SDB:YaST wireless network in first stage installation
About
In openSUSE 10.3 a new feature has been added to the first-stage installation: Network Setup. In the Installation Mode select one or both of Use Add-On Product or Add Online Repositories, you will be later offered to configure your network.
Although you can use both static and dynamic configuration and additionally a proxy, wireless options (such as encryption key, ESSID) are not supported at all. If you really want to have wireless network during installation/upgrade, you can configure it manually.
How to Configure Wireless Network Manually
All needed software should be included in the installation system (CD or DVD). Manual setup requires access to a shell, editing files manually and running configuration programs. It may also contain nuts ;)
Getting a Shell for Manual Setup
There are two possibilities
- In YaST/Installation Qt GUI, for instance in the Installation Mode dialog, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+x key combination. You will get an xterm shell. Press Ctrl+d or type exit to close it.
- Alternatively, press Ctrl+Alt+<F2> to get a system console. Press Alt+<F7> in Qt GUI, or Ctrl+Alt+<F1> in text-mode installation to get back.
List of Interfaces
For listing active wireless interfaces and getting more information use
iwconfig
You may get something similar to this output
lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"" Mode: Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated Retry min limit: 7 RTS thr: off Fragment thr: 2346 B Encryption key:off Link quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0 ...
It basically says that interface wlan0 supports wireless functions and it has the initial settings set. This example will use wlan0 as the right interface for configuration. Please, replace it with another one to fit your needs.
Scanning for Available Wireless Networks
There might be several wireless networks you could use, it's always better to scan for possibilities and to check the signal strength.
First, we need to activate the interface
ip link set wlan0 up
Then, we can scan for available networks
iwlist wlan0 scan
This can return something similar to this output
wlan0 Scan completed: Cell 01 - Address: AA:BB:CC:00:11:22 ESSID:"eXample" Mode:Master Channel:3 Frequency:2.422 GHz Quality=93/100 Signal livel=-60 dBm Encryption key:on IE: WPA Version 1 Group Cipher : TKIP Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP Authentication Suites (1) : PSK IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1 Group Cipher : TKIP Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP Authentication Suites (1) : PSK ... Cell 02 - Address: AB:35:85:EE:12:01 ESSID:"anotherone" ...
Configuring Encryption etc.
This step expects you to know all needed information, such as encryption type and auth-key. It describes the WPA-PSK mode, other modes could be set using the Linux WPA/WPA2/IEEE 802.1X Supplicant article.
First, let's make some temporary directory
mkdir -p /tmp/wifi/
Then, we create a configuration file for your wireless network
vi /tmp/wifi/wifi.conf
with this content (example)
(Note: press the i key for an insert mode in the vi editor).
ctrl_interface=/tmp/wifi/iface network={ ssid="eXample" key_mgmt=WPA-PSK proto=WPA pairwise=TKIP group=TKIP psk="$your_password" }
Replace $your_password string with current password for your wireless network.
Close vi editor this way
- Press Escape key
- Write :wq
- Press Enter key
Adjusting Interface Encryption
To use just-written configuration, type
wpa_supplicant -B -c/tmp/wifi/wifi.conf -iwlan0
Check the settings with iwconfig again
lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"eXample" Mode: Managed Channel:3 Access Point: AA:BB:CC:00:11:22 Retry min limit: 7 RTS thr: off Fragment thr: 2346 B Encryption key:$some_very_long_key ;) Link quality:90/100 Signal level:-59dBm ...
DHCP or Static IP
To obtain a DHCP address from the server, just type
dhcpcd wlan0
and check it with
ip addr show dev wlan0
To setup a static IP and/or proxy, it's rather easier to continue the installation instead (after Installation Mode dialog), where YaST offers you configuration dialogs.
Note: You will have to select one or both of Add Online Repositories Before Installation or Include Add-On Products from Separate Media to be offered to configure the network.