Linux. If you wish to use the
Wireless network with a Linux distribution, you will need a network card
with LEAP functionality."

That's all well and good...but what the heck is PEAP and LEAP? And where do I find out what cards have it? I thought it was software...is hardware? Ugh!

I've been googling but getting nowhere fast. Anyone can clarify or point me somewhere?

2Gnu · 12-11-2003, 02:07 PM

Here are the definitions.

The home page of the group that developed Xsupplicant shows the basic concept: 802.1x provides for an access gate to wireless. There are various ways to do this, EAP being one protocol and various methods (MS-CHAP, MD5, LEAP) beneath it.

There will be a central authentication server, usually RADIUS, controlling access to the access point (sorry for the redundancy) by communicating with a client (supplicant). The most recent version of Xsupplicant will support the PEAP protocol. Alternatively, you can use a commercial supplicant like Meetinghouse Data offers ($40).

Most Prism, classic ORiNOCO and Cisco cards will support these protocols and authentication methods, but check with the vendor to be sure of firmware versions, etc.

tcaptain · 12-11-2003, 03:12 PM

interesting. Wow, thank you so much for the links.

I guess I'll have to try and play with xsupplicant and see what it gives me. From what I know, the netgear I have uses the orinocco_ps driver, so maybe I do have that functionality. The site has no docs at the link online, but I'm assuming the source code will have some...

if I understand it correctly, this will allow somewhat the same functionality as the description of the windows software...ie: I fire it up and give it my username/password combo and it will find the RADIUS server and authenticate there?

Forgive me, I'm still new to wireless, I'm used to writing out my SSID, and WEP key in a conf file and fireing it up

As anyone had any success with this software?

h/w · 12-11-2003, 03:22 PM

hi - i have the same issue with my school network. they use cisco APs and we have to get cisco vpn clients if we ever want to connect to it from a windows machine.

one of the guys from helpdesk was kind enough to send me a tarball of a linux cisco vpn client. but it wasnt any help in the end, cos he didn't attach it in the mail properly.
amazing!!

i dont know if the guys there will give the details of the network (they prefer to say that linux is unsupported, and we should just use windows), and if they dont, then its a moot point if you can get your card leaping, peaping, or whatever...

JordanH · 12-11-2003, 03:50 PM

We use LEAP at work and Linux is supported. I have yet to be at the office with my linux laptop so I have no idea if it works yet.

We are using Cisco Aironet cards and have an rpm for Cisco-Leap. I'm not sure if this is allowable for me to post so I will refrain - you can try to google for Cisco-LEAP.i386.rpm

edit: From our support page at work...

Quote:

Driver Pre-requisites:

If you are running the Linux Client for e-business v2.00 you are already at the correct driver levels and you skip to the next section. To determine your Linux Client for e-business version, at the command-line type:

# distinfo -v

The v1.5.2 Aironet drivers needed for LEAP are included already in the Linux kernel 2.4.9-12. To check your kernel level type 'uname -r' if you are at the 2.4.9-12 level or later then skip to the next section.

If you do not meet the above pre-requisites then your client is not supported for LEAP. However, the driver source-code is included in the Cisco-LEAP RPM package (linked below). You may attempt to compile this code on your specific kernel but be warned - this is a complicated process for expert users - so use this as a last resort.

Quote:

Hardware Pre-requisites:
The minimum firmware pre-requisite for LEAP is AiroNet's v4.25.10 (v4.25.23 is the latest but causes errors with an unpatched Linux driver). This firmware level is located in the above RPM under:

/opt/cisco/firmware/PC350v42510.img

You can update the firmware of your wireless card from either Windows or Linux. On Windows, the Aironet Client Utility (ACU) is typically on the desktop. On Linux, the 'acu' utility is included in the RPM under:

/opt/cisco/bin/acu

Launch the ACU utility with the wireless card inserted (using Linux or Windows). Select the "Load New Firmware..." option and select the firmware image file from above.

tcaptain · 12-11-2003, 04:19 PM

well I just downloaded xsupplicant, I read the docs and I *think* my card will work with it, since its uses the orinocco_ps (and I think the actual chipset is prism, but I may be wrong). The client is pretty straight forward on the command line (which I like).

Only problem is that I'm having a little bit of difficulty with it not finding my openssl-devel packages in the ./configure step, but I should be able to fix that eventually (I hope)...I may have some time later to tinker with it and if I manage to get it installed, I should be able to test within a few days.