Linux Wireless

From The University of Akron Support Center Wiki

Needs Updated The command line information found on this page, while accurate, may not be the most current information on this subject.

Introduction

The Linux operating system comes in many different distributions, with many different user interfaces, and ways to configure its software. Therefore, it is not possible for the University of Akron to list setups for all of them. We have decided to take the most popular distribution, Ubuntu, and provide GUI instructions for the 3 most common user interfaces (Gnome, KDE,and Xfce). The installation instructions were made using the Network Manager and default installations of Ubuntu. Please note that Ubuntu comes default with Gnome. Ubuntu with KDE is known as Kubuntu and with Xfce is Xubuntu. Different distributions should either be the same or very similiar.

GUI Setup

Ubuntu and Xubuntu (Gnome and Xfce)

These two user interfaces have nearly identical setups. The instructions listed are for Ubuntu but should apply to Xubuntu

1.	Right click the Network icon, go to Edit Connections. From here, select the Wireless tab and click the Add button.
2.	Name the connection rootown and enter rootown as the SSID. Select the Wireless Security tab.
3.	Fill out the following for wireless security. Security: WPA & WPA2 Enterprise Authentication: Protected EAP (PEAP) Anonymous Identity: Leave Blank CA Certificate: None PEAP Version: Version 1 Inner Authentication: MSCHAPv2 User Name: Your UAnetID Password: Password for your UAnetID Click Apply. Use the image to help you if required.
4.	You may get a warning in regards to the CA Certificate. Check the box that says "Don't Warn Me Again" and click Ignore. The Network Manager should auto connect nown and in the future. Follow the same steps to change your password if needed.

Kubuntu (KDE)

1.	Click the KDE logo in the bottom left corner. Go to System Settings. Click Networking Settings.
2.	Click Network Management and then the Wireless tab. click the Add button.
3.	Enter rootown as the SSID. Click the Wireless Security tab. Fill out the settings as follows: Security: WPA-EAP EAP Method: PEAP Anonymous Identity: Blank CA Certificate: Blank PEAP & Version: Version 1 Inner Authentication: MSCHAPv2 Username: Your UAnetID Password: Your UAnetID Password Click Ok out of everything and your profile should be set.

Command Line

LEAP

Wireless Utilities

Cisco

Gentoo

First you'll need to download linux-acu-driver-v21.tar.gz from the Cisco website and put it in /usr/portage/distfiles/ Now you can get the client-utils

#emerge cisco-aironet-client-utils

Launch the aironet-client-utiltiy with:

#/opt/cisco/bin/acu

Now this user interface has to be taken with a grain of salt. It is in fact, so salty that you should not even use it.

Kernel Configuration

You may or may not need to recompile your kernel since some distributions tend to include everything as a module.

First step is to figure out what kind of Wireless Card you have.

#lspci | grep Wireless

The output of the previous command should look similar to this:

02:02.0 Network controller: AIRONET Wireless Communications Cisco Aironet Wireless...

Compile in the Cisco/Aironet 34X/35X/4500/4800 ISA and PCI cards under Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN (non-hamradio) Select whichever you have (PCMCIA or ISA/PCI) After you have compiled in or as a module you should now see another ethernet device (eth1 in my case)

Cisco / LEAP Authenication by Command Line Interface

If the computer recognizes the Cisco card, you can just try using the leapset command line program which will ask for a username and password. Then you can use dhcpcd on the interface to obtain an IP address.

To reduce typing make a script

#!/bin/sh
/opt/cisco/bin/leapscript UANETID PASSWORD
dhcpcd eth1

Intel PROSet

Intel did not write a Linux driver, however, there is an open source solution. A utility called "ipw2200"

Kernel Configuration

Networking --->
   [*] Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack

Device Drivers --->
   Generic Driver Options --->
      [*] Hotplug firmware loading support
   Network Device support --->
      Wireless LAN (non-hamradio) --->
        [*] Wireless LAN drivers (non-hamradio) & Wireless Extensions

Cryptographic options --->
   [*] Cryptographic API
     <*> AES cipher algorithms (i586)
     <*> ARC4 cipher algorithm
     <*> Michael MIC keyed digest algorithm
     <*> CRC32c CRC algorithm (this wasn't prompted in the emerge of ipw2200)

Getting and installing the Intel utilities

• Intel 3945: Click Here
• Intel 2100: Click Here
• Intel 2200/2915: Click Here

Once you have the proper driver installed. Load the appropriate modules ex:

#modprobe ipw2200

You should now have a wireless interface (most likely eth1), so bring it up:

#ifconfig eth1 up

WPA Supplicant

Most distributions have the wireless-tools package. It will need to be installed. Gentoo users can emerge wireless-tools. Wpa_supplicant is required to connect. If there are no packages this in the distribution used, compiling by the source may be an option. Source Code. Gentoo users can emerge wpa_supplicant. Assistance with compiling software can be found in room 52c in Bierce Library. After having wpa_supplicant installed, the wpa_supplicant.conf file should contain the following:

 ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
 ctrl_interface_group=0
 update_config=1
 ap_scan=1
 
 network={
         ssid="tsunami"
         key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
         eap=LEAP
         identity="UANET ID"
         password="PASSWORD"
 }

Now that the wpa_supplicant is installed, launch it with:

#wpa_supplicant -i eth1 -D wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Get an IP with the following command:

#dhcpcd eth1

PEAP

The University of Akron now supports PEAP wireless authentication. Linux is compatible with the University's implementation of PEAP through use of the WPA supplicant. For best results please use the following configuration template.

eapol_version=1
ap_scan=2
fast_reauth=1
network={
    ssid="tsunami"
    key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
    scan_ssid=1
    eap=PEAP
    identity="uanetid"
    password="passwordhere"
    phase1="peaplabel=0"
    phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"
 }

Profile Utilities

There are not too many programs available for wireless profile management. But here is a small list to try

• gtkwifi
• gwifiapplet
• kwifimanager (Does not have LEAP support.)
• NetworkManager (Currently does not support phase2 which is required.)
• KNetworkManager (Same issue as NetworkManager)
• wifi-radar

See Also

Wireless Setup