Neo FreeRunner Wifi
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Neo FreeRunner
This page documents the wireless networking solutions commonly known as WLAN or WiFi.
There are other ways to enable wireless communications on the Neo, including Bluetooth. For Bluetooth solutions, see How to use bluetooth to transfer data between Neo and Desk-top and Manually using Bluetooth.
Where is the GUI?
VERY good question. Right now this page is just a collection of tips on what command you can use in a terminal window or an ssh connection because (as far as I know there isn't one yet.
How can I tell what access points (AP's) are visible to me?
Wireless access points can be listed like this:
root@om-gta02:~# iwlist eth0 scan
Using WPA and /etc/network/interfaces
WPA is a encryption method for securing your wireless network. Once you have a /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file, add a line under the eth0 entry in /etc/network/interfaces:
iface eth0 inet dhcp wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Save your changes and run:
# ifdown eth0 && ifup eth0
You'll get a lot of messages, like ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported and sed: unrecognized option `--quiet', they appear to be harmless. The "--quiet" error message can be avoided by replacing "sed --quiet" with "sed -n" in /etc/wpa_supplicant/*.sh
Using WEP and /etc/network/interfaces
WEP is an encryption method for securing your wireless network. WEP is generally considered to be weak, you should use WPA instead if possible.
iface eth0 inet dhcp wireless-key my_wep_key wireless-essid my_essid
iface eth0 inet dhcp wpa-wep-key0 my_wep_key wpa-key-mgmt NONE wpa-ssid my_essid
Save your changes and run:
# ifdown eth0 && ifup eth0
Manual attempt
Create and edit a suitable /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
root@om-gta02:~# ifup eth0 root@om-gta02:~# wpa_supplicant -ieth0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -B root@om-gta02:~# udhcpc eth0
Sample wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant ctrl_interface_group=0 eapol_version=1 ap_scan=1 fast_reauth=1 # WPA2: network={ ssid="your ssid" scan_ssid=1 proto=RSN key_mgmt=WPA-PSK pairwise=CCMP TKIP group=TKIP CCMP psk="secret key" priority=50 } # WPA: network={ ssid="your_ssid" proto=WPA key_mgmt=WPA-PSK pairwise=TKIP group=TKIP scan_ssid=1 psk="secret key" priority=10 } # WEP: network={ ssid="your_ssid" scan_ssid=1 key_mgmt=NONE wep_tx_keyidx=0 wep_key0=your_hex_key priority=8 } # Open: network={ ssid="your ssid" key_mgmt=NONE priority=5 }
wpa_supplicant.conf explained
The highest priority is tried first then falls back to the next highest number.
priority=100 1st
then
priority=99
# Simple case: WPA-PSK, PSK as an ASCII passphrase, allow all valid ciphers network={ ssid="AP_ESSID" psk="presharedkey" priority=5 } #try open AP regardless of its SSID. # change root password before you go roaming around it could prove dangerous network={ key_mgmt=NONE priority=1 #try any open AP last }
A more in depth explanation can be found here:
http://hostap.epitest.fi/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=hostap.git;a=blob_plain;f=wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
A very ugly /etc/init.d/wlan startscript
#!/bin/sh # # wlan This shell script starts and stops wlan. # # processname: wlan # Source function library. #. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions # "written" by HdR RETVAL=0 prog="wlan" # test -f /etc/default/$prog && . /etc/default/$prog start() { echo -n "Starting $prog: " ifconfig eth0 up wpa_supplicant -ieth0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -B sleep 10 udhcpc eth0 RETVAL=$? return $RETVAL } stop() { # Stop daemons. echo -n "Shutting down $prog: " killall wpa_supplicant ifconfig eth0 down # killproc gpsd RETVAL=$? return $RETVAL } # See how we were called. case "$1" in start) start ;; stop) stop ;; restart|reload) stop start RETVAL=$? ;; *) echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}" exit 1 esac exit $RETVAL
Stability issues
2nd of august 2008
Using the above methods i can only get a succesful connection about every 10th time i try. I get an IP, but after that it is extremely unstable. Trying to ping www.google.com only results in an answer every 30 secs or so, and using the wifi connection for anything useful such as installing software using opkg is almost impossible. I've had these issues with two different FreeRunners and two different AP's. - El Senator
Available Software
Here are some applications available to aid in WiFi administration:
lint-wifi
lint-wifi work in progress
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Lint-wifi
Mofi
Mofi is software for the OpenMoko platform allowing phone users to search for and connect to wireless access points within range.
External links
For more than you could ever want to know about using WiFi on Linux systems, you should visit this page: http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/