Re: [gentoo-user] WPA2 connection configuration?

[Mark Knecht]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 2:53 PM, Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com> wrote:
> On Monday 26 Sep 2011 16:03:10 James Broadhead wrote:
>> > On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 7:12 AM, Spidey / Claudio <spideybr@×××××.com>
>> > Between the Gentoo Handbook and Google
>> > (... )I didn't even know there was a better way of managing wireless
>> > networks!
>>
>> This is exactly the problem.
>>
>> I'm working on rewriting the Handbook's page on setting up wifi, but
>> I'm going to need some time to get into the Live-Environments to test
>> that my new version works :P I'll post a draft here & would appreciate
>> comments before I submit the bug report.
>>
>> On 26 September 2011 15:51, Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com> wrote:
>> > On the other hand reading through the examples/comments for
>> > /etc/conf.d/net and wpa_supplicant.conf takes the whole of 10-20
>> > minutes.
>>
>> I absolutely disagree with this - while editing /etc/conf.d/net is
>> fine, wpa_supplicant.conf requires a pretty solid understanding of
>> both the network that you're trying to connect to, and the various
>> protocols/encryption mechanisms available. Back when I was first
>> trying to get wireless working on my systems, it was a major stumbling
>> block.
>>
>> The gentoo install is pretty tough going for the average new user,
>> with a lot of separate areas of new competence without getting into
>> wireless (assuming that they have a reasonable understanding of
>> computing to start). An additional 10-20 minutes of user intervention
>> is quite significant overhead.
>
> I have to agree that for a beginner who needs to install Gentoo getting the
> network connection going without a (major) problem or delay is quite
> important.  Otherwise, it can act as a disincentive of carrying on with the
> installation.  Therefore I would support the easy way to get there, but would
> also leave the manual configuration in there - for those who need to configure
> more convoluted set ups or are interested to look at what's happening under
> the bonnet.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Mick

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Thanks,
Mark