Rob2687 Posted November 19, 2005 Share Posted November 19, 2005 (edited) Okay so this is the first guide I've ever attempted so go easy on me. I've broke and had to reinstall ubuntu so many times now that I figured I'll just write this up here. This guide is aimed helping you through setting up wpa_supplicant for any of the drivers that it supports, which will allow you to access wpa encrypted wireless networks. This is based on the many threads at ubuntuforums.org so thanks to the good people of the Ubuntu world. Note: (1) It will not guide you through installing the drivers for your wireless card so I assumed that you already have it installed and working on non encrypted networks (2) I use Ubuntu (Debian) so some parts of the install may not apply to or work the same way your distro. (3) I am a noob at this stuff so it may not be perfect. (4) My brain works slower than everything else so tell me if some parts trail off into incoherent babbling. Part 1 - Installing WPA_Supplicant: Installing from repositories/packages If you have a package manager like apt-get or yum you can install wpa_supplicant through that. It will make your life a whole lot easier. a) Installing from apt repositories: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant b) Installing from a .deb file dpkg -i wpa_supplicant.deb c) Installing from yum yum install wpasupplicant Installing from source: Download the latest stable WPA_Supplicant source from here. Extract the tar.gz tar -xvzf wpa_supplicant-0.3.9.tar.gz cd wpa_supplicant-0.3.9 Now you need to set up the compile options. cp defconfig .config nano .config This is using the example config file that is provided. You need to uncomment the CONFIG_DRIVER part that lists the driver you are using. Example: If you are using ndiswrapper, change this #CONFIG_DRIVER_NDISWRAPPER=y To this CONFIG_DRIVER_NDISWRAPPER=y The rest of the options should be okay, don't mess with them unless you know what you are doing. Save and exit. make sudo make install Part 2 - Configuration: nano /etc/default/wpasupplicant Enable it by editing the file to: ENABLED=1 Save and exit Editing the config file: sudo chmod 600 /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf If you compiled from source then you need add the following to the config file. If not then skip to the 'Setup ssid and WPA key' part. # #wpa_supplicant.conf # ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant ctrl_interface_group=0 eapol_version=1 ap_scan=1 fast_reauth=1 Setup the ssid and WPA key. In the terminal type: wpa_passphrase <ssid> <wpapassphrase> This should give you something like: network={ ssid="Network" #psk="topsecretkey" psk=d239jf9028qjf98437fpq934fhp9q34fha94hq34hq843fqo347f } Now copy that and you will need to paste it into your config file. Also add this after the "psk=" part: key_mgmt=WPA-PSK proto=WPA So the final section of the config should look like similar to this: # #wpa_supplicant.conf # ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant ctrl_interface_group=0 eapol_version=1 ap_scan=1 fast_reauth=1 network={ ssid="Network" #psk="topsecretkey" psk=d239jf9028qjf98437fpq934fhp9q34fha94hq34hq843fqo347f key_mgmt=WPA-PSK proto=WPA } Now save and exit. Part 3 - Running and automating it: Now you can test if it is working. sudo ifconfig wlan0 up Note: 1) You may need to change the 'ndiswrapper' part to the name of the driver you are using. 2) You may also need to change 'wlan0' to the name for your wireless device. It may be 'ath0' for madwifi drivers or eth0 in some cases. 3) the -B switch runs this in the background. If you are having problems then you can view the debug output by removing the -B part and adding -dd to the end of this command. sudo wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dndiswrapper -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf sudo dhclient wlan0 Now it should connect.. Automating it at startup sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces Add this: (Again, you may need to change wlan0 and ndiswrapper to your device and driver name if it is different) auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp pre-up /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dndiswrapper -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant Now it should run at boot time. Edited November 20, 2005 by Rob2687 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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