[Commotion-dev] IBSS-RSN for Linux

Thu Jul 18 04:09:26 UTC 2013

Thanks for posting this update, Jordan.

Like Jordan said, things are looking better with respect to IBSS RSN support on Linux. He and I are going to continue debugging tomorrow. I'm sure that he will have another update to send around soon! 

Will

On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 20:17 EDT, Jordan McCarthy <mccarthy at opentechinstitute.org> wrote: 

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> So... it turns out that the Asus netbooks (and, by implication,
> Broadcom BCM4313 chipsets in general) do kinda-sorta support Ad-hoc
> mode, though not using the default drivers.  In particular, the (open
> source) brcmsmac driver definitely does not support Ad-hoc mode.  The
> (proprietary) wl/broadcom-sta drivers do support ad-hoc mode, and
> someone seems to have gotten them working on at least one of the
> netbooks.  (I've just set up another two).
> 
> The ad-hoc capable driver is contained in bcmwl-kernel-source.
> Apt-getting this package will automatically blacklist the default
> driver stack, and should immediately render any given machine ad-hoc
> capable.
> 
> < Jordan
> 
> Jordan McCarthy
> Technical Program Associate | Open Technology Institute | New America
> Foundation
> My Public Key: 0xC08D8042 | 4A61 3D39 4125 127D 65EA DDC2 BFBD A2E9 C08D
> 8042
> 
> On 07/17/2013 07:39 PM, Ben West wrote:
> > I can confirm a TL-Link WN-TL821Nv3 USB adapter under Ubuntu
> > v12.10 successfully came up in adhoc, albeit I had to fiddle with
> > things so that the USB adapter would be named 'wlan0' for
> > commotion-mesh-applet to be happy.  Driver used was ath9k_htc,
> > suggesting that other machines using this driver may work.
> > 
> > On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 6:32 PM, Dan Staples 
> > <danstaples at opentechinstitute.org 
> > <mailto:danstaples at opentechinstitute.org>> wrote:
> > 
> > On Wed 17 Jul 2013 01:48:53 PM EDT, Jordan McCarthy wrote:
> >> Catch-22: Wireless drivers for the fleet of netbooks don't
> >> support Ad-hoc mode on 13.04 - but 13.04 is required for IBSS-RSN
> >> support.
> >> 
> >> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/1160471 
> >> (Neither the built-in or the alternate driver work, albeit for 
> >> different reasons).
> >> 
> >> Next steps:
> >> 
> >> Try to install 13.04 on a non-BCM4313 chipset (laptops/adapters)
> >> 
> >> Try Debian
> >> 
> >> Custom-compile wpa-supplicant on 12.04 with CONFIG_IBSS_RSN=y
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Jordan McCarthy Technical Program Associate | Open Technology
> >> Institute | New America Foundation My Public Key: 0xC08D8042 |
> >> 4A61 3D39 4125 127D 65EA DDC2 BFBD
> > A2E9 C08D
> >> 8042
> >> 
> >> On 07/16/2013 02:10 PM, Jordan McCarthy wrote:
> >>> I just realized... if you look closely at the package versions
> >>> to which this fix was ostensibly applied, they're all
> >>> designated as quantal packages - meaning that 12.04 may not
> >>> actually support ibss-rsn at all.
> >>> 
> >>> I have some secondary evidence for this conclusion as well:
> >>> when I configured an ad-hoc connection and tried to run
> >>> <ibss-rsn 02:CA:FF:EE:BA:BE> to initiate a handshake, it
> >>> routinely returned "UNKNOWN COMMAND", no matter how it was
> >>> invoked.  So I'm guessing the presence of this command in
> >>> 12.10's version of wpa_cli could just be a placeholder.
> >>> 
> >>> (Just for the heck of it, I also tried <preauthenticate 
> >>> 02:CA:FF:EE:BA:BE>, which yielded:
> >>> 
> >>> <2>RSN: failed to get master session key from pre-auth EAPOL
> >>> state machines
> >>>> <2>RSN: pre-authentication with 02:ca:ff:ee:ba:be failed
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> So I suppose I should get a machine upgraded to 13.04.
> >>> 
> >>>> Jordan
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> Jordan McCarthy Technical Program Associate | Open Technology 
> >>> Institute | New America Foundation My Public Key: 0xC08D8042 |
> >>> 4A61 3D39 4125 127D 65EA DDC2 BFBD A2E9 C08D 8042
> >>> 
> >>> On 07/15/2013 08:31 PM, Jordan McCarthy wrote:
> >>> 
> >>>> 
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1046918
> >
> > 
> >> 
> >>>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> > 
> > Moving to the dev list...
> > 
> > I remember trying to get ad-hoc working on those damn netbooks when
> > I was compiling Commotion-OpenWRT for x86. It seemed like a lost
> > cause, with those broadcom drivers.
> > 
> > The requirements might just have to be using a certain version of
> > Debian (I would suggest we stay away from being Ubuntu-specific,
> > given their recent bad track record regarding privacy), AND you
> > must have a chipset whose driver supports ad-hoc mode...
> > 
> > 
> > -- Dan Staples
> > 
> > Open Technology Institute https://commotionwireless.net -- Dan
> > Staples
> > 
> > Open Technology Institute https://commotionwireless.net 
> > _______________________________________________ Commotion-dev
> > mailing list Commotion-dev at lists.chambana.net 
> > <mailto:Commotion-dev at lists.chambana.net> 
> > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-dev
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -- Ben West http://gowasabi.net ben at gowasabi.net
> > <mailto:ben at gowasabi.net> 314-246-9434
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