fedora 7 wpa_supplicant/ath0 booting problems

[Mario Rossi]

> Message: 15
> Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:56:23 -0700
> From: "Wolfgang S. Rupprecht"
>         <wolfgang.rupprecht+gnus200706 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: fedora 7 wpa_supplicant/ath0 booting problems
> To: fedora-list at redhat.com
> Message-ID: <87r6o7ehh4.fsf at ancho.wsrcc.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
> "Mario Rossi" <mariofutire at googlemail.com> writes:
> > I've found a different (and in my opinion) better way:
> >
> > 1) start wpa_supplicant service (for some reasons it starts AFTER the
> > network, you have to change it). (this point is a bit tricky if
> > multiple wireless interfaces are involved).
> >
> > 2) add something like WPA=yes to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0
> >
> > 3) change /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-wireless to skip every
> > settings via iwconfig since wpa_supplicant has already done the job
> > (if WPA=yes)
> >
> > In that way wpa_supplicant is run only once.
>
> In FC6 I used to start wpa_supplicant at timeslot #9 just before the
> nework was started.  For some reason this stopped working in F7.
>
> Perhaps the iwconfigs had less effect in FC6, either due to timing
> reasons or something else was preventing them from working if the card
> was active.  I'll try playing a bit with a simplified ifup-wireless.
>
> I wonder if ifup-ethernet would work for wpa_supplicant wireless
> interfaces .  (Can't test it now since I'm using the wireless to type
> this.)
>
> > In your setup, can you actually take the interface down and up again?
> > It looks to me that, if you don't do 3) the 2nd time the interface
> > does not go up anymore.
>
> In my case if I even sneeze the wrong way wpa_supplicant gets lost and
> loops endlessly trying to associate.  Stopping wpa_supplicant and
> ifdown, ifup on the interface is the only way out of the loop.  So I
> guess the short answer is "yes I have problems restarting the
> network".  ;-)

So far I've understood that wpa_supplicant is responsible for setting
the key for the interface.
When I debug it, I just add "iwconfig" at the end of ifup-interface
(so it prints all the parameters of the wireless interface) and I can
tell if something went wrong.
In normal situation, the key has to be set, only the the dhcp can work.

wpa_supplicant runs in the background and makes sure the key is set
(i.e. after you bring the interface down).

Make sure you run wpa_supplicant with "-w".
I've got 2 cards (ipw2100 and a broadcom pcmcia), and iwconfig has
different impact on both, but I've seen that it is not actually
required, wpa_supplicant does everything.

Cheers