Wireless Problem with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

groogruxking40 · 12-29-2009, 02:21 PM

Hey everyone,

I have been tearing my hair out trying to get my wireless to work.

Specs:

Asus 701 eeePC netbook
running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

This is what I've done:

My netbook was giving me major problems under 9.04, it was using waaaaaay too much hard drive space and memory, so I decided to downgrade to 8.04 LTS. Well there was a problem with the downgrade because the WIRELESS DRIVERS did not download.

When I go to Admin--Hardware Drivers I get this list:

Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL)
Support for Atheros 802.11 wireless LAN cards

Now, I did my research by downloading the madwifi as well as the Atheros driver and ran them in the terminal.

When I go to Admin--Wireless Network Drivers, this is what's listed:

net5211 hardware present: yes

so then I go to Configure Network and it shows my network :

2WIRE121
WPA Personal
I put in my Network Password

Connection Settings:

Automatic configuration (DHCP)

so all that is fine.

So at the top I have the double monitors.. and it gives me only one option.. Manual Network Configuration. It does not show any wireless networks

ANYONE PLEASE HELP ME!!!

P.S. I know this was a long post, I was just trying to cover all my bases

dreamwalking · 12-29-2009, 03:43 PM

What kernel are you using? What version of madwifi or ath5k? Does your card show when you iwconfig (as root)?

groogruxking40 · 12-29-2009, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreamwalking

What kernel are you using? What version of madwifi or ath5k? Does your card show when you iwconfig (as root)?

kernel- 2.6.24-21-eeepc
madwifi - 0.9.4
ath5k - ? I don't have this or are you talking about the Atheros?
if so its V5.3.0.56_XP

lo- no wireless extensisons

eth0- no wireless extensions

wlan0 - IEE: 802.11g ESSI: off/any

SaintDanBert · 12-29-2009, 04:19 PM

Folks,
I had all sorts of troubles with NetworkManager under Hardy (v8.04.3 LTS). Things were much better using wicd http://wicd.sourceforge.net/download.php.

Now I had Intel network hardware that had its own troubles over and above what you describe.

One common detail involves the "radio switch" on many laptops. This allows you to turn off the radio(s) for wifi and bluetooth and broadband [aka, cell phone modem]. It seems that many times it does not get turned on during boot even though the end-user does those things that say it should be on. Your hardware will do this somehow. Your kernel will learn about this some other how.

Hope this helps,
~~~ 0;-Dan

dreamwalking · 12-29-2009, 04:27 PM

ath5k is a driver for Atheros cards. I'm using it in my current system (2.6.30 kernel) for my Atheros AR5001, while in my previous (kernel 2.6.25) I was using madwifi. Actually I am not sure if it's related to the kernel version.

If you

Quote:

iwlist wlan0 scan

does it detect your network? And maybe you want to check again your /etc/network/interfaces? I personally prefer to configure my /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf and point the /etc/network/interfaces to it:

Quote:

# WiFi
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet auto
wpa-driver wext
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

(/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf reads: )

Quote:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
update_config=1
ssid="(my network name)"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=TKIP
group=TKIP
psk="(my pwd)"
}

If your wpa_supplicant.conf is configured alright, you should be able to connect to the network by giving a :

Quote:

wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

groogruxking40 · 12-29-2009, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaintDanBert

Folks,
I had all sorts of troubles with NetworkManager under Hardy (v8.04.3 LTS). Things were much better using wicd http://wicd.sourceforge.net/download.php.

Now I had Intel network hardware that had its own troubles over and above what you describe.

One common detail involves the "radio switch" on many laptops. This allows you to turn off the radio(s) for wifi and bluetooth and broadband [aka, cell phone modem]. It seems that many times it does not get turned on during boot even though the end-user does those things that say it should be on. Your hardware will do this somehow. Your kernel will learn about this some other how.

Hope this helps,
~~~ 0;-Dan

installing WICD now.. I'll be back to let you know how it went

did you have any other drivers installed? like madwifi or ath5k?
do i need to remove them? re-install?

groogruxking40 · 12-29-2009, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaintDanBert

Folks,
I had all sorts of troubles with NetworkManager under Hardy (v8.04.3 LTS). Things were much better using wicd http://wicd.sourceforge.net/download.php.

Now I had Intel network hardware that had its own troubles over and above what you describe.

One common detail involves the "radio switch" on many laptops. This allows you to turn off the radio(s) for wifi and bluetooth and broadband [aka, cell phone modem]. It seems that many times it does not get turned on during boot even though the end-user does those things that say it should be on. Your hardware will do this somehow. Your kernel will learn about this some other how.

Hope this helps,
~~~ 0;-Dan

Dan,
at least it is seeing my network now!
ok.. when I choose to connect to the network it just says

NONE: authenticating... over and over and then Not connected

what's up??

groogruxking40 · 12-29-2009, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreamwalking

ath5k is a driver for Atheros cards. I'm using it in my current system (2.6.30 kernel) for my Atheros AR5001, while in my previous (kernel 2.6.25) I was using madwifi. Actually I am not sure if it's related to the kernel version.

If you does it detect your network? And maybe you want to check again your /etc/network/interfaces? I personally prefer to configure my /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf and point the /etc/network/interfaces to it:

(/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf reads: )

If your wpa_supplicant.conf is configured alright, you should be able to connect to the network by giving a :

yes it does show my network.

my etc/network/interfaces looks like:

Quote:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface wkab0 inet dhcp
address 169.254.3.144
netmask 255.255.0.0
wpa-psk-- huge string of letters and numbers
wpa-driver wext
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-proto WPA
wpa-ssid 2WIRE121

auto wlan0

iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth0

I don't have a wpa_supplicant.conf file.. all I have in the wpa_supplicant folder is functions.sh and ifupdown.sh

is this a problem? how do I fix it?

dreamwalking · 12-29-2009, 06:28 PM

Ok, I sincerely don't know. I am not sure if Ubuntu uses or not a wpa_supplicant.conf, maybe for some reason it doesn't.

I suggest you wait for some user experienced with Ubuntu to help you with this.

What you could do is to write a wpa_supplicant.conf yourself in your home directory and then try the wpa_supplicant command I gave earlier:

Sample wpa_supplicant.conf

Quote:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
update_config=1

network={
ssid="your network name"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
psk="this long string of letters and numbers in your wpa-psk"
}

and then try:

Quote:

wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c /home/your username/wpa_supplicant.conf

I assume that, after every change, you restart your network:

Quote:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

groogruxking40 · 12-29-2009, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreamwalking

Ok, I sincerely don't know. I am not sure if Ubuntu uses or not a wpa_supplicant.conf, maybe for some reason it doesn't.

I suggest you wait for some user experienced with Ubuntu to help you with this.

What you could do is to write a wpa_supplicant.conf yourself in your home directory and then try the wpa_supplicant command I gave earlier:

Sample wpa_supplicant.conf

and then try:

I assume that, after every change, you restart your network:

OK-
here is my wpa_supplicant.conf file, which is located in home/myusername

Code:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
update_config=1

network={
ssid=2WIRE121
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
psk=e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97
}

ran this command wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/home/mark/wpa_supplicant.conf
and got this:

Quote:

Line 6: failed to parse ssid '2WIRE121'.
Line 6: failed to parse ssid '2WIRE121'.
Line 9: not allowed pairwise cipher (0x1e).
Line 9: failed to parse pairwise 'CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40'.
Line 11: failed to parse network block.
Failed to read or parse configuration '/home/mark/wpa_supplicant.conf'.

any ideas??

dreamwalking · 12-29-2009, 07:45 PM

Just to make sure, you are using sudo or are logged in as root, right?

Try to kill all related process and then restart them:

Quote:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo killall dhclient wpa_supplicant dhclient3
sudo rm /var/run/dhclient.pid

OR

Quote:

sudo rm /var/run/dhclient.wlan0.pid

(check first your /var/run: ls /var/run/|grep dhclient)

Quote:

sudo wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/home/mark/wpa_supplicant.conf
sudo ip route flush dev wlan0
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
sudo dhclient wlan0

And I think (but I'm not sure of this - I don't use encryption on my network) that the key in wpa_supplicant.conf should be inside quotes: "e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97"
Try it both ways.

I hope you have better luck with this.
As a last option, you could try and use some GUI tool to configure your network, like wpagui - they've never worked alright to me.
I'll check again tomorrow the thread, hope you get lucky with this.

groogruxking40 · 12-29-2009, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreamwalking

Just to make sure, you are using sudo or are logged in as root, right?

Try to kill all related process and then restart them:

OR
(check first your /var/run: ls /var/run/|grep dhclient)

And I think (but I'm not sure of this - I don't use encryption on my network) that the key in wpa_supplicant.conf should be inside quotes: "e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97"
Try it both ways.

I hope you have better luck with this.
As a last option, you could try and use some GUI tool to configure your network, like wpagui - they've never worked alright to me.
I'll check again tomorrow the thread, hope you get lucky with this.

this is where you lost me..

" (check first your /var/run: ls /var/run/|grep dhclient) "

mine is /var/run/dhclient- and when I open it it just says 2626

I ran the rest of the commands and got this:

Code:

DHPCDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHPCDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
DHPCDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHPCDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 2
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

this is getting crazy! would it fix it automatically if I upgraded to 8.10 right away???

dreamwalking · 12-30-2009, 05:55 AM

Your wpa_supplicant.conf should be edited:
Instead of: ssid=2WIRE121 -> ssid="2WIRE121"
and instead of
psk=e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97 ->
psk="e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97"

And then:

Quote:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop
sudo /etc/init.d/networking start
sudo wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/home/mark/wpa_supplicant.conf

IF it still doesn't work...

Quote:

Originally Posted by groogruxking40

this is getting crazy! would it fix it automatically if I upgraded to 8.10 right away???

I don't know about this, but I think there's no reason wireless would only work with one version.

Let's check everything again from the beginning.

-Check you're loading the module for your card with an lsmod.
-Stop all related processes:

Quote:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop
sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo killall dhclient wpa_supplicant dhclient3
sudo rm /var/run/dhclient.pid

-Just copy the wpa_supplicant.conf in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf (in my system it's in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, I assume either location should do).
-Edit your wpa_supplicant.conf:
Instead of: ssid=2WIRE121 -> ssid="2WIRE121"
and instead of
psk=e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97 ->
psk="e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97"

-Start wpa_supplicant:

Quote:

sudo wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

-Start the interface:

Quote:

sudo ip route flush dev wlan0
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

-Check your network situation at this point:

Quote:

sudo iwconfig wlan0
sudo dhclient wlan0

If you still don't have any luck, try and use a GUI tool, it will edit some settings and maybe resolve the problem.
wpagui is presumably good and then there are the GNOME/KDE tools.

groogruxking40 · 12-30-2009, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreamwalking

Your wpa_supplicant.conf should be edited:
Instead of: ssid=2WIRE121 -> ssid="2WIRE121"
and instead of
psk=e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97 ->
psk="e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97"

Quote:

made the changes

:
this is what I got when I entered the sudo commands:

Code:

 sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop
[sudo] password for mark: 
 * Deconfiguring network interfaces...                                   [ OK ] 
mark@mark-netbook:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking start
 * Configuring network interfaces...                                            There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.wlan0.pid with pid 134519072
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.6
Copyright 2004-2007 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:15:af:77:25:07
Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:15:af:77:25:07
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid with pid 134519072
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.6
Copyright 2004-2007 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:1e:8c:99:ad:2b
Sending on   LPF/eth0/00:1e:8c:99:ad:2b
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPREQUEST of 192.168.1.66 on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK of 192.168.1.66 from 192.168.1.254
bound to 192.168.1.66 -- renewal in 34766 seconds.
                                                                         [ OK ]
mark@mark-netbook:~$ sudo wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/home/mark/wpa_supplicant.conf 
Line 9: not allowed pairwise cipher (0x1e).
Line 9: failed to parse pairwise 'CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40'.
Line 10: Invalid passphrase length 64 (expected: 8..63) 'e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97"'.
Line 10: failed to parse psk '"e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97"'.
Line 11: WPA-PSK accepted for key management, but no PSK configured.
Line 11: failed to parse network block.
Failed to read or parse configuration '/home/mark/wpa_supplicant.conf'.

And then:

IF it still doesn't work...

I don't know about this, but I think there's no reason wireless would only work with one version.

Let's check everything again from the beginning.

-Check you're loading the module for your card with an lsmod.
-Stop all related processes:

-Just copy the wpa_supplicant.conf in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf (in my system it's in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, I assume either location should do).
-Edit your wpa_supplicant.conf:
Instead of: ssid=2WIRE121 -> ssid="2WIRE121"
and instead of
psk=e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97 ->
psk="e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97"

-Start wpa_supplicant:

-Start the interface:

-Check your network situation at this point:

If you still don't have any luck, try and use a GUI tool, it will edit some settings and maybe resolve the problem.
wpagui is presumably good and then there are the GNOME/KDE tools.

I'll be trying those last steps you said now and report back

groogruxking40 · 12-30-2009, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreamwalking

Your wpa_supplicant.conf should be edited:
Instead of: ssid=2WIRE121 -> ssid="2WIRE121"
and instead of
psk=e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97 ->
psk="e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97"

And then:

IF it still doesn't work...

I don't know about this, but I think there's no reason wireless would only work with one version.

Let's check everything again from the beginning.

-Check you're loading the module for your card with an lsmod.
-Stop all related processes:

-Just copy the wpa_supplicant.conf in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf (in my system it's in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, I assume either location should do).
-Edit your wpa_supplicant.conf:
Instead of: ssid=2WIRE121 -> ssid="2WIRE121"
and instead of
psk=e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97 ->
psk="e54bf38b05d37e9f8e45680cc3d3fa4f8b156d8dc7b1cd7ae812d62fb74a1c97"

-Start wpa_supplicant:

-Start the interface:

-Check your network situation at this point:

If you still don't have any luck, try and use a GUI tool, it will edit some settings and maybe resolve the problem.
wpagui is presumably good and then there are the GNOME/KDE tools.

followed your step by step:

here are my results..

Quote:

sudo wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
Failed to read or parse configuration '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'.
mark@mark-netbook:~$ sudo ip route flush dev wlan0
Nothing to flush.
mark@mark-netbook:~$ sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
mark@mark-netbook:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID

ff/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.417 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s
Encryption key

ff
Power Management

ff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

mark@mark-netbook:~$ sudo dhclient wlan0
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.pid with pid 26143
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.6
Copyright 2004-2007 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:15:af:77:25:07
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:15:af:77:25:07
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.