Wireless at boot

[LinuxRocks]

Question,

I have a wireless adapter on my laptop that works great while in KDE using the network manager app, but I would like it to activate on boot up so I don't have to log into a gui to have network connection.

Is there a wiki or instructions somewhere that explains how to do this?

Thanks!!!

Joe

[tnorris]

Re: Wireless at boot

If you do the setup in the /etc/network/interfaces and wpa_supplicant.conf file it will be established at boot time.

This is a pretty good how to: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=263136

Edit after reading that forum post, it's actually even a little simpler than stated there. On my box that I have setup this way, This is what my interfaces file looks like:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto ra0
iface ra0 inet static
address 192.168.1.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
wpa-driver wext
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Note, I have this box setup with a static ip. You can check "man interfaces" for how to set it up other ways (e.g. DHCP).

And my wpa_supplicant file look like:

network={
    pairwise=CCMP
    group=CCMP
    ssid="xxx"
    proto=WPA2
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    psk=<shared key>
}

2nd Edit: Here's another how to. It makes it sound complicated, but it really just comes down to setting up the two files I showed above. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WPAHowTo

[LinuxRocks]

Re: Wireless at boot

OK, super information.

However, I didn't see in those HOWTO's (Unless I missed it) where to add the authentication type for SHARED KEY, and I use WEP with the 64/128 bit hex code. Where would I set all that up? Is the "Password" that is mentioned in the HOWTO the hex code that I use... It looks something like 010203040506070809aaaeafac (That isn't it, but is an example template of what I do for my wep code).

Thanks again!!!

Joe

[tnorris]

Re: Wireless at boot

OK, super information.

However, I didn't see in those HOWTO's (Unless I missed it) where to add the authentication type for SHARED KEY, and I use WEP with the 64/128 bit hex code. Where would I set all that up? Is the "Password" that is mentioned in the HOWTO the hex code that I use... It looks something like 010203040506070809aaaeafac (That isn't it, but is an example template of what I do for my wep code).

Thanks again!!!

Joe

If you use WEP you don't need wpa_supplicant at all. You can put your essid and wep-key directly into /etc/network/interfaces. Make sure you have wireless-tools installed. Then, add these lines to your wireless card's stanza in interfaces:

wireless-essid <essid>
wireless-key <wep-key>

If you want to use the ASCII wep-key (as opposed to the hex one) prefix it with "s:" above (e.g. "s:<wep key>").

You can use "man wireless" and "man iwconfig" to get more information on the options available.

For clarification, your /etc/network/interfaces should look similar to this when you are done.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto ra0
iface ra0 inet static
address 192.168.1.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
wireless-essid <essid>
wireless-key 010203040506070809aaaeafac