Trying to install Intel Wireless 2200BG - having troubles

[Lenard]

To: omara007

As scottro suggested putting ones ESSID value solves the problem of which network one will connect to. One can still use the [b]iwlist scan[/b] if desired.

As a suggestion, with a little minor editing of the ifcfg- file and maybe a little simple scripting one can easily change from one wireless network to another. Just think about stopping the network service, replacing a file or two then restart the network service.

sudo service network stop
sudo cp /home/me/wireless/ifcfg-eth1-Starbucks /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth1
sudo Something about the wpa_supplicant here
sudo service network start

sudo service network stop
sudo cp /home/me/wireless/ifcfg-eth1-Home /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth1
sudo Something about the wpa_supplicant here
sudo service network start


Jumping on to multiple threads related to the ipw200 wireless device to ask questions is considered by some to be somewhat rude. It would be a better idea if you started a new query instead and relate the fact that you have already reviewed these threads and any additional research you have done.

[frankweber]

Hi Lenard,

Thanks for your feedback. I think you are right - the problem lies below WPA. I disabled the encryption on the DSL Router, but it still does not get the IP address via dhcp?


/sbin/service network start
Bringing up loopback interface: [ OK ]
Bringing up interface eth0:
Determining IP information for eth0... done. [ OK ]
Bringing up interface eth1:
Determining IP information for eth1... failed; [FAILED]*

*It hangs here for quite some time...

Here is what my system reports:

cat /proc/modules | grep ipw
ipw2200 137769 0 - Live 0xf89c5000
ieee80211 33417 1 ipw2200, Live 0xf892e000

/sbin/iwconfig
eth1 radio off ESSID:"FB Box" Nickname:"notebook2"
Mode:Ad-Hoc Frequency:2.457 GHz Cell: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power=off Sensitivity=8/0
Retry limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
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

cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel

network={
ssid="FB Box"
key_mgmt=NONE
}



/etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
RKING=yes
NETWORKING_IPV6=no
NOZEROCONF=yes
HOSTNAME=notebook2
GATEWAY=192.168.178.1

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
# Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
DEVICE=eth1
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
HWADDR=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
NETMASK=255.255.0.0
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
TYPE=Wireless
USERCTL=yes
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
ESSID='FB Box'
CHANNEL=
MODE=
RATE=

/sbin/iwlist eth1 scanning
eth1 Scan completed :
Cell 02 - Address: xx.xx.xx.xx.xx
ESSID:"FB Box"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
Mode:Master
Channel:6
Encryption key:off
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Quality=85/100 Signal level=-45 dBm
Extra: Last beacon: 10701ms ago

[Lenard]

Are both the wired and wireless devices on the same network(192.168.178.xxx)??? If yes then disable the wired device before enabling the wireless device, it is not good practice to have both on the same network and active at the same time.

Try disabling both devices;
ifdown eth0
ifdown eth1

Also disable the wpa_supplicant service as this may be part of the problem;

service wpa_supplicant stop

Then try enabling eth1;

ifup eth1

The wireless router may also be blocking your wireless device via the MAC address (the HWADDR in the ifcfg-eth1 file) so check if the wireless router is accepting or rejecting this device. The fact that you can see "FB Box" using the iwlist or iwconfig commands is a good sign, this means the wireless device is working and has partial communication with the wireless router.

[scottro]

I'm not sure if this issue is in CentOS or only Fedora. However, right now, there are issues with the order of bootup scripts in Fedora. Network runs first--the card can't get an address because it's relying on info from wpa_supplicant which hasn't started. In addition, wpa_supplicant fails because it needs messagebus.

To check if this is a part of your issue, you can boot up in text mode, or when booting click that Show Details thing (or whatever it's called, I haven't booted graphically in awhile, so don't remember) and see if wpa_supplicant fails to start with an error having something to do with dbus.

I have a page on it, but NOTE!!! It is for a Fedora 8 install and may have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with your problem.

[frankweber]

Great ! - one big step forward ... the system could get the IP after:
ifdown eth0
ifdown eth1
service wpa_supplicant stop *
ifup eth1

* even though I got some error messages here


So boldly I tried to activate the WPA ... with:

cat wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=root

network={
ssid="FB Box"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="xxx"
pairwise=TKIP
group=TKIP
}

/sbin/service wpa_supplicant start
Starting wpa_supplicant: ioctl[SIOCSIWPMKSA]: No such device
ioctl[SIOCSIWMODE]: No such device
Could not configure driver to use managed mode
ioctl[SIOCGIFFLAGS]: No such device
Could not set interface 'wlan0' UP
...

Then I found this:

cat /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant
# wlan0 and wifi0
# INTERFACES="-iwlan0 -iwifi0"
INTERFACES="-iwlan0"
# ndiswrapper and prism
# DRIVERS="-Dndiswrapper -Dprism"
DRIVERS="-Dndiswrapper"


I renamed eth1 interface configuration to wlan0 and the wpa_supplicant service started.
Unfortunately "/sbin/ifup wlan0 " did not get the IP with wpa enabled on the router.

Could you give me some advise?

[Lenard]

When you renamed did you do so in all three places; the file name, inside the file name and /etc/modprobe.conf???

ifcfg-wlan0
DEVICE=wlan0
alias wlan0 ipw2200

[frankweber]

oops - I forgot modprobe.conf ... but it still does not get the IP with WPA

cat /etc/modprobe.conf
alias eth0 sky2
alias scsi_hostadapter ata_piix
alias scsi_hostadapter1 ahci
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
options snd-card-0 index=0
options snd-intel8x0 index=0
remove snd-intel8x0 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0 >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-intel8x0
alias wlan0 ipw2200


cat ifcfg-wlan0
# Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
DEVICE=wlan0
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
HWADDR=xx:xx:...
NETMASK=255.255.0.0
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
TYPE=Wireless
USERCTL=yes
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
ESSID='FB Box'
CHANNEL=6
MODE=
RATE=


/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0 -d

WPA: using PTK TKIP
WPA: using KEY_MGMT WPA-PSK
WPA: Set own WPA IE default - hexdump(len=24): xx xx xx ..
No keys have been configured - skip key clearing
wpa_driver_hostap_set_drop_unencrypted: enabled=1
State: ASSOCIATING -> ASSOCIATING
wpa_driver_hostap_associate
ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: Operation not supported
Setting authentication timeout: 15 sec 0 usec
EAPOL: External notification - EAP success=0
EAPOL: External notification - EAP fail=0
EAPOL: External notification - portControl=Auto
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b06 len=8
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b1a len=15
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b19 len=8
Received 3537 bytes of scan results (14 BSSes)
Scan results: 14
Selecting BSS from priority group 0
xx:xx:xx:xx ssid='FB Box' wpa_ie_len=26 rsn_ie_len=0 caps=0x11
selected based on WPA IE
Trying to associate with xx:xx:xx:xx... (SSID='FB Box' freq=0 MHz)
Cancelling scan request
WPA: clearing own WPA/RSN IE
Automatic auth_alg selection: 0x1
WPA: using IEEE 802.11i/D3.0
WPA: Selected cipher suites: group 8 pairwise 8 key_mgmt 2
WPA: set AP WPA IE - hexdump(len=26): XX XX XX ...
WPA: clearing AP RSN IE
WPA: using GTK TKIP
WPA: using PTK TKIP
WPA: using KEY_MGMT WPA-PSK
WPA: Set own WPA IE default - hexdump(len=24): XX XX ...
No keys have been configured - skip key clearing
wpa_driver_hostap_set_drop_unencrypted: enabled=1
State: ASSOCIATING -> ASSOCIATING
wpa_driver_hostap_associate
ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: Operation not supported
Setting authentication timeout: 15 sec 0 usec
EAPOL: External notification - EAP success=0
EAPOL: External notification - EAP fail=0
EAPOL: External notification - portControl=Auto
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b06 len=8
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b1a len=15


cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=root

network={
ssid="FB Box"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="xxx"
pairwise=TKIP
group=TKIP
}

[Lenard]

Frank;

As I have already said please disable any encryption on both the wireless router and on the system in question. You first want to establish a connection before you even consider any about any encryption.

As root on the CentOS 5.1 system: service wpa_supplicant off

With your current ipw2200 configuration and no WEP, WPA or any other encryption what does the following typed command show;

/sbin/iwlist scan

[frankweber]

Hi Lenard,

Sorry, if I missunderstood you. I can connect to the internet when I disabled the encryption on the router.
Here the requested scan output.

/sbin/iwlist scan
...
Cell 03 - Address: XX:XX:XX:XX
ESSID:"FB Box"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
Mode:Master
Channel:6
Encryption key:off
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Quality=77/100 Signal level=-52 dBm
Extra: Last beacon: 34ms ago
...

/sbin/ifup wlan0
/sbin/iwconfig
wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"FB Box" Nickname:"notebook2"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: XXXXXXX
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm Sensitivity=8/0
Retry limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=83/100 Signal level=-47 dBm Noise level=-88 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:1

/sbin/ifconfig
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr XXXXXXX
inet addr:192.XXXXXX Bcast:192.XXXXXX.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: XXXXXXX/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:681 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:614 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:560105 (546.9 KiB) TX bytes:123343 (120.4 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xc000 Memory:b000b000-b000bfff

[Lenard]

OK, the fact that you can make a connection to the wireless router without encryption is a good thing.

Now which encryption are you setting on the wireless router???
None are very secure by the way all have been broken and one can gain access in two minutes or less(with the proper tools). The use of MAC filtering and a 128-bit WEP key is just as good as any other type of encryption.