# WPA Supplicant timing out.

## Gilbo

EDIT:  I seem to have the 2.6.14 problem.  The 2.6.14 kernel breaks wifi.  See that thread for details...

I reinstalled Gentoo on my laptop yesterday.  Using the same wpa_supplicant.conf file, wpa_supplicant is now timing out.  The following is what I know so far and what might be useful to anyone who's trying to help.

1. madwifi's ath_pci loads successfully on boot.  The wireless light lights up on my laptop.  ifconfig can startup the interface, as you can see:

```
ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:05:4E:49:E8:61

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:52 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:52

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:199

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

          Interrupt:11 Memory:f89a0000-f89b0000

```

Consequently, it doesn't look like a madwifi driver problem.

2.  I created /etc/init.d/net.ath0 by linking it to net.lo:

```
init.d # ls -l net.ath0

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 6 Nov 23 15:10 net.ath0 -> net.lo
```

3. /etc/conf.d/net looks like this:

```
modules=( "wpa_supplicant" )

wpa_supplicant_ath0="-Dmadwifi"

wpa_timeout_ath0=60

config_ath0=( "192.168.1.98 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255" )

routes_ath0=( "default gw 192.168.1.1" )

config_eth0=( "192.168.1.98 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255" )

routes_eth0=( "default gw 192.168.1.1" )

```

Don't worry I don't try and run eth0 and ath0 at the same time.  My router is configured for manual IP addresses.  I'm not sure if the config_ath0 and routes_ath0 lines are the way to do this.  Perhaps this is the problem.  I've tried without both lines as well as with.  It doesn't change anything.

4.  wpa_supplicant.conf looks like this:

```
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

ctrl_interface_group=0

eapol_version=1

ap_scan=1

fast_reauth=1

network={

        ssid="HarmolodiaUnplugged"

        proto=WPA

        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

        pairwise=TKIP

        group=TKIP

        psk="correct PSK"

        priority=5

}

```

I've confirmed several times that the PSK is valid.  TKIP is the encryption used on the WLAN.  To be sure I added CCMP, WEP40, and WEP104 to the group= value, but it didn't change anything.

5.  I notice that when wpa_supplicant is done timing out the wireless light on my laptop goes out.  I can't get it to come back on, even by modprobing ath_pci.  Could there be some sort of driver conflict with madwifi and wpa_supplicant.  I'm using the stable versions of both, and I had it working on my previous installation?  Of course, if this was the case, why does it time out --shouldn't I get an error message?  When I check wpa_supplicant, by running it with no arguments, it specifically notes it has support for madwifi, so I assume this wouldn't be a problem.

madwifi-driver:  0.1_pre20050420-r1

wpa_supplicant: 0.3.9-r1

6.  I noticed a madwifi-tools package while searching around.  Do I need that in addition to the driver for things to work?  It's masked, so I hesitate to install it without asking.  EDIT:  Installing it has no effect.  (I'm still curious as to whether it is necessary or not?)Last edited by Gilbo on Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## Gilbo

Well, it's been a couple days.  I haven't been able to make anymore progress unfortunately.  I'm bumping for some ideas...

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## thedopefishlives

Could you try watching the output of wpa_cli status?  Run (as root): watch "wpa_cli status"

If it tries to associate with an AP but fails because it "cannot authenticate with 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00" or something to that effect, try changing your ap_scan parameter in your wpa_supplicant.conf to 2.  That's what I had to do to get ndiswrapper and wpa_supplicant to play nicely together; if that's not the problem you're having, then *shrug* I'm as clueless as you are.

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## MadScientist

I'm having this exact problem. I don't think it's my wpa_supplicant file because if I reboot to my old (2.6.13-gentoo-r3) kernel, it works fine. Reboot back into 2.6.14-gentoo-r2 and no more wifi. Another thing I noticed is that the wlan_tkip module does not auto-load under 2.6.14. But even when I modprobe it (and it loads without errors), I still can't get net.ath0 to start.

Edit: this seems to be reported here: https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=112853

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## thedopefishlives

Guys, try using -Dwext instead of -Dmadwifi in your wpa_supplicant options.  This uses the standard Linux wireless extensions, which *should* work.  I tried it on my ndiswrapper config and it fixed the problem I was having on trying to associate to an unencrypted wireless AP.  I don't know if it will work with WPA, though, so try it and get back to me.

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