[Solved] wicd gets bad password (hidden wpa2 PSK mixed {802.11b and 802.11g})

[jtwdyp]

I multi-boot my laptop with 4 Linux distros and once in a blue moon the vista that came with it.

If it matters the laptop is a Gateway laptop (MT6451 Notebook PC) It has AMD Turion 64x2 processor. there is some kind of builtin broadcom wireless device that I can't even get working with vista. Heck before I gave up on the built in I even tried setting up a non-encrypted totally wide open connection to my Fairpoint communications provided wireless DSL gateway (DSL modem with builtin wireless router) But when I picked up an usb wireless network device I was able to use wpa2-PSK with SSID broadcast disabled and MAC authorization enabled with Vista And once I ditched the default network-management tools in favor of wicd, it worked with Arch Linux, Sabayon Linux And {another distro}... (though {another distro} couldn't seem to remember the SSID of the hidden network which needed to be manually reentered upon each and every reboot until I ditched the gui version for a wicd-cli script.)

But with the 4th Linux Distro {PCLinuxOS} using the same configuration settings as the other Linux, it does find the hidden network. It does start to connect, but it fails to authenticate. The error pop up said "bad password" But I have checked and it's copy of the preshared key is exactly the same as the other Linux are using... There is only one thing I can think of that might be getting in the way And that is perhaps the other network management tool. (I'm on my desktop at the moment using OpenSuSE So I can't easily refresh my memory of what it's called in PCLinuxOS) But with the other three Linux I had to either uninstall the default network management tool, or use rc-update to remove it's start-up scripts before I could get wicd to work properly. When I found this tool in the synaptic gui and selected it for removal, it wanted to remove a whole lot of everything including several packages with names ending in "drake"...  I didn't like the list so I canceled the operation. But it doesn't look like PCLinuxOS uses rc-update, and I don't have a clue what it does use for system services control...

Could somebody explain it to me??

--
jtwdyp
J(tWdy)P
Joe(theWordy)Philbrook

[jtwdyp]

OK so I thought I'd go boot PCLinuxOS on the laptop and extract some of the
info that wasn't in my initial post that was suggested by the
"Basic wireless tips" topic

2.6.32.11-pclos2.bfs

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 10)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:04.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:05.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev 80)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev 80)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller (rev 80)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 83)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller (rev 80)
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB4x0 High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge (rev 80)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge (rev 80)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS482 [Radeon Xpress 200M]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8038 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 14)
05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
08:09.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
08:09.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
08:09.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8189 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187B Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Adapter
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"11FX04026879" 
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=27 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

         

Identification
Vendor: ‎Manufacturer_Realtek

Description: ‎RTL8187B_WLAN_Adapter

Media class: ‎

Connection
Bus: ‎USB

Bus PCI #: ‎1

PCI device #: ‎2

Vendor ID: ‎0x0bda

Device ID: ‎0x8189

Misc
Module: ‎rtl8187

Identification
Vendor: ‎Broadcom Corporation

Description: ‎BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN

Media class: ‎Network controller

Connection
Bus: ‎PCI Express

PCI domain: ‎0

Bus PCI #: ‎5

PCI device #: ‎0

PCI function #: ‎0

PCI revision: ‎0x01

Vendor ID: ‎0x14e4

Device ID: ‎0x4311

Sub vendor ID: ‎0x14e4

Sub device ID: ‎0x0465

Misc
Module: ‎wl

install ide-controller /sbin/modprobe ide_generic; /bin/true
install usb-interface /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd; /sbin/modprobe ohci_hcd; /bin/true
alias eth0 sky2
alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel
alias eth1 wl
options snd-ac97-codec power_save=1
alias pci:v000014E4d00004311sv000014E4sd00000465bc02sc80i00 wl
alias wlan0 rtl8187

# /etc/modprobe.preload: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line.  Comments begin with
# a `#', and everything on the line after them are ignored.
# this file is for module-init-tools (kernel 2.5 and above) ONLY
# for old kernel use /etc/modules
fuse
raw1394
sbp2
ohci1394



toshiba
nvram
tifm_7xx1
evdev

DEVICE=wlan0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
METRIC=35
MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=no
USERCTL=yes
RESOLV_MODS=no
WIRELESS_MODE=Managed
WIRELESS_ESSID=11FX04026879
WIRELESS_ENC_KEY=s:h3lLhatHn0warMfuzzYl1k3anYmaNthaT15l00k1ngf0R50m3t0ucH
WIRELESS_WPA_DRIVER=wext
WIRELESS_WPA_REASSOCIATE=no
IPV6INIT=no
IPV6TO4INIT=no
ACCOUNTING=yes
DHCP_CLIENT=dhclient
NEEDHOSTNAME=no
PEERDNS=yes
PEERYP=yes
PEERNTPD=no

blacklist ssb

blacklist ssb
blacklist ssb

Shutting down interface eth0:                                                       [  OK  ]
Shutting down interface wlan0:                                                      [  OK  ]
Shutting down loopback interface:                                                   [  OK  ]
Bringing up loopback interface:                                                     [  OK  ]
Configuring wireless regulatory domain                                              [  OK  ]
Bringing up interface eth0:                                                         [  OK  ]
Bringing up interface wlan0:  Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
                                                                                    [  OK  ]

connect: Network is unreachable

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 0C:D5:02:9B:C5:16
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=70/70  Signal level=-21 dBm 
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:""
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000001a5afa5e183
                    Extra: Last beacon: 784ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 000C000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030106
                    IE: Unknown: 050401030000
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0100
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: DD090010180200F0000000
          Cell 02 - Address: 0C:D5:02:9B:C5:16
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=70/70  Signal level=-27 dBm 
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"11FX04026879"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000001a5af1c2275
                    Extra: Last beacon: 9811ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 000C313146583034303236383739
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030106
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0100
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: DD090010180200F0000000

lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0     Interface doesn't support scanning : Device or resource busy

sit0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:e0:b8:bb:00:27 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:14:d1:37:5b:b2 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: sit0: <NOARP> mtu 1480 qdisc noop state DOWN
    link/sit 0.0.0.0 brd 0.0.0.0

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:e0:b8:bb:00:27 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:14:d1:37:5b:b2 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: sit0: <NOARP> mtu 1480 qdisc noop state DOWN
    link/sit 0.0.0.0 brd 0.0.0.0

I'll have to make room on my desk so I can connect the laptop to the wired
ethernet cable, so I can install rfkill...

Once I have that I'll post a reply with what that says...

[pags]

2.6.32.11-pclos2.bfs

Based on just this, so far, what version of PCLOS did you install from?  Are you fully updated?  If so, you should consider updating the kernel.

If you installed from a 2010 release, perhaps consider getting the latest ISO (it should have a considerably newer kernel), and test drive it Live, and see if that is any better...

[jtwdyp]

2.6.32.11-pclos2.bfs

Based on just this, so far, what version of PCLOS did you install from?  Are you fully updated?  If so, you should consider updating the kernel.

If you installed from a 2010 release, perhaps consider getting the latest ISO (it should have a considerably newer kernel), and test drive it Live, and see if that is any better...

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that the kernel doesn't automatically update... I'll do that.

But as far as going back to another from scratch iso install... One of the main reasons I ever even tried PCLinuxOS was the fact that it's a rolling release distro.  Which is a big thing to me because of the fact that it usually takes me two days, and two bottles of Advil to get my personal user configurations back in place. OK admittedly that includes installing all the "packages" that I depend on, but way to much of it is mouse intensive work. And using a mouse, touchpad, or even a trackball for more than a few seconds gives my hands pins and needles. And worse yet I've yet to find a desktop with default keyboard shortcuts that I can stand. And dang few that let me use only the keyboard to replace them all with the ones my fingers expect...

I did recently notice that thing about having to update apt-get to keep synaptic functional. And I updated the sources list. Then I upgraded my system... I had hoped that would resolve the wireless issue...

But like I said I'll update the kernel in a couple of minutes. In the meantime, heres what the freshly installed rfkill said:

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
   Soft blocked: no
   Hard blocked: no

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
   Soft blocked: no
   Hard blocked: no

1317304242.126671: idx 0 type 1 op 0 soft 0 hard 0

And oh yeah, I feel like an idiot. I forgot to screen the output of a few of the informative "konsole" commands that I posted in my last post. And since I didn't filter out my "hidden" SSID and pre-shared key, I felt like I had to change them which of course meant I had to reset them to the new values in each of my Linux... I just hope I can remember how to update that in my rarely used vista...

--
JtWdyP

[pags]

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that the kernel doesn't automatically update... I'll do that.

But as far as going back to another from scratch iso install... One of the main reasons I ever even tried PCLinuxOS was the fact that it's a rolling release distro.

That's fine.  I wasn't trying to suggest that you re-install.  I was just suggesting that running the LiveCD would give you chance to "test-drive" a newer kernel, which includes newer drivers, particularly wireless in this case.

If (when?) you do update the kernel, keep you existing one (because it's a known working environment).
I think, in some of the newest kernels, it will prompt to remove some DKMS packages related to wireless, because the newer kernel has better drivers.  But, just in the off-chance that the update affects something else, the LiveCD approach will give you a test bed that won't touch your existing install.  If you're happy with the performance, then you can update from your existing install with a little more confidence...

[jtwdyp]

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that the kernel doesn't automatically update... I'll do that.

But as far as going back to another from scratch iso install... One of the main reasons I ever even tried PCLinuxOS was the fact that it's a rolling release distro.

That's fine.  I wasn't trying to suggest that you re-install.  I was just suggesting that running the LiveCD would give you chance to "test-drive" a newer kernel, which includes newer drivers, particularly wireless in this case.

Yeah, That would make sense if the installer noticed and replicated  adjustments to the liveCD environment. I mean I really can't work with one without spending many hours modifying the user environment. I don't have a clue how an installer could do that. But it seems to me that if I made changes to the liveCD session and then clicked on an "install to hard drive" icon, the system could at least make a list of any applications I'd used synaptics to install and offer to automatically install them (providing the Internet was available of course) when it was done with the stuff included on the disk... User configurations such as keyboard shortcuts and such  would be more problematical. But I guess if such things could be incorporated into /etc/skel before it actually created the first user account. But it would, I think, need to have the cooperation of any "desktop environments" and/or "window managers" and/or applications involved to avoid having embedded absolute pathnames that include the liveCD's default user's $HOME directory, which of course would be invalid for the new user account(s)...

Without such magic, I NEVER find any liveCD/DVD usable. Unless you count a couple I've made from an installed PCLinuxOS with that, {was it called makelivecd??) And at that I had to be quite careful about how much of my usual environment I'd install so that the resulting image would fit on a DVD...

If (when?) you do update the kernel, keep you existing one (because it's a known working environment). I think, in some of the newest kernels, it will prompt to remove some DKMS packages related to wireless, because the newer kernel has better drivers.

Absolutely, I always keep at least one "last known good" kernel and initrd pair whenever I update a kernel version.

In any case I just installed and rebooted to 2.6.38.6-pclos3.a64 which seemed to work out just fine. Though it does puzzle me that on my laptop which unlike my desktop, does NOT have  Nvidia graphics, it none the less insisted on installing three Nvidia kernel modules??

Wireless is still a nogo BTW. I'll try installing all available upgrades... But I'm not hopeful.

One thing does jump out at me every time I boot. (at least when the usb wireless adaptor is plugged in and the ethernet cable isn't)

The boot messages printed on tty1 includes this:

Bringing up interface wlan0:  Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
                                                                [  OK  ]

What could cause "Set Mode" And "Set Encode" to have "invalid arguments"
 
--
JtWdyP

[Ferdes Fides]

Does the PCL Network Manager work with the newer or newest kernel ?
My machine worked with the non-bfs kernel and Wicd but would not
continue working with the bfs kernel and Wicd, so started using the PCL
Network Manager again.   My experience with the kernels and Wicd.

FYI

[jtwdyp]

Does the PCL Network Manager work with the newer or newest kernel ?
My machine worked with the non-bfs kernel and Wicd but would not
continue working with the bfs kernel and Wicd, so started using the PCL
Network Manager again.   My experience with the kernels and Wicd.

FYI

Pardon my brain flatulence... But when you say "PCL Network Manager" do you mean the same thing as the "network Center" found under "Network & Internet" in the PCC???

But in any case it looks like my problem is solved... though I wish Iknew what solved it...

One thing I didn't mention was that when, a couple months ago, I decided that a hidden wpa2-PSK with MAC filtering on sounded just barely secure enough for me to risk allowing wireless connections to my IP address, I started attempting to make it work with the built-in broadcom wireless device, which even failed to work in Vista with NO security... Then I aquired the usb device and it worked in vista with wpa2-psk. So I started with whichever  "network center/manager" each of my 4 linux had by default. it didn't work with any of them. But when I uninstalled and or shutdown the daemon that ran it and installed wicd I was able to get it working in the other three Linux. But at the time I hadn't used the PCC for so long I forgot it was where to find the system services daemon control And if I tried to uninstall it, synaptics wanted to rip out way too much stuff...

Then When I got tired of not being able to use PCLinuxOS to check my email while watching tv in the Livingroom, I started this thread.

I upgraded my kernel, installed all available upgrades, and the situation with wicd was unchanged. It could see my network, but ot couldn't authenticate. Then I decided to try uninstalling any/all drivers/firmware that remotely resembeled b43 or broadcom.  Rebooted but no change.  Still couldn't authenticate. Next I remembered that some time ago with that hard to name debian derivative I had started to get a nearly endless stream of error messages on tty1 untill I blacklisted b43 and b43legacy. So I searched my blacklist files from that distro where I noticed that bcm43xx was also blacklisted... So I added those to PCLinuxOS's /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and rebooted. Suddenly wicd was unable to find my network. Even when I turned SSID broadcast back on. So I stopped blacklisting those three items, and rebooted. But wicd still couldn't find my network. Then I tried the network center from the PCC. No dice. So I figured maybe there was something in those drivers and firmware files that wicd needed to locate my network even though it didn't lose sight of it till I messed with the blacklist. So I reattached the ethernet cable again and reinstalled all those b43 related drivers. Rebooted, but wicd still couldn't find it. But this time when I tried the network center from the PCC, it found my network for the very first time... then it connected. and once I fixed it's copy of my new preshared key (had to change it when I accidentaly posted the old one to this thread) it even managed to authenticate. When I rebooted wicd was able to restore and authenticate the connection. It's worked repetitively through several reboots. But I stll get an odd boot time error message on tty1 AND another on shutdown, It no longer complins about set mode, but:

Bringing up interface wlan0:  Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
                                                                [  OK  ]

And on shutdown, when it says it's stopping wicd it says [ Failed ]...

So you see, it's working for me now, but I'm not really sure what fixed it and am afraid to touch a thing involving wireless...

[Ferdes Fides]

Pardon my brain flatulence... But when you say "PCL Network Manager" do you mean the same thing as the "network Center" found under "Network & Internet" in the PCC???

But in any case it looks like my problem is solved... though I wish Iknew what solved it...

Yes, try running wicd or wicd-gtk from the terminal, you should be able to see and read
more activity the program is trying to perform.