Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Pandu Poluan]

On Sep 27, 2011 5:11 AM, "Mark Knecht" <markknecht@×××××.com> wrote:
>

[-- snip --]

> Speaking as someone experienced in running Gentoo but certainly not a
> power user - I don't write scripts or program at all - I gotta say I
> don't like that way this is all working on my system so far. TO BE
> CLEAR, I am SURE that I don't have everything configured as well as it
> could possibly be, but I also suspect that would be true for the
> majority of new wireless users on Gentoo after only a day or two.
>

Not to belittle non-power users, most everything can be done by putting some
more intelligence into the init.d scripts.

Of course, this should be implemented by Gentoo itself. I'll spelunk in the
relevant scripts and see what I can do.

> My experience so far:
>
> 1) As discussed earlier, needing to mess with routes when changing
> which network I'm using. Sad when both options actually point to the
> same address.
>

Solvable by putting commands to add/delete routes in postup() and predown()

> 2) If I start with wlan0 turned off and switch to root to disable eth0
> and enable wlan0, I get a message that wlan0 is up but 'not active'.
> Indeed, as a user if I start a browser it doesn't work. However, if as
> root I ping the router I immediately get a response and then my
> browser works fine.
>

Can you check if pinging to self (i.e., wlan0's IP) activates the interface?
If so, it will be a simple addition to postup()

> 3) If I disable wlan0 and then reenable it it doesn't work until I
> restart wpa_supplicant
>

Okay, this will be more involved, since I have no experience with, nor any
setup using, wpa_supplicant. But should also be possible through postup()

> 4) So far wpa_gui cannot find any networks, or at least doesn't
> display anything when I attempt a scan.
>

This I'm not sure how to fix, since my Gentoo boxen has no GUI.

> I don't understand at this point how to make this work for normal
> users. Anyone in my family of three might want to pick this laptop up
> and go to a different part of the house, or even go out of the house
> and use the laptop with some public network. I haven't a clue yet how
> anyone is supposed to change networks when they aren't root. I
> understand that flies in the face of typical Linux security, but it
> seems to me that a well thought out wireless environment could figure
> out how to do that, and possibly has already but I haven't found the
> info.
>

Valid points. That's why I'll volunteer to 'tweak' the net script.

> Anyway, I am THRILLED to have wireless working at all and appreciate
> all the help I got getting there. Without question I couldn't have
> gotten here without it.
>

Rgds,