Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Juuso Alasuutari <iuso AT sourcemage.org>]

David, I'm delighted to see you focus on making wireless "just work" on 
Linux. 
I also share that dream.

I haven't yet tested your script, and I doubt I will in the near future, 
because I need WPA for all my wifi stuff. But I've researched wpa_supplicant 
for some time now, and will at some point attempt to pull together an app to 
help manage connections with it.

You're right in that wpa_supplicant is hard to figure out, but not 
impossible. 
Once you get to know the program you'll see that it's capable of much more 
than initially seems, and is a steady base upon which to build a wireless 
manager UI.

You can run wpa_supplicant as daemon, and you can then add, remove and edit 
networks via wpa_cli. The config file approach that Dave highlighted is one 
approach, but I like the dynamic operation that wpa_cli offers much more.

Oh, the reason why wpa_supplicant hasn't an init script is probably because 
the program itself doesn't ship one. I have an init script on my box, but 
I've figured that adding something like that to our spell is against the SMGL 
philosophy.

-- 
        Juuso Alasuutari
[[ Source Mage GNU/Linux ]]
On Sunday 14 May 2006 04:32, David Brown wrote:


> > Good stuff thanks!
> >
> > fyi I've found wpa_supplicant is a very good wifi roaming program.  It's
> > intended purpose is as the suplicant end of various WPA implementations,
> > but it also supports run-of-the-mill WEP, and unencrypted connections.
>
> yeah I've tried wpa but the documentation doesn't get installed and
> some of the options are obsolete (WIP file in devel wpa_supplicant).
> I wanted something that always worked and could easily use other tools
> (wireless-tools net-tools etc).   Also most other wireless connection
> managers connect to any old open network if it can't find what's
> specified in a config file, which is not what I wanted.  Also
> wpa_supplicant has it's own drivers for specific cards, which I don't
> understand why that's needed, wireless-tools and net-tools should be
> all that's needed, but maybe that's just me.
>
> > The configuration syntax is easy as can be. Each network block has
> > an ESSID, and several optional configuration options that change how the
> > card works. So:
> >
> > network={
> >         ssid='screwOff'
> >         scan_ssid=1
> >         proto=WPA
> >         key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
> >         pairwise=TKIP
> >         psk='notmyrealpassword'
> > }
> >
> > is my office definition. With more than one network, the wpa_supplicant
> > daemon just scans around for an essid that matches one of the configured
> > netblocks, re-configures the card on the fly, and you're all set.  So in
> > practice, I sleep my laptop at home, go to the office, wake it up, and
> > wpa_supplicant recognizes that the home network is gone, and the work
> > network is there, and reconfigures everything.
>
> so does wpa_supplicant run some sort of daemon? I don't see an
> initscript for the spell at all...
>
> - David Brown
> _______________________________________________
> SM-Discuss mailing list
> SM-Discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/sm-discuss

Attachment: pgpY8QhRjJSba.pgp
Description: PGP signature