[H-GEN] Wireless networking under Debian stable

Mark Ellem mark at colmiga.org
Sat Dec 8 05:58:50 EST 2007


gavin duley wrote:
> My guess is that the problem is with WPA encryption. I can get the 
> laptop to join the network okay when I have WPA encryption turned off, 
> but not when it's turned on.
>
> Here are the error messages from ifup eth0
>
> frodo:/home/helen# ifup eth0
> ioctl[SIOCSIWAUTH]: Operation not supported
> WEXT auth param 7 value 0x1 - Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 
> V3.0.4.....
>
> Here is what I have in /etc/network/interfaces:
> # Wireless ethernet
> allow-hotplug eth0
> iface eth0 inet dhcp
> wpa-ssid STATION-NAME
> #psk=
> wpa-psk [passphrase in hexedecimal]
Let's start with the basics. Do you have wpasupplicant installed? The 
lines regarding WPA in your /etc/network/interfaces look okay but will 
only function when wpasuplicant is there. You can also use a plaintext 
string for the wpa-psk option if you wish. It makes configuring a bit 
easier to understand (to humans) but could be a security risk. Also, 
check to see that wireless-tools is installed as well.
> The card I'm using is a PCMCIA D-Link DWL-650. From some googleing, it 
> seems that not all revisions of this card work with WPA so this could 
> be my problem. However, I'm hoping it's not that.
 From the output you have provided the card appears to based on a 
chipset from Ralink. AFAIK the Linux drivers for these chipsets work 
fine with WPA and I have had no issues connecting to encrypted networks 
with such cards. I have a Ralink RT2500 based CardBus card myself that I 
use as a spare.
> Is there any chance that I should be able to get WPA working with this 
> card under Linux? Or should I just not be so paranoid about 
> unencrypted wireless.
The chances of getting it working from what I see is very good, it seems 
to be mainly a software problem you are having :-)

Hope that helps and good luck getting it going.

Mark.





More information about the General mailing list