Wireless Setup Slack 14.1 Questions
 

First of all I apologize if there is another thread on the topic..

This is a shot in the dark as I do not have all information with me but will add more to the problematic equation when I get home;

My Slack boots up just fine without any (important) errors. I do have a Dell Inspiron w/ on-board Wireless Card. I can get the exact model number later. The issue is that using the convenient GUI setup under KDE I can use and surf the web on my Wireless network but in the console non gui I have nothing but errors. I have done some configuring in both the wireless.conf and the inet1.conf files but no matter what I do I get these 2 generic errors;

Error for wireless request "Set Nickname" (8B1C) /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf

and also

Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A)

Another thing that I noticed was (and shame on me) per a guide I was reading it has me add the MAC Address and then ) at the end of it but unless I have # in front of it I get an error with that as well but it is clearly the MAC that the wlan0 shows me.

From this is there a basis anyone can help me and then I can gather more information (preferably to be advised on what)later?

Member response
 

Hi,

You can look at: Configure your new Slackware System and scroll down to 'network' for setting up Slackware.

'/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf' is deprecated, you should configure using '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf'. Forget about the above error, harmless.

You can do 'man rc.inet1.conf' for a sample setup. You can setup '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'. Plus look at 'man wpa_supplicant.conf' for information.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

The easier way to do wireless configuration is actually through NetworkManager.

And that's quite simple to do, provided that your wireless network card is recognized :

And choose NetworkManager from that menu.

Of course, you need to reboot the machine in order for the changes to take effect.

Done :)

Thank you all for the quick responses; My OCD will require me to try the Manual way first simply because "if they can do it why can't i" but in regards to NetworkManager... Does that only change settings for GUI and only while in GUI (xwindows)or is it system wide?

To figure it out, use the link onebuck provided to the wiki. When I was connecting to wireless, I needed to go that route so it would connect early enough to connect my NFS drives (the various GUI options started too late in the version of Slack I used, not sure if that has changed since I now am hardwired). I set up the /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf file and /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf to connect to my wireless network. It always worked early enough that I never had problems with my NFS drives mounting.

Well I honestly went through all the documentation given and I still end up with a (?) above my head and several empty bottles of beer all around but to no avail.

While in X my NetworkManager works oh so nicely and that is fine but for some reason nothing I do can get it to work in the console. Now, if I open up xterm whilst in XWindows it too works but that is clearly using the same settings as NetworkManger. When I log out it all goes away... Clearly it is me just not seeing the big picture. I am discarding using wireless.conf and am focusing in inet1.conf and I also am looking into wpa_supplicant.conf but something is not adding up.

My wireless SSID2 I am devoting to my box is "linux" and the WPA2 is "slackwarerocks" on CHANNEL "11" and using DHCP... Pretty basic setup.
Then they start talking about pre-configured keys and hexadecimal and what not and I am like mentally gone after that...
Everything on my router is automatic; I can even set the CHANNEL to "Auto" if that helps it.
It is definitely wlan0 when I run lspci so it is being seen and it works in X so.. Ugh...

What is the content of your /etc/rc.inet1.conf and /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf files? Did you modify rc.wireless (if so, I would revert those changes)? Have you tried connecting manually using wpa_supplicant?

I am sad to say that I am at work now and I do not have SSH running for me to Term in to see; I will say that whenever I try and fail I revert the files back to their default so I do believe currently that they are default config. As far as rc.wireless I definitely have that back to default as well and do not plan on modifying it.
Can you elaborate more on connecting manually using wpa_supplicant?
If it helps any, I have less than zero experience in networking and especially wireless setup in Linux. It is shocking that I ever set up DNS (reverse/forward) back in the day.

I'll try and do a quick walkthrough, although I'm at work in front of a Windows computer and it's been a few years since I've needed to do wireless on Linux. First you need to determine what your wireless device is. You can do that via iwconfig. I'm going to assume it is wlan0 for simplicity sake. If it isn't change it as needed.

First edit your /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file... at minimum, you should probably need (you should only need to edit the items under "network":

I always generated a hex key for my passphrase, although, I don't know if it is necessary. You can do that with wpa_passphrase YOURSSID passphrase and then paste the output into the psk section. If you just use your regular passphrase, make sure you inlcude quotes if there's a space or odd characters (might be best to include it anytime you use the passphrase).

Now, onto /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf. You just need to edit one of the interfaces to utilize the wpa_supplicant file with the correct device. Generally, the wired network card will have the first position and the wireless will be after.

Now, you should just be able to type /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 wlan0_restart (the wiki states that wlan0 restart should be together with an underscore underneath it, but I don't remember needing that, so it may be unnecessary -- I am pretty sure I would just type /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 wlan0 restart).

As far as using wpa_supplicant directly, once you have the conf file set up, you should be able to connect to the network using wpa_supplicant -dd -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dwext -iwlan0 (the -dd increases debugging, hopefully helping you determine the cause of any issues). The -c specifies where the conf file is, -D specifies what driver to use (wext is almost always the one you'd use), and -i specifies the device. And no, the lack of spaces isn't a typo. It's how the arguments are designed. Once connected to the network, you should just need to run dhcpcd wlan0 to get an IP address from your wireless router/dhcp server.

Hopefully this allows you to get connected.

From not being home and having the ability to verity, that does look a lot like what I have but then something about it has me puzzled as far as what I put in. I am so anxious to get home and check..

Failing all else you could perhaps give wicd a try, it is another graphical wireless network manager located in /extra.
I can boot-up my little acer netbook and remain at run level three and update the unit with slackpkg. Wicd does not need x windows to run.
Just a thought. Good luck, man. :)

Much progress has been made;

I modified both wpa_supplicant and rc.inetd.conf accordingly. This is the new string of errors;

/etc/rc/d/rc.M: wlan0 information: 'Any ESSID"
Error for wireless request "Set Nickname" (8B1C) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
Polling for DHCP server on interface wlan0:
dhcpcd[966]: version 6.0.5 starting
dhcpcd[966]: wlan0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd[966]: timed out
dhcpcd[966]: allowing 8 seconds for IPv4LL timeout
dhcpcd[966]: timed out
dhcpcd[966]: exited
Starting Internet super-server daemon: /usr/sbin/inetd

That is what I get now...

As far as the PSK goes I generated the key on the box as mentioned and I input that into both wpa_supplicant as well as on my Router.

I may just consider this. Thank you

Well, it looks like the interface came up but either there isn't a DHCP server listening or it doesn't like what you are giving it.