(OLD) (ARCHIVED) Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[tempestuous]

OK, it appears you have a miniPCI wifi device -
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/IBM_High_Rate_Wireless_LAN_Mini-PCI_Adapter_with_Modem_II

That script should work fine.

To clarify; at bootup Puppy should automatically load the hostap_pci driver for this device.

[QBall2U]

[tempestuous]

Run "lspci" at the commandline to list all loaded modules (drivers).

[QBall2U]

All I get when I do that is:

[tempestuous]

Oops, sorry. The command is "lsmod".

[stevesr0]

I was able to connect with the network wizard ("Connect" app) only after I copied the contents of the wpa_supplicant2.conf file to a file named .WPA2.conf in the same directory (/etc/network-wizard/wireless/wpa_profiles.

The reason I created this file is that the program gave me an error message saying there was no supplicant file named .WPA2.conf.

I didn't notice a mention of this file in this thread, so I posted this.

I am running puppy 4.2.1.

Thanks for this thread.

Steve

:

[Spaccafumo]

My wireless module is: ath_pci
On the same pc i have 2 puppy 4.30 (old kernel), one for each hard disk (full installation).
All went well during last months. Yesterday, suddenly, wifi connection of puppy installed in hda1 failed whereas the other one in hdb1 is still perfect (I am using it now).
Network-wizard reported:
-----------------
Failed to connect to wpa_supplicant - wpa_ctrl_open: No such file or directory
-----------------
I went to /var/run , made a "wpa_supplicant" directory but
it was erased as soon as i attempted to restart the connection (by Network wizard).

Is there any file in hdb1 (where connection is OK) to copy in hda1 (where connection fails) to solve the problem by a file-transfusion?
Saluti.
I downgraded to wep-128. So i solved.

[cortezthekiller]

Excellent post, it really helped me .
thanks a lot!!

[jcinpv]

I quote: Puppy's Network Wizard is one of the best in the business.

I got this out of the very first forum entries in this thread.

I spent the better part of several hours trying to get Puppy to connect to my hidden SSID. Finally, I enabled broadcasting the SSID and I was able to connect using the same setup as before.

So where in that is "one of the best in the business"?

[Flash]

You should see the worst.

Seriously, we appreciate the detailed feedback. It should be very helpful in improving Puppy's network wizard. In addition we will gladly refund your purchase price, and you can keep your Puppy.

[tempestuous]

When forum member rarsa announced the initial development of the wifi component of the Network Wizard approximately 3 years ago, I warned him that it was near-impossible to accommodate the configuration differences of all wifi adaptors and access points, and that he would probably receive no thanks from the majority of users whose configurations work perfectly, but more likely abuse from the minority whose configurations don't work perfectly.
The earlier post is a sad confirmation of this prediction.

It needs to be noted, at the outset, that we're talking about an individual instance here.
It should also be noted that hidden SSID's can be a problem in Linux usually with WPA encryption (even though the poster failed to indicate the type of encryption being used). This is a shortcoming of wpa_supplicant, the application running behind the Network Wizard, and this will be the case (obviously) with all Linux distributions. But more fairly, it's also a shortcoming of certain Linux drivers which fail to interact with wpa_supplicant in a standardised manner.
So again, success or failure will often depend on the nuances of the particular combination of wifi device and router.
Forum member JustGreg did some thorough testing with hidden SSID's here
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=29205

You will see that some wifi devices (and their Linux drivers) work fine, some don't.

Windows XP contains very few, if any, wifi drivers. Most are provided by the individual vendors, and the only reason opensource drivers and utilities need to be used in Linux is because of the discriminatory practice of many wifi vendors in not providing Linux drivers, themselves.
Ultimately, any "failure" under Linux is directly the fault of the wifi device manuafacturers.

And in this particular instance, the wifi connection failure was actually due to the user setting their router for hidden SSID (which is not the default setting on a wifi router) ...
which is not such a bad thing, because hiding your router's SSID, ironically, makes your wifi network less secure.
This has been discussed in technical detail on the forum before
"HOW-TO have a more secure wireless network"
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=207892#207892

[gerry]

Confession: I've not read every post all the way through this topic, but my rapid scan did not see my problem mentioned.
EDIT: I've read it all now, so...

I'm trying to set up wifi on Puppy 4.3.1 on an Acer Aspire One. Wizard does not work, but the command line method does. Hurrah!! But the configuration does not survive a reboot.

I'm running live usb stick, with a save file on the hard drive.

One odd thing is that all those files that we delete in the config process do not appear afterwards. Should they? Do I need to provide empty directories/files?

gerry

[ddubois]

The network wizard works great for me, except for the bit about saving a profile and automatically using it on the next boot. I have to re-run the network wizard every boot. Before I resort to trying to trying to determine all the correct parameters for a command line script to leave on my desktop, does anyone have any suggestions for me?

[SimpleWater]

i used Vettephil's simple script on the first page. Works nicely

[Spaccafumo]

How to replace this wep-128 (ascii) command:
iwconfig eth0 key s:asciipassword
with a wpa2 analogous command?
Can you write any example-text?