Re: wpasupplicant and ifplugd(?) issues in etch

[Franklin PIAT <franklin@piat.name>]

Hello,

I'm not going to answer to your questions, but suggest alternative
solutions that "worked for me".

As you might known, you can also use Gnome or KDE's "Network
Manager" (installed by default if you select Gnome or KDE Desktop tasks
during install). NM, as it's name implies, manages your network
connections... All connections (LAN/WLAN/DialUp + Mobile...)

It provides a nice GUI (list available Wireless networks, easy
configure/connect/disconnect to Open/WEP/WPA Wifi networks).
(package network-manager-gnome or network-manager-kde.
read /usr/share/doc/network-manager/README.Debian)

This was howto switch between different Wireless network. Now if you
have problem with ipw3945 not beeing available on resume:

The hibernate package provides a flexible infrastructure [as you may
know].

in /etc/hibernate/common.conf, include those lines
	stopServices ipw3945d
	UnloadModules ipw3945

Hope this helps.


On Fri, 2007-03-30 at 09:13 +0200, Björn Lindström wrote:
> OK, to start with, if I use an /etc/network/interfaces like this in my
> up-to-date etch installation:
> 
>     auto lo
>     iface lo inet loopback
> 
>     allow-hotplug eth2
>     iface eth2 inet dhcp
>         wireless-essid {ESSID}
>         wireless-key1 {KEY}
> 
> where eth2 is my wifi ipw3945 device (on a Dell XPS M1210), the
> wireless network comes up nicely when I boot up, and comes back on
> after suspension to RAM.
> 
> Now, I would like this to work just as automatically in more than one
> location, so I have installed wpasupplicant.
> 
> After following the instructions in
> /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/README.modes.gz I've arrived at this
> entry for eth2 in /etc/network/interfaces:
> 
>     iface eth2 inet manual
>         wpa-driver wext
>         wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
>     iface {ESSID} inet dhcp
>     iface default inet dhcp
> 
> and this for /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf:
> 
>     ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
>     network={
>             id_str="{ESSID}"
>             ssid="{ESSID}"
>             key_mgmt=NONE
>             wep_key0={KEY}
>             wep_tx_keyidx=0
>     }
>     network={
>             key_mgmt=NONE
>     }
> 
> Now, the connection comes up when I reboot, but after a suspension
> it's gone, and stays gone, even when I try to manually take eth2 up.
> Also, if I just take eth2 down manually with 'ifdown eth2', it doesn't
> come up again without a reboot.
> 
> 
> I've also tried using ifplugd to take the device up and down, but
> haven't managed to get it working at all. I guess it might not work
> with the ipw3945 driver, given that it seems to be a bit quirky.
> Do I even need ifplugd with that new "allow-hotplug" stuff?
> 
> 
> As for the wpasupplicant stuff, I've tried anything I can think of,
> includinng trying a couple of alternatives to wpaupplicant, but I'm
> stuck, and would be grateful for any help, examples of your working
> setups, or similar.
> 
> /Björn
> 
>