Re: NetworkManager tries to connect to WPA-PSK/CCMP access point as if it were unencrypted

[Dan Krejsa <dan krejsa alamedanet net>]

Hi,

After a successful association to 'quibble', I see this:

# iwlist eth1 scan
eth1      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:14:6C:A0:7C:04
                    ESSID:"quibble"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
                              6 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Quality=93/100  Signal level=-37 dBm  Noise
level=-37 dBm
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP 
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP 
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK  
                       Preauthentication Supported
                    Extra: Last beacon: 52ms ago
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:16:B6:F7:32:E1
                    ESSID:"Mikeki"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:1
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36
Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Quality=55/100  Signal level=-75 dBm  Noise
level=-75 dBm
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP 
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP 
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK  
                    Extra: Last beacon: 4637ms ago
$ iwconfig eth1
eth1      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"quibble"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point:
00:14:6C:A0:7C:04   
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:15 dBm   
          Retry limit:15   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=96/100  Signal level=-36 dBm  Noise level=-48 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:1  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:1243   Missed beacon:0



(I think iwlist is discarding some of the weaker access points--Mikeki
& other weaker ones often don't show up. I don't remember that being the
case previously; I used to see more items in the 'iwlist scan' output,
as I still see more access points in the gnome NetworkManager applet.
I'm currently using wireless-tools-28-4.fc7.)

The problem is definitely intermittent. It doesn't happen every boot.
I don't know how to reproduce it reliably. If it doesn't ring any bells,
I'll just keep an eye on it until either it stops happening, or until
I figure out a way to make it happen on demand.

Thanks for your help,

- Dan

P.S. I doubt it makes a difference, but there is sometimes an OLPC XO
on the same network (presently joyride-1536; last time I saw the problem
--yesterday-- it was joyride-1525).


On Tue, 2008-01-15 at 15:13 -0500, Dan Williams wrote: 
> On Mon, 2008-01-14 at 22:32 -0800, Dan Krejsa wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I've seen problem recently on a Fedora 7 laptop using NetworkManager
> > to connect to a wireless access point (NETGEAR WPN824v2, firmware
> > V2.0.10_1.2.17).  From /var/log/messages (attached gzipped), it
> > appears that when the activation initially fails, NetworkManager is
> > somehow treating the access point as if it were unencrypted.  If I then
> > use the gnome NetworkManager applet to 'Connect to Other Wireless
> > Network' specifying the appropriate keying information, it tries again,
> > using the correct key info (as far as I can see from /var/log/messages),
> > but fails anyhow.
> 
> Could you provide the iwlist scan output for that access point?
> 
> /sbin/iwlist eth1 scan
> 
> where eth1 is probably your wireless device.  I'd like to see what that
> network is advertising in its beacons.
> 
> Thanks,
> Dan
> 
> > In order to get network manager to associate, I have to:
> > 
> > - stop the NetworkManager[Dispatcher] services
> > - wipe out the .gconf information for the 'quibble' wireless network
> >   using 
> >    gconftool-2
> > --recursive-unset /system/networking/wireless/networks/quibble
> > 
> > - restart NetworkManager[Dispatcher]
> > - Click the 'quibble' network in the gnome 
> > 
> > At that point, NetworkManager properly associates (after asking
> > me the access point & keyring keys).
> > 
> > On the next reboot I frequently need to repeat the process
> > even though the info stored in
> > 
> >  ~/.gconf/system/networking/wireless/networks/quibble/%gconf.xml
> > 
> > looks good to my inexpert eye.
> > 
> > I'm using the ipw3945-1.2.0-18.4.fc7 driver from atrpms.
> > I'm running the  2.6.23.12-52.fc7 kernel,
> > wpa_supplicant-0.5.7-4.fc7, hal-0.5.9-8.fc7.
> > 
> > - Dan
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > NetworkManager-list mailing list
> > NetworkManager-list gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/networkmanager-list