wpa_supplicant doesn't see wireless network.

A

adamk

Morning all,

I'm trying to get my laptop to connect to the wireless access point at work. It has a Intel Pro Wireless 2200BG minipci card, and can associate with my access point at home. In addition, I can get an Ubuntu 8.10 liveCD to connect to the access point at work via NetworkManager. So there is definitely no incompatibility between the wireless card and access point.

Here's my wpa_supplicant.conf file:

Code: 
network={
	ssid="Mckella280Front"
	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
	pairwise=TKIP
	psk="#########"
}

The preshared key is definitely correct, as it's the one that works with the liveCD. For the sake of testing, I've removed the reference to my wireless AP at home.

And here's the output from wpa_supplicant:

Code: 
nitializing interface 'iwi0' conf '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf' driver 'bsd' ctrl_interface 'N/A' bridge 'N/A'
Configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf' -> '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
Reading configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
Line: 2 - start of a new network block
ssid - hexdump_ascii(len=15):
     4d 63 6b 65 6c 6c 61 32 38 30 46 72 6f 6e 74      Mckella280Front 
key_mgmt: 0x2
pairwise: 0x8
PSK (ASCII passphrase) - hexdump_ascii(len=10): [REMOVED]
PSK (from passphrase) - hexdump(len=32): [REMOVED]
Line 8: removed CCMP from group cipher list since it was not allowed for pairwise cipher
Priority group 0
   id=0 ssid='Mckella280Front'
Initializing interface (2) 'iwi0'
EAPOL: SUPP_PAE entering state DISCONNECTED
EAPOL: KEY_RX entering state NO_KEY_RECEIVE
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state INITIALIZE
EAP: EAP entering state DISABLED
EAPOL: External notification - portEnabled=0
EAPOL: External notification - portValid=0
Own MAC address: 00:13:ce:a8:10:ea
wpa_driver_bsd_set_wpa: enabled=1
wpa_driver_bsd_set_wpa_internal: wpa=3 privacy=1
wpa_driver_bsd_del_key: keyidx=0
wpa_driver_bsd_del_key: keyidx=1
wpa_driver_bsd_del_key: keyidx=2
wpa_driver_bsd_del_key: keyidx=3
wpa_driver_bsd_set_countermeasures: enabled=0
wpa_driver_bsd_set_drop_unencrypted: enabled=1
Setting scan request: 0 sec 100000 usec
Added interface iwi0
State: DISCONNECTED -> SCANNING
Starting AP scan (broadcast SSID)
Trying to get current scan results first without requesting a new scan to speed up initial association
Received 0 bytes of scan results (1 BSSes)
Scan results: 1
Selecting BSS from priority group 0
Try to find WPA-enabled AP
0: 36:00:e5:51:f1:55 ssid='tmobile' wpa_ie_len=0 rsn_ie_len=0 caps=0x2
   skip - no WPA/RSN IE
Try to find non-WPA AP
0: 36:00:e5:51:f1:55 ssid='tmobile' wpa_ie_len=0 rsn_ie_len=0 caps=0x2
   skip - SSID mismatch
No suitable AP found.
Setting scan request: 0 sec 0 usec
Starting AP scan (broadcast SSID)
Received 0 bytes of scan results (1 BSSes)
Scan results: 1
Selecting BSS from priority group 0
Try to find WPA-enabled AP
0: 36:00:e5:51:f1:55 ssid='tmobile' wpa_ie_len=0 rsn_ie_len=0 caps=0x2
   skip - no WPA/RSN IE
Try to find non-WPA AP
0: 36:00:e5:51:f1:55 ssid='tmobile' wpa_ie_len=0 rsn_ie_len=0 caps=0x2
   skip - SSID mismatch
No suitable AP found.

It keeps scanning but only ever sees tmobile. That's actually coming from another person in the building using a tmobile wireless broadband card. If she's not here, the scan never picks up anything. Similarly, 'ifconfig iwi0 list scan' only picks up the tmobile ssid.

Yet, if I reboot off the liveCD, it works. Here's the output of 'iwlist eth1 scanning' under the liveCD:

Code: 
eth1      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:22:6B:9A:CC:AF
                    ESSID:"Mckella280Front"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.457 GHz (Channel 10)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Quality=50/100  Signal level=-68 dBm  
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    Extra: Last beacon: 904ms ago

And, iwconfig while connected:

Code: 
eth1      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"Mckella280Front"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.457 GHz  Access Point: 00:22:6B:9A:CC:AF   
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=8/0  
          Retry limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=59/100  Signal level=-66 dBm  Noise level=-87 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:6  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:3

The only thing I can think of is that the AP is using some feature that the iwi driver, or wpa_supplicant, doesn't support.

Any ideas?

EDIT: I'm using 7.1-STABLE #1: Fri Jan 23 11:41:10 EST 2009
 
sam@'s advice: does your AP use hidden SSID by any chance? You should use scan_ssid=2 or something like that in that case.
 
The man page for wpa_supplicant.conf says that 0 or 1 is valid. 0 is default, and should work for APs that broadcast their SSID. 1 is for APs that don't broadcast. Even though this AP does broadcast (it shows up in the list of available, but encrypted, wireless networks in networkmanager when running off the Ubuntu liveCD without any extra setup), I have tried it with scan_ssid=1 as well and that didn't change the output from wpa_supplicant at all.

Adam
 
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