Linux

WPA Wireless Installation

Please note that due to the widely varying nature of Linux distributions, we cannot fully support wireless under Linux. The directions offered here are based purely on use of the underlying tools, and ignore any potential capabilities of or problems with distributions specific managemnet programs.

Requirements:

Setup of Your Home Wireless Network

Ensure that you have wpa_supplicant installed. Note that many distributions ship this already, so it may not be necessary to obtain and compile it yourself. There is a list of supported cards and driver combinations on the wpa_supplicant page.
Configure /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf as follows, substituting your own SSID and passphrase as configured on your wireless router:
```
network={
	ssid="Home-SSID"
	scan_ssid=1
	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
	psk="your very secret passphrase"
}
                
```

Protect the security of the wireless network by making the configuration file only readable by root:

chown root:root /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
chmod 600 /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Start wpa_supplicant with the configuration file and wireless network interface name. You may also need to pass the driver type, e.g.:

wpa_supplicant -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -i ath0 -D madwifi

The output from wpa_supplicant should look something like this:

l2_packet_receive - recv: Network is down
Trying to associate with 00:0b:0e:0f:87:41 (SSID='Home-SSID' freq=5180 MHz)
Associated with 00:0b:0e:0f:87:41
WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:0b:0e:0f:87:41

Start your DHCP client on the wireless network interface, e.g.:
```
/sbin/dhclient ath0
		
```

Your computer should now be connected to the your home wireless network.

Maintained by webmaster@wpi.edu
Last modified: Dec 04, 2006, 19:04 EST