Setting up wpa_supplicant on Debian etch (linux 2.6.25.3)

noorul — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:38:53 +0000

Recently, I was trying to connect to a WiFi access point in my room. Some how the system not able to associate to the access point. It took lots of time for me to find out that WPA-PSK encryption is used. Following steps helped me to setup wpa_supplicant which encrypts the stream.

1. Create wpa_supplicant.conf. Mine is located at /etc/

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
network={
	ssid="Access Point SSID"
	scan_ssid=1
	proto=WPA
	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
	psk="Really Secret"
	priority=5
}

2. Put following commands inside a shell script

#!/bin/sh
wpa_supplicant -Dwext -ieth2 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Bw
dhclient eth2

3. Run the above script to bring the link up.

Now have fun with browsing!

Update: Recently I upgraded my Debian version to Squeeze (6.0). When I was using etch, I used the above script to start wpa_supplicant. Now I no longer use that method. Now I have the following entry in /etc/network/interfaces

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
	wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

This will automatically load wpa_supplicant during start up. Also the following commands can be used to bring up and down wireless network.

$ ifdown eth1
$ ifup eth1

noorul islam :: my thoughts » wpa_supplicant

Setting up wpa_supplicant on Debian etch (linux 2.6.25.3)