Intel 2915 abg Wireless and WPA2 with Genmac

[Holger Schuett]

Hi,
is it possible to use the Intel 2915 wireless device with genmac and WPA2/PSK?
I do know it works under windows and linux with wpa2/psk but I am not able to connect to a network with OS2/ECS when the network is secured with WPA2

Thanks for any information

Holger

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Holger.

Just a little background question. Is the adapter working fine with GenMac / GenMU ? Does it loads ok with eComStation (no error shown) and turn on the Wifi lights?
I ask that because GenMU seems to have it on the "unsupported" running device.  (Intel 2915abg Wlan [8086:4224])

Regards

[Holger Schuett]

Hi Martin
thank you for the reply.
Yes, the adapter works fine with genmac, out of the box when installing ecs 2.1.
The only problem is wpa2. I can connect to my wlan when setting the encrpytion to wpa.
I had posted earlier concerning this problems on my r52 and am x61, but until now I was not able to solve the problem on the r52, so I was wondering if perhaps the 2915 does not work with genmac regarding wpa2 encryption.

[Holger Schuett]

Here is the earlier posting:
http://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php?topic=288.0

[dbanet]

Hi Holger,

eComStation 2.1 is quite outdated, and the Wi-Fi stuff included with it is outdated either.

Please obtain a newer version of XWLan widget here and install it over your system's one.
For installation instructions please refer to the included documentation.

Please obtain also a newer build of WPA Supplicant here and install it over your system's one.
For installation instructions please refer to the included documentation.

After you've completed the above steps, please reboot your system and retry to connect to your WPA2 secured wireless network.

If you still encounter troubles connecting to a WPA2 secured wireless network, you may try replacing your wireless access point or operating system.

Regards,
dbanet.

[Andi B.]

The latest WPA supplicant compiled by Paul (the one which is tested with XWLAN) is included in xwlan3.12betaX. The same with older versions of xwlan - AFAIK they all include the supplicant. No need to extra download.

BUT be aware, starting with 3.12 ICS dhclient is used. Run 'yum install dhclient' if you want to use xwlan with DHCP and check the settings pages especially TCP/IP page 2 and WPA page.

[Neil Waldhauer]

I've got an x60 with a 3945, and it does WPA2-PSK just fine. The router is set to WPA2-PSK (AES). The 4965 works for sure. I have also tested with Intel 5100 and a GenMU driver, and that works also, but at a higher speed. I don't remember testing a 2915 with WPA2.

[Andi B.]

Just tested my R52 and it could not connect with WPA2 too. WPA works. With WPA2 wpa_supplicant says 'Could not get SSID from driver'. No clue if this is the problem or what else goes wrong. The same with my T42p.

After setting Access Point 'Cypher Type' from 'Auto TKIP/AES' to 'AES' now it works with the T42p (Intel 2200). But NOT with the R52.

[Holger Schuett]

Hi all and thanks for your replys.


Boris
:

Hi Holger,

eComStation 2.1 is quite outdated, and the Wi-Fi stuff included with it is outdated either.

I know that 2.1 is outdated, but I have tried all alternatives you mentioned (wpa-supllicant etc)and the result remains the same. I tried with the 2.2 Beta, and I even tried the GUI included with the build of P. Smedley. This is what worked on my X 61 finally. I tried with the Genmu which list the Intel 2915 too, result was the same,

Just tested my R52 and it could not connect with WPA2 too. WPA works. With WPA2 wpa_supplicant says 'Could not get SSID from driver'. No clue if this is the problem or what else goes wrong. The same with my T42p.

After setting Access Point 'Cypher Type' from 'Auto TKIP/AES' to 'AES' now it works with the T42p (Intel 2200). But NOT with the R52.

Yes, this is the same message I see when trying to connect

[Andi B.]

I tried with the 2.2 Beta, and I even tried the GUI included with the build of P. Smedley. This is what worked on my X 61 finally.

So I think the X61 should work with xwlan3.12(beta) too. Did you try it?

Did you by any chance search 'gmane.org.netlabs.genmac.user' list if this was discussed earlier?

[Holger Schuett]

Hi Andi,

I tried with the 2.2 Beta, and I even tried the GUI included with the build of P. Smedley. This is what worked on my X 61 finally.

So I think the X61 should work with xwlan3.12(beta) too. Did you try it?

Did you by any chance search 'gmane.org.netlabs.genmac.user' list if this was discussed earlier?

On the X61 I tried with the 3.12 beta ( I believe, but right now I installed Linux Mint on the x61).
What happened was: sometimes I could connect, mostly not. I then tried the GUI which comes with the wpa-supplicant form P. Smedley. This helped
on the x61, I could establish a connection everytime I tried.
And I did search on gmane.org:
I found this: http://news.gmane.org/find-root.php?message_id=100.f0840d00e23d4d4f.014%40telus.net
and this: http://news.gmane.org/find-root.php?message_id=000.20300500a04d024f.007%40telus.net

[Doug Bissett]

And I did search on gmane.org:
I found this: http://news.gmane.org/find-root.php?message_id=100.f0840d00e23d4d4f.014%40telus.net
and this: http://news.gmane.org/find-root.php?message_id=000.20300500a04d024f.007%40telus.net

I never did get that thing to work with WPA2. My brother has the T43 now, and I forgot all about trying the new supplicant and XWLAN with it, when I visited about a month ago. I don't think his router will do WPA2 anyway.

Hopefully, the Multimac project will pick up that device and fix the problems, eventually. Meanwhile, it seems that one is limited to WPA, unless the new supplicant, and/or XWLAN, fixes the problem.

[Andi B.]

...unless the new supplicant, and/or XWLAN, fixes the problem...

It seems to me the problem is either in genmac or wpa_supplicant. TTBOMK XWLAN starts the supplicant and waits for a valid secured connection before it fires up dhclient or ..... If connection is not established through the supplicant there seems to be nothing I can do in XWLAN against this problem. If someone proves me wrong I'll look into this. F.i. if it was possible to establish a connection with Pauls build of the wpa GUI but not with XWLAN this would change things. I'm sorry but currently it does not make sense to me searching this problem in XWLAN.

[Doug Bissett]

...unless the new supplicant, and/or XWLAN, fixes the problem...

It seems to me the problem is either in genmac or wpa_supplicant.

When I was investigating the problem (more than a year ago), everything seemed to point to a flaw in GENMAC. I tried a couple of suplicant updates (but not the latest), with no change. I am not 100% sure, but I think I did try the wpa GUI, with no better results.

[dbanet]

And I did search on gmane.org:
I found this: http://news.gmane.org/find-root.php?message_id=100.f0840d00e23d4d4f.014%40telus.net
and this: http://news.gmane.org/find-root.php?message_id=000.20300500a04d024f.007%40telus.net

I never did get that thing to work with WPA2. My brother has the T43 now, and I forgot all about trying the new supplicant and XWLAN with it, when I visited about a month ago. I don't think his router will do WPA2 anyway.

Hopefully, the Multimac project will pick up that device and fix the problems, eventually. Meanwhile, it seems that one is limited to WPA, unless the new supplicant, and/or XWLAN, fixes the problem.

I'm able to connect to a WPA2 access point with the latest GenMac and wpa_supplicant on an IBM ThinkPad A31 with Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG network card installed. There are lot of problems with all these stuff tho.

Also please take in mind that WPA gives you near to zero security.