Talk:WPA Manual Setting

Got our olpc from G1G1 on Dec 15, build 650. The WPA instructions do not work. There is a file created on /home/olpc/.sugar/default/nm/networks.cfg. The bssids is empty. I tried wpa_ver 2 and 4. I tried putting in AP from iwconfig on this laptop for bssids (without colons to mimic key). Our WPA access point does not show up on the neighborhood.

-- StuartGathman 23:25, 16 December 2007 (EST)

Please see the Release Notes General_Release_Notes for details on this bug. We have a fix now and should be able to release the patch to the general public in another week or so.

-- kim

Looks like it might work!

I just received my children's OLPC yesterday (2007-12-17) and my biggest disappointment was the lack of WPA support. Anyone who is serious about wireless security (which may include the vast majority of G1G1 participants!) would not use any less than WPA2 at home.

I am using an Apple Airport Extreme router which did work for me last night without encryption at all, but that's an unacceptable option. I literally put the OLPC back in the box it came in, until a solution became available. Now I am betting on the power of Linux to come through with what looks like an extremely simple fix. Will post again with the results!

-Jeff Robelen, NY

Finally Got This to Work

I tried this (with and without the suggested emendations) several times to no avail on my Airport Express (WPA2).

Looking at the script, I finally realized that (despite the instructions I had read elsewhere), it required the ASCII version of the password (which it then converts to Hex). Works great now.

--Bill Shepherd

WPA Enterprise

What about WPA Enterprise (ie. No PSK)?

--Jhulten 19:10, 19 December 2007 (EST)

WPA keys must be 10 characters or less in length

I'm leaving this tag in here, but its not correct (thanks Ivan!). ref: http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/5574

My reasoning for leaving this here is that "something" is up with the driver. Reference the bug above for details, but the short form is that any of 3 OLPCs here at work can no longer connect to our WiFi corpnet, though the only thing that changed was the passphrase.

Hmmm...

- Mark Pulver 22:10, 19 December 2007 (EST)

Didn't work for me either (Updated: now works) Just got my laptop today and tried the script method against WPAv1 Router. My passphrase is 14 chars though, so I hope I didn't hit the bug above.

When I reboot OLPC, it comes back and asks for passphrase :(

[Now Works] Ok, it works now, I think the instructions for clicking on the neighborhood activity after reboot messed me up. It didn't connect after that, and after re-running script multiple times it inserted multiple items into config file.

I cleaned up the config file with the original info, then DID NOT go into neighborhoods and it connected fine after a bit. Please note my WPA passphrase was 14 chars. -Ivan Berg - Dec 19, 2007

This also worked for me. Thank you Ivan. I used the original script and instructions but left out the Neighborhood step. My first tries included clicking the AP in the Neighborhood after reboot and it went blank with no connection. After multiple attempts I came here, cleaned up the config file, and rebooted leaving it alone. After I rebooted the XO automatically connected to my wireless network. I had also turned the broadcast SSID on as a precaution so that I could see it in the Neighborhood prior to testing. Unknown if this was necessary for the actual connection.

AP: Linksys WRT54G v6

Firmware Version: 1.02.0

Security Mode: WPA2 Personal

WPA Algorithms: TKIP+AES

--Spoonyfork 01:19, 22 December 2007 (EST)

Is it the AP

Has anyone gotten this to work with a WRT54G using WPA1 (personal with TKIP). I saw something about the mesh clashing with the Lazy-WDS that this AP has. I made the script mods since I have a space in my SSID, but have had no luck (even avoided the neighborhood page). I do notice that my mesh becomes active in both ifconfig and /var/log/messages, but see no evidence of auto connection trying to use networking.cfd data.

--Todd Spraggins 22:20, 21 December 2007 (CST)

Still not working

I have a TRENDNet TEW-432BRP with WPA2, PSK, TKIP. The passphrase is 8 chars. Two other laptops connect fine with Fedora 8 NetworkManager. The file "/home/olpc/.sugar/default/nm/networks.cfg" contains

[Gathman]
timestamp = 1197859792
wpa_ver = 4
key_mgmt = 2
bssids = 
key = 07xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx64charsxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
we_cipher = 0

The WAP does not show up at all, locked or unlocked, and there is no net connection.

--Stuart Gathman 21:33, 21 December 2007 (EST)

Alternate method

The generated configurations didn't work for me, and neither did the manually created variations I tried. The following method worked the first time.

/usr/sbin/wpa_passphrase "ssid" "passphrase" > /home/olpc/passkey

1. In the Terminal activity, execute the command above, using your own ssid and passphrase.
2. In the Browse activity, navigate to file:///home/olpc/passkey. Highlight the key, copy it to the clipboard with Ctrl-C.
3. Press the Neighborhood button, find your wireless access point, click it once. A dialog box will pop up. Paste the key into the dialog, press OK.
4. Experience joy
5. This worked for on a Trendnet 423 Draft N Wireless router

Bill 22:08, 21 December 2007 (EST)

This worked for me on build 650. Looks like you need to use the hex encoded form of the WPA passphrase in the Neighborhood prompt. -- Ghopper 17:19, 25 December 2007 (EST)

OMG!! It worked

I am virtually computer illiterate! But I did it! I got the XO to access my WPA wireless internet. Yippee and thank you!

working wpa by following shell script instructions

I followed the steps to

1)download Wpa.sh
2)edited the line with pass to "pass" since my passphrase has lots of spaces in it (No longer necessary --DeanBrettle)
3)copied Wpa.sh from usb to home directory
--In case someone's reading this who doesn't know, the cryptic period at the end of "cp /media/USBNAME/Wpa.sh ." means current directory. Since terminal starts in the home directory, and there were no commands to go elsewhere, that's where you still are.
4)ran the script as per instructions (my wpa turned out to be 1, not 2, so I had to re-do it)
5)started back up without going to neighborhood, like the commenters above said,
and
6)I'm on!

wheeee!

My router is a Motorola SBG900. It can be very finicky, so I'm tickled pink this worked!

quixote (I'm too excited to log in properly)

What if the access point isn't broadcasting its ssid?

As far as I know everything is fine, but my access points don't broadcast their ssid's. So there is no circle to click on. How can I tell it to just start up (or better yet, show a circle to click on)?

SSID hidden vs. visible

I can't connect without setting my router SSID to visible. Once I set my WiFi router to visible, I can connect fine. But after set my router back to invisible and restart the OLPC laptop, it won't find it. Unless there is a way to do it via the command line, it doesn't appear the network tool has a way to connect to invisible/hidden SSID networks. But I may be wrong since I've only had this thing less than a day.

reboot where...

Where do I type the word, reboot so that it can reboot? at the end of the whole script line? im typing reboot and it aint doing nothing. [UPDATE] i finally got it to work reading the instructions on the wpa page how section was not updated for the ssiid whatever it was. Im now surfing nicely on one of my laptops the question though now is I cant get open any of the games on the sesame street workshop area for my kids.

firmware upgrade needed

I followed everyone's suggestions, but still couldn't connect. So I upgraded my wireless router's firmware. I have a Netgear WGR614v6 with the old Firmware Version V2.0.13_1.0.13. I upgraded to V2.0.19_1.0.19 and everything works just fine.

Failed three ways

I have 3 APs (all work fine for a variety of XP machines):

1. Linksys WRT54GX1 Ver. 1. Originally running firmware v. 1.01.14 with WPA TKIP PSK encryption. Downloaded/modified/ran the Wpa.sh shell script. The shell script appeared to perform as designed. Rebooted. Connection not established. Upgraded firmware. Rebooted XO. Still no connection.

2. Verizon (Actiontec) GT704-WG with WPA TKIP PSK encryption. This AP is almost never visible on the Neighborhood view. Re-ran Wpa.sh. Cleaned up /home/olpc/.sugar/default/nm/networks.cfg from the old settings. Rebooted. No luck there either.

3. Belkin 54G using WPA or WPA2 encryption. No dice with this AP for a total of 3 failed attempts to connect to an AP.

User:Phillip 21:25, 23 December 2007 (EST)

Update: Turned out the Belkin works fine with WPA2 encryption. Had the wrong passphrase initially.

--User:Phillip 22:10, 23 December 2007 (EST)

Downloading The instructions say to download the wpa.sh file from a PC other than the OLPC laptop. Is that necessary if one can obtain an internet connection from elsewhere? (Like from a neighbour, who doesn't have WPA :) ).

Also, if one does download the file, how does one then find out where it was saved? I can download it, and view it in the clipboard, but I can't find what happens to it next.

Jeremymiles 22:37, 24 December 2007 (EST)

Permission Denied I got the file, and I type ./Wpa.sh, I get the response "Permission denied".

WPA Works With Build 653

I just downloaded build 653 (650 is what normally comes installed on the G1G1 laptops) And the WPA on that works flawlessly... at least it did for me.

I'm not sure if 653 is a stable release... but then I wouldn't call not having WPA work out of the box a stable release either.

Check out Olpc-update for info on updating. I did the Activated Upgrade which wipes it clean.

WPA2 Works For Me (Build 650)

This page (mostly) contains negative stuff so I'd just like to report that the instructions related to Wpa.sh worked perfectly for me the first time I tried them. I have a visible SSID with WPA2-AES as provided by a Linksys WRT54GL with f/w 4.30.7. Best wishes...good luck.