# Unable to get wireless working

## donald3.heckel

Hello everybody,

I could use some help with my wlan0 interface. I have the module compiled in my kernel, however there is no success when I try wpa_supplicant, wicd, wifi-radar, and others such as network manager. Each and every one of them failed to the most annoying extent possible. My hardware/module or wireless card is an rtl8192ce/rtl8188ce. I need help getting the symlink working and the wireless interface. Wifi-radar does not start up with a click. I have to use gksudo to get this working.Wifi radar said that my card does not support scanning. Before trying wifi-radar, I tried wpa_supplicant. This installation of gentoo is pretty recent. The outcome of wpa_supplicant said: "ioctl: operation not supported" about the configuration file and it told me to remove the file and start it again. I then tried it and said: "Fatal error: /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf is not found". In wicd, it does not even show anything regarding networks, hardware, and much more. I could use all the help I can get.

All help will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

donald3.heckel

----------

## NeddySeagoon

donald3.heckel,

Work on one problem at a time or you will get confused and your helpers will get confused too.

What interfaces does 

```
ifconfig -a
```

 list?

 *donald3.heckel wrote:*   

> I have the module compiled in my kernel

 Does that mean set a <*> in the kernel or as <M> ?

The difference is important.  Your WiFi chip set needs to have firmware loaded.  If the driver is set as <*>, the firmware must be compiled into the kernel too.

If the driver is set as <M>, the firmware must be in /lib/firmware/...  

The other two combinations both fail.

What does dmesg show for firmware loading ?

```
dmesg | less 
```

or 

```
dmesg | grep irmw
```

may both help.

If firmware loading failed you will find the file name of the required firmware.

----------

## donald3.heckel

link to command outputs: [http://bpaste.net/show/100845/ (dmesg | grepirmw)], [http://bpaste.net/show/100846/ (dmesg | less)], [(ifconfig -a) http://bpaste.net/show/100847/]

Thanks for the reply. I have loaded it as <M> and put it into the modules file. This particular module loads successfully.

However, the wireless does not work.

Sincerely,

donald3.heckel

Thanks.

----------

## donald3.heckel

I would like to have this solved as soon as possible. I have an event that I need to attend to in two days that requires my laptop.

All help will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

donald3.heckel

----------

## NeddySeagoon

donald3.heckel,

You have done that hard bit, making the device appear in ifconfig -a

Some systems have a power switch for the radio transmitter as turning off the transmitter extends battery life.

Switches come tin two main sorts. A keyboard combination that must be detected and acted upon by software, and a physical hardware switch.

These hardware switches come in two sorts too. Ones that operate light a lightswitch and actually control the power and switches that are read and acted on by software.

Which sort do you have, if any.

You may want to add the kernel option RF Kill and emerge rfkill for the user space tools.  This lets you read and in some cases control the software switches.

I don't use these packages as my WiFi is a USB dongle.

What do you use for encryption ?

WEP, WPA etc.

How do you manage association with your access point?

```
[   29.481628] rtl8192ce: Using firmware rtlwifi/rtl8192cfw.bin

[   30.002672] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'rtl_rc'

[   30.003133] rtlwifi: wireless switch is on
```

is all very encouraging but there is nothing in dmesg that shows that wlan0 ever attempted to start.

What happens if you do 

```
/etc/init.d.net.wlan0 start
```

Post any error messages from the command and the output of dmesg.

----------

## donald3.heckel

Here is the link to my output: http://bpaste.net/show/101165/

For my encryption, I prefer wpa, and wpa2.

I need help getting my wpa_supplicant working.

Thank you very much.

All help will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

donald3.heckel

----------

## khayyam

 *donald3.heckel wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
>  * Bringing up interface wlan0
> 
> ...

 

donald3.heckel ... this is probably a sign that your missing /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf ... so, an example setup:

/etc/conf.d/net

```
modules_wlan0="!plug wpa_supplicant dhcpcd"

wpa_supplicant_wlan0="-Dnl80211 -qq"

wpa_timeout_wlan0="15"

config_wlan0="dhcp"

dhcpcd_wlan0="-t 10"

enable_ipv6_wlan0="false"
```

/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

```
ctrl_interface=DIR=/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel

update_config=1

network={

    ssid="Your_AP"

    proto=RSN

    auth_alg=OPEN

    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

    group=CCMP TKIP

    pairwise=CCMP TKIP

    psk=the_pass

}
```

The above should be sufficent for a WPA/WPA2/RSN enabled AP, replace the strings for "ssid=", and "psk=" with the AP name (ESSID) and the passphrase. You should then be able to start net.wlan0 and establish a connection.

If your user if not in the group 'wheel' then you may wish to a modify the user and add them (this means that the user can access the cntl_interface if using wpa_gui or wpa_cli)

```
# usermod -a -G wheel <your_username>
```

best ... khay

----------

## donald3.heckel

Hello,

This got more progress done. wlan0 seems to start up successfully but runs in the background. wpa_supplicant seems to say "unable to get status from wpa_supplicant. I do have a wpa_supplicant.conf file. I removed it and made a new one. The only thing I seemed to be missing was the /etc/conf.d/net file. When I had all this it made some progress, however it seemed to say still at boot "ioctl operation not supported" and saying that the daemon failed to start.

Thanks for the reply.

All help will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

donald3.heckel

----------

## khayyam

 *donald3.heckel wrote:*   

> [...] however it seemed to say still at boot "ioctl operation not supported" and saying that the daemon failed to start.

 

donald3.heckel ... this suggests your providing '-Dwext' as the wpa_supplicant driver and not '-Dnl80211', and that CFG80211_WEXT is not enabled in the kernel. The latter you can forget about unless you plan on using tools that still use the (old, and to be removed) WEXT (wireless extentions). That's mostly guesswork as I'm not sure what provided the above error, I'm assuming that only net.wlan0 (and so wpa_supplicant) is slated to start at boot, if thats not the case, and you have wicid also in the default runlevel then remove it.

best ... khay

----------

## donald3.heckel

Hello,

I am still having an issue. wpa_supplicant works if I add my user all over again to the "wheel" group and removing my configuration file with making a new one. It says that wlan0 cannot start because of an unclean termination of wpa_supplicant and to remove the configuration file before starting it again. I do not want to keep doing things over again so that I can connect to wireless.

All Help will be greatly appreciated.

Please reply as soon as you can.

Thanks,

donald3.heckel

----------

## NeddySeagoon

donald3.heckel,

Read the message more carefully.  its a lock file that wpa_supplicant wants you to remove, not your configuration file.

If you add net.wlan0 to the default runlevel, you should find that wlan0 starts and stops at startup and shutdown.

----------

## donald3.heckel

I am unsure about this lock file. Could you give me a better description?

----------

## donald3.heckel

I tried to find some pid lock files. I deleted several of them including a wpa_supplicant file in the init.d directory.

The same issue still persists.

all help will be greatly appreciated

----------

## NeddySeagoon

donald3.heckel,

The file name is /var/run/wpa_supplicant/<interface_name>

/var/run should be a symlink to /run, which is in tmpfs. Thats RAM.

If this file exits, wpa_supplicant knows it has already started <interface_name>

----------

## donald3.heckel

Hello,

I changed the directory and modified my wpa_supplicant.conf. This worked and I now have wireless access.

Thank you all very much. All your help made a difference and I now have wireless on my computer.

Your help was greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

donald3.heckel

This thread will soon be marked as solved.

----------

