Problems with WPA access in Ubuntu

First of all I would like to stress that this instructions on this problem is not mine but because it was so good I decided to post it on my site in case the original would dissappear.

The problem I had that despite having setup Ubuntu 7.10 (a.k.a. Gutsy Gibbon)to access my wireless ADSL modem router Netgear DG834G the connection would go dead. System re-start did not help. I consider myself a Linux newbie so I will describe this as a begginner would.


About Linux and Ubuntu

First a little bit about Ubuntu. Ubuntu is one of the many Linux distributions like Red Hat, Debian, SuSe and many more. You will find many things made specific for each distribution so there commonly will not be a "linux" solution to your problem.
Then comes the desktop. That is the graphical environment you work in within a Linux distribution. One of the most popular are Gnome and KDE (K-desktop environment), but there are others available on the net. You will usually find desktop environment specific programs like web browsers, text editors and so on.

To complicate things even further there are different releases. I don't know about other distributions but Ubuntu has aliases for each release. The current release has the number 7.10, but its alias is Gutsy Gibbon. Here is a page concerning Ubuntu releases.

And now to complicate things even further there are different "variants" to each Ubuntu release:

• Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE instead of Gnome)
• Edubuntu (Ubuntu focused on education)
• Xubuntu (Ubuntu with XFCE instead of Gnome)
• Gobuntu (Ubuntu-base for other free software platforms)
  

So there, these are some of the basics. If you want to know more visit Ubuntu.com or Wikipedia. There are probably hundreds of sources to get the novice aquainted with using Linux.

And now to the problem of the wifi connection.

Open the Terminal (menu: Applications - Accessories - Terminal). This is similar to the MS-DOS program in Windows. You get a promps. The location the prompt will be will probably be /home/[username] so if your username is MPorter you will be at the location /home/mporter. Move the prompt to the root by entering "cd /" without the quotes, of course.

To update the source list run the following command, you must have access to the internet so cable your PC- up, meaning, connect it to the internet via a cable (USB modem or LAN cable to a router).

"sudo apt-get" then press enter, then type
"sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant" press enter, then type
"sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome network-manager" press enter, then type
"sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces" press enter.

This will open a simple Gnome text editor (like Notepad in Windows).

Comment out everything other than “lo” entries in that file and save the file.

Create a file called "/etc/default/wpasupplicant", add entry ENABLED=0 and save the file. You create the file in Gedit by clicking the New button, entering the text and then saving it. You save it by entering the full path with the filename: "/etc/default/wpasupplicant". Don't forget, the file does not have an extension so wpasupplicant is the file and the rest before it is the path "etc/default/".

Then go back into the Terminal and enter the following:
"sudo touch /etc/default/wpasupplicant" press enter, then reboot your system or use the following command in Terminal

"sudo /etc/init.d/dbus restart"

Once you login back in to your machine you need to left-click the network manager icon in Gnome and select your wireless network It should prompt for password, type, etc and It will ask you to choose a password for your new “keyring”.

So now you have to setup the Network Manager and you can access it by clicking the little ikon next to the clock (it should be on the upper right, unles you fiddled with the default Gnome panel). Select the network you want to connect with, choose the WPA encryption.

I really suggest using at least the WPA encryption as WEP has been cracked on many occasions (link #1, link #2, link #3).

If you get the following error: The NetworkManager applet could not find some required resources. It cannot continue." just enter the following line in the terminal:
"sudo gtk-update-icon-cache -f /usr/share/icons/hicolor/"

I, myself, did not get this error so I cannot say how useful it is for me.

The above example will be in case you want a dyniamically generate IP address through the DHCP system. If you want to configure static ip address in Ubuntu you need to follow this procedure:

In Terminal enter the following line "sudo /etc/network/interfaces".

Here is an example of the file. Once you edit the above file you need to enter the details in the following way

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.3.90
gateway 192.168.3.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.3.0

In the above details you can replace address as your ip address, gateway, netmask and network address and save your file.

Now you need to restart your networking services using the following command in Terminal

"sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart"

Just to be on the safe side, check your new IP address by using the following command in Terminal: "ifconfig". It does similar things like "ipconfig" in Windows CMD but the output is a bit different.