[maemo-developers] WLAN connectivity using only wireless-tools

[From: Kalle Vahlman]

2007/9/25, Kalle Valo <Kalle.Valo at nokia.com>:
> "ext Kalle Vahlman" <kalle.vahlman at gmail.com> writes:
>
> > I'm trying to construct myself a small rootfs that would boot up and
> > connect to my (open) WLAN.
>
> I assume that you didn't modify initfs.

Apart from installing bootmenu, no. It's the exact same initfs that I
use daily with the ITOS.

> > For this I'd very much like to avoid any unneccesary and/or closed
> > bits, so I thought no prob, I'll just install wireless-tools there
> > and put few commands to my bootup script.
>
> Not a problem, should work just fine. Occasionally I also use
> wireless-tools directly.

The version available for ITOS seems to be 28, while I have 29. I
don't think that should be a problem though?

> > Alas, things didn't go that easily. For whatever reason, the wlan0
> > interface (although seemingly up & running) refuses to take on the
> > essid I set with iwconfig, or any other command I try.
>
> Examples and full output from kernel, please.
>
> > So, the question is, is there some special setup needed for the wlan0
> > to come to life or do I really need to bring in the likes of wlancond
> > (whatever it's role in this might be)?
>
> You just have to do ifconfig wlan0 up before using wireless-tools.
> When the interface is down, the driver doesn't accept any commands.

Here's everything in a nutshell:

Currently I do:

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwlist wlan0 scanning > /wlan-list
iwconfig wlan0 mode managed
iwconfig wlan0 ap auto
iwconfig wlan0 essid "xxx"

after which iwconfig says:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate=0 kb/s   Tx-Power=19 dBm   Sensitivity=0/200
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

ie. nothing happened with the iwconfig commands, and the dmesg log
doesn't contain much either:

<4>[    8.456665] umac: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
<4>[    8.621368] CX3110x chip variant: STLC4550
<4>[    8.699401] CX3110x: firmware version: 2.13.0.0.a.22.8
<4>[    8.708160] Loaded CX3110x driver, version 0.8
[snip unrelated mmc/ext3 mumble]
<4>[   10.249450] Loading 3826.arm firmware
<4>[   10.493041] (c)opyright 2004 Conexant
<4>[   10.496917]
<4>[   10.496917] build info: PRISM SoftMAC
<4>[   10.496948]   creator: [kvalo]
<4>[   10.496948]   date: [07/05/03-10:28]
<4>[   10.496978]
<4>[   10.512023] CX3110x: MAC address 00:19:4f:xx:xx:xx
<4>[   14.845031] Scan complete, scanned 2 channels
<4>[   14.895599] Using default authentication order
<4>[   15.628631] sm_drv_transmit: sm_frame_tx returned error -9
[snip few more identical lines from trying to send unconnected]

And that's it. The errors at the bottom are clear now, but... And I
can even see my AP in the 'iwlist scanning' output, but the interface
acts dead for me.

I just can't think of or find anything in the ITOS boot scripts might
be setting up, that's why I thought maybe wlancond or someone did some
powerup stuff. I don't see any PSM lines for example, while with the
ITOS I do.

*sigh*

-- 
Kalle Vahlman, zuh at iki.fi
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