# Wireless and WPA Supplicant?

## RedLeg

I've been playing with http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant attempting to get wireless (802.11) working with TKIP, aka WPA and AES-CCMP, aka WPA2.  

The good news:  this mostly works for me with the madwifi driver..

The bad news: (sadly multipart)

     - apparently, no ebuild for wpa_supplicant

     - using cvs build of madwifi....

     - incompatible with wireless-config

Now, more good news is that with a supported card driver installed (madwifi in my case) and working, and with wpa_config configured to support the card, compiled and installed, all it took to integrate wpa_supplicant into the "normal" startup environment scripts was the following addition to the end of /etc/conf.d/net:

```
preup() {

        /usr/local/bin/wpa_supplicant -Bw -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -i $IFACE

        return $?

}
```

The wpa_supplicant code automagically selects based on SSID and configu-twiddles the card in accordance with the config file specified.  I have verified operation (so far) with no crypto, WEP, TKIP (preshared key), AES-CCMP (preshared key and w/ 802.1X auth, EAP-PEAP-MSCHAPv2), against several different APs.

I'm wondering if there are any plans to bring this into portage and integrate it into the mainstream?  

Not taking anything at all away from wireless-config (which I have used for months), but this seems a LOT easier to integrate into the default config scripts, includes all the functionality of wireless-config, and enables REAL wireless security options......

Thoughts?

Flames >> /dev/null

Red

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## carlosman

I have been trying to find info on how to configure my IBM Thinkpad T40 for wireless networking, using its Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 built-in card (Centrino?).  It has been a rough search.  Just thought this post maybe helpful for other newbies like myself.

I just found this ebuild for the wpa_supplicant:

http://packages.gentoo.org/search/?sstring=wpa-supplicant

I am going to try it on my T40 now and will post notes on my experience later.

Good luck!  :Very Happy: 

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## BDickson

Yo, carlosman:

I found the ebuild (?) after I corrected your link to:

http://packages.gentoo.org/search/?sstring=wpa_supplicant (from wpa-supplicant)

But what do I do with it? Is it the text on the page? I'm really lost here.

Thanks,

Britt Dickson

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## daff

wpa_supplicant is in portage, just emerge it. Besides, the first two posts are quite dated. Nowadays wpa_supplicant is easily integrated into /etc/conf.d/net and also uses configuration from /etc/conf.d/wireless. Read here.

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## BDickson

I hadn't noticed the dates. Why are they left in, I wonder, when they no longer apply?

Thanks for the tip: I'll try again.

BD

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