WAG-0.3.2.pup Wifi Access Gadget

Message

keenerd · #1 Post by **keenerd** » Mon 22 Aug 2005, 04:12

If you're new to the game, this little app is for laptops with wifi cards. It gives a GUI that allows you to remove/insert your card, as well as log on to unencrypted access points. It's not as easy as WindowsXP's wifi, but it really beats using the command line.

As of Puppy 1.0.5, WAG (version 0.3.1) will be part of the iso. Please post your problems and solutions to this thread.

Flash, thanks for straighting out that previous thread. Sorry for my out of proportion outburst.

Enjoy.

#2 Post by **Flash** » Mon 22 Aug 2005, 04:50

Hey, I thought you were pretty restrained.

And, by the way, thanks for the program. It might get my brother to use Puppy on his laptop. Currently he has free high-speed wireless internet access from his house, courtesy of one of his neighbors who operates an open-access wireless station.

Now that you've registered in the forum, when you update your program to the next version you can just edit your post, to change the download file and subject line, rather than start a new thread for each updated version. Several people have done it that way. As far as I know it hasn't caused any problem, and it reduces confusion.

keenerd · #3 Post by **keenerd** » Tue 23 Aug 2005, 22:52

Just curious, has anyone tried this on a desktop with PCI based wireless? Most all of WAG should work. The next version will have the option of disabling all PCMCIA commands, to avoid possible trouble.

Also, in the interest of improving efficiency, how do you use WAG to connect to a network? If everyone always has to click the same series of buttons, I can merge some of them together. I, for example, must do the following:

Turn off dhcpcd.
Reseat my card, sometimes twice.
Scan and choose a network.
Activate dhcpcd to aquire an IP address.

keenerd · #4 Post by **keenerd** » Fri 02 Sep 2005, 03:58

No updates in a while because I've been working on a major rewrite. Some of the diagnostics have been buggy for a while, and I finally traced this back to improper handling of standard error. (Of course, when I wrote the code I didn't know what standard error was.) A bunch more work may be needed to get everything working in Puppy 1.05, as I expect my kludges to break in Bash.

BarryK · #5 Post by **BarryK** » Fri 02 Sep 2005, 09:56

keenerd,
I would like to give a few words of encouragement.
I've been working flat-out on something else, see News page for 2nd Sept, and will tidy that project up this weekend, then I've set aside next week as my "wifi week", to get wifi into Puppy. -- so, anything you can do to fit that schedule will be great!

keenerd · #6 Post by **keenerd** » Sat 03 Sep 2005, 21:27

A few new features. Much more intelligent reports & buttons. Several bugs removed. All the code was moderately to heavily re-written to make it readable. Also, PCMCIA support can be completely disabled when installing. Anyone with PCI or USB wireless want to give it a go?

Picking over the man pages yet another time, I found that scanning requires being root. Not that it's any big deal for Puppians, but I added a root check anyway.

Barry, if all goes well I'll have basic profile support within a few days.

Enjoy.

Lobster · #7 Post by **Lobster** » Sun 04 Sep 2005, 02:17

Good luck guys
Have put out a call for testers on the News page
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/wikka/LatestNews

It is in the interests of Puppys to test, as anyone using test software is more likely to be supported as 'just working' (no need for tweaking) in the official 1.0.5 as well as helping the whole community and future Puppys. This has happened to me on at least two occasions . . . (no wi-fi so not this time)

Be selfish - help the Puppy WAG his wi-fi

Hank · #8 Post by **Hank** » Sun 04 Sep 2005, 03:28

Hey!

I'm a newbie to linux, so I might need some hand-holding to sort out the issues if I run into any, but I'm more than willing to give it a go! I have a HP/Compaq nc6000 with Intel/PRO 2200BG that I would love to get working. I'll post my results when I get a chance to test it out.

keenerd · #9 Post by **keenerd** » Mon 05 Sep 2005, 23:11

Big new feature of WAG: Profiles!

If a network is picky about connection settings, or requires a WEP password, you just make a profile. Configuration is still really primative. Everything must be setup though a text file, /usr/local/WAG/profile-conf. There isn't much explanation as to how to make a profile. A bit of documentation is inside the profile-conf. If you don't know what the terms mean, read up on dhcpcd and iwconfig (both are in Puppy's help system).

I suggest you delete /root/my-roxapps/WAG beforehand for the cleanest install. The installer now points to /usr/local, but it still puts a kilobyte of linkage into /root/my-roxapps/WAG.

keenerd · #10 Post by **keenerd** » Wed 07 Sep 2005, 12:31

Silly me, I forgot to register with pupget after writing to /usr. I've patched both the 0.3.0 files, so just install the new 0.3.0 overtop the old.

keenerd · #11 Post by **keenerd** » Thu 15 Sep 2005, 23:08

Barry's sharp eyes found a bug in WAG 0.3.0. It's very trivial, part of the root/user dectection.

If you have problems with WAG, please post them here. I imagine there will be lots of new errors popping up, now that WAG will be included in Puppy by default.

kirk · #12 Post by **kirk** » Wed 21 Sep 2005, 14:43

I'm using the WAG on 105rc. I loaded the driver for my NIC card using Ndiswrapper, ran wag and hit "modprobe" then the Tx/Rx light started flashing on my NIC card. Then I hit "scan" and selected my network, then hit "profiles" and added a profile for my network connection. I called my profile "drop". Then I hit the "drop" button, at the top it says "drop --- Yes", but I have no link light and DHCP won't toggle. If I hit "autoconnect" I get a link light, But no DHCP (I have a WEP password). I'm thinking I've missed something in the profile setup. I've listed it below. Thanks for any help.

TITLE3="drop"
IP=""
GATEWAY=""
ESSID="xrxxrx1"
NWID=""
KEY="xeroxsucksbig"
MODE="Managed"
FREQ=""
CHANNEL=""
AP_MAC=""

keenerd · #13 Post by **keenerd** » Wed 21 Sep 2005, 21:18

I loaded the driver for my NIC card using Ndiswrapper, ran wag and hit "modprobe" then the Tx/Rx light started flashing on my NIC card.

Um, that should disable ndiswrapper and stop your card. Loading the driver (from command line?) and then hitting "toggle" would unload ndiswrapper.

Then I hit "scan" and selected my network,

You later say that it is WEP protected. Scan will not connect you to encrypted APs. (There is a way to load passwords into memory, and your card may try them automatically, so you might be able to connect through Scan.)

then hit "profiles" and added a profile for my network connection. I called my profile "drop". Then I hit the "drop" button, at the top it says "drop --- Yes", but I have no link light and DHCP won't toggle. If I hit "autoconnect" I get a link light, But no DHCP (I have a WEP password). I'm thinking I've missed something in the profile setup. I've listed it below. Thanks for any help.

The "drop --- Yes" is a good sign. It means your WAG can read the profile file, and that your card card scan for APs. Everything should work, eventually.

TITLE3="drop"
IP=""
GATEWAY=""
ESSID="xrxxrx1"
NWID=""
KEY="xeroxsucksbig"
MODE="Managed"
FREQ=""
CHANNEL=""
AP_MAC=""

First up, make sure that you're actually using WEP. WPA uses passphrases, and iwconfig (part of WAG's backend) doesn't support that.

Normally WEP will use a hex number as a passkey. You can use an ASCII string, with the proper prefix. Change
KEY="xeroxsucksbig"
to
KEY="s:xeroxsucksbig"
If that doesn't work, use a hex passkey instead.[/quote]

kirk · #14 Post by **kirk** » Wed 21 Sep 2005, 22:29

Thanks for the the help and most of all for the App. I'll give that a try in the morning. (the WIFI connection is at a work location.)

kirk · #15 Post by **kirk** » Thu 22 Sep 2005, 19:40

I got my wireless working

The root of the problem is that iwconfig defaults the Security mode to "restriced". I needed it set to "open".
I typed "iwconfig wlan0 essid xrxxrx1 mode managed key open s:xeroxsucksbig" at a term window and that got it going. I tried changing my profile in WAG to:

TITLE3="drop"
IP=""
GATEWAY=""
ESSID="xrxxrx1"
NWID=""
KEY="open s:xeroxsucksbig"
MODE="Managed"
FREQ=""
CHANNEL=""
AP_MAC=""

this resulted in the security mode being set to open, but the Encryption key not being set. Is there some way to set the profile to do this?

thanks

keenerd · #16 Post by **keenerd** » Thu 22 Sep 2005, 21:11

I ran KEY="open s:sometext" through the string handler, and it came out fine. In fact, your improv should work perfectly. (Since you have gotten it to work, it means I can't blame shoddy drivers :wink: )

However, WAG doesn't produce one big iwconfig line. It runs a bunch of single parameter iwconfig lines. I can do it either way, but it worked fine when I was writing the code. So, emulate WAG by manually typing the following:

iwconfig wlan0 essid xrxxrx1
iwconfig wlan0 key open s:xeroxsucksbig
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
iwconfig wlan0 commit

If this works, then there is a bug that me and Barry missed.

If it doesn't work, I can name three possibilities. First, your card doesn't like the commit command. My card ignores it, but other cards need it. Maybe your's is different.

Second, your card requires a certain order to the iwconfig command. To follow the specs exactly, try running

iwconfig wlan0 essid xrxxrx1
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
iwconfig wlan0 key open s:xeroxsucksbig
iwconfig wlan0 commit

My card doesn't care about the order of the commands. But I'll fix WAG to match the spec.

Third, if none of this works, then your driver just doesn't like the individual iwconfig commands. But I'm worried that some cards won't take the all-in-one iwconfig line. (Basing this off of forum archives. Whenever one of the gurus reccomend an iwconfig setup, they always have the commands broken up.)

keenerd · #17 Post by **keenerd** » Fri 23 Sep 2005, 02:23

Kirk,
I will soon be submitting a revised WAG for 1.0.5. You'll probably have the same troubles.

But here is a cheap fix:

1) Open /usr/local/WAG/manuwifi
2) Copy your iwconfig line into this script
3) Open /usr/local/WAG/wag-conf
4) Edit CUSTOMSCRIPT to be something useful, like, um, "work"

Now, WAG will have a button called "work" that will connect you to that network.

keenerd · #18 Post by **keenerd** » Fri 23 Sep 2005, 03:24

One or two small fixes for bash, a typo corrected, and a little tweak that should improve compatability.

The user-button is currently set up to launch Mozilla. Feel free to change it, it's your button.

kirkeenerd · #19 Post by **kirkeenerd** » Fri 23 Sep 2005, 13:48

Keenerd,

It was the order of the commands. The first didn't work, but the second order did work:

iwconfig wlan0 essid xrxxrx1
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
iwconfig wlan0 key open s:xeroxsucksbig
iwconfig wlan0 commit

Thanks for your help. I think you said you were going to change the command order in WAG. Will that make the 105 release?

keenerd · #20 Post by **keenerd** » Fri 23 Sep 2005, 13:59

Yes, I did change the order. Download version 0.3.1 and check that it works for you. It should appear in 1.0.5, as today was the deadline for apps.

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