How To: Manual Network Configuration without the need for Network Manager

[dendy7h]

Maybe this can help someone. My WEP key has some special characters in it. This is the error message I was getting.

$ sudo iwconfig eth0 key s:KG"hSRaS{G!#[
sudo iwconfig eth0 key s:KG"hSRaS{Gsudo iwconfig eth0 key s:KG"hSRaS{G[

.....

$sudo dhclient eth0
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

I escape the special characters with a \ and it works

$sudo iwconfig eth0 key s:KG\"hSRaS\{G\!\#\[

Maybe this can help some people who can't get their connections working.

Thanks Kevdog for posting this !!!!!

Dendy

[kevdog]

Thanks for the tip -- I thought special characters were out of the question -- I guess they are not!

[ender8282]

For your zydas card, what driver are you using??


----


For your unencrypted network, can you post
iwlist scan

Try to connect from the command line leaving out the mode Managed part.

I don't know about zydas but I am have a Broadcom 1390 wireless chipset. I am using the windows driver with ndiswrapper. I followed this (how to) to get everything set up.

At the moment I can't see the unencrypted wireless network but I will try to connect to it without the mode field tomorrow and I will get the iwlist scan as well.
Thanks

[ender8282]

The network signal is a little week this morning but when I scan I see it as:

          Cell 02 - Address: 00:0F:B5:67:F0:22
                    ESSID:"NETGEAR"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality:14/100  Signal level:-87 dBm  Noise level:-96 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0

Normally the quality is minimum of 30.
I also tried connecting without specifying mode and I get the same 'no dhcp offers' error msg.

[kevdog]

Can you do anything to get the signal stronger such as move closer to the router?

[AJWhitewolf]

I am having a very similar problem to this... I have no problems connecting to a secured wireless network, but when I attempt to connect to an unsecured network, I receive no DHCPOFFER.

I have a D-Link card and the driver I am using is ath_pci

I just got rid of Network Manager and started doing everything from the command line, following the guide outlined at the beginning of this thread, and I am receiving this same message:

DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

The network does show up in iwlist (would post it, but my comp. has no internet, so I'm posting this at work), and I have used a variety of settings for iwconfig to try and make this work, including:
iwconfig ath0 mode managed
iwconfig ath0 key off
iwconfig ath0 enc off

And also, of course, setting the essid.

The wireless network I am trying to connect to is the free wireless internet that my apartment complex provides, so I do not have access to their router to change any settings. However, I have a wireless router at my house, and when I turn on security, I am able to connect to it without problem, but when I make the network unsecured, I receive the errors listed above, so I am positive that it is a common cause that only affects my ability to connect to unsecured networks.

Any help would definitely be appreciated!

[kevdog]

Please type of list the commands you are using attempting to connect to your unencrypted wireless network.

[AJWhitewolf]

sudo ifconfig ath0 down
sudo dhclient -r ath0
sudo ifconfig ath0 up
sudo iwconfig ath0 essid "Pardeeville"
sudo iwconfig ath0 mode managed
sudo dhclient ath0

I have also tried adding:
sudo iwconfig ath0 key off
sudo iwconfig ath0 enc off

I have also manually set the channel and frequency to match that of the network I am trying to connect to, but it makes no difference.

If you need any further information, just ask!

[malc_adams]

kevdog, it took about 3 days of searching and trying other solutions, none of which worked, but I finally found your definitive answer and got my ra61 wireless card working in about 15 minutes. You have my grateful thanks.

[Thiago Cesar Vieira]

Yes, I agree with malc_adams: your post is very helpful and I follow a lot of tricks listed there.

After 1 week using wireless in Ubuntu, suddenly my connection gets bad. Sometimes I can use normally, other losing some packages and almost all time with no wireless.

I use wireless normally in Windows, so my adapter and the router is working fine. My problem is in Ubuntu configuration. I use dhcp in a D-Link router with WEP 128 bits.

As I said, I follow your procedure to fix bugs in wireless, and I listed above the results. Does anyone have already seen it before or knows the procedure to fix my problem?

$ lspci
...
05:06.0 Network controller: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface
...

$ iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:1B:11:FE:48:6E
ESSID:"[MY_ESSID]"
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=44/100 Signal level=21/100 Noise level=0/100
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s

$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-key s:[MY-KEY]
wireless-essid [MY_ESSID]

auto wlan0

$ ifconfig -a
eth0 ...
lo ...

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:13:46:34:D3:85
inet addr:192.168.0.151 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::213:46ff:fe34:d385/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3092 errors:17 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2802 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:3025914 (2.8 MB) TX bytes:561166 (548.0 KB)
Interrupt:16 Base address:0x8000

$ iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11b+/g+ ESSID:"[MY_ESSID]" Nickname:"acx v0.3.36"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:1B:11:FE:48:6E
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity=1/3
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=39/100 Signal level=14/100 Noise level=0/100
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0


$ lshw -C network
*-network:0
description: Wireless interface
product: ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface
vendor: Texas Instruments
physical id: 6
bus info: pci@0000:05:06.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 00
serial: 00:13:46:34:d3:85
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=acx_pci ip=192.168.0.151 latency=32 module=acx multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b+/g+
*-network:1
...


$ sudo dhclient wlan0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.5
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:13:46:34:d3:85
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:13:46:34:d3:85
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.0.1
DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.0.1
bound to 192.168.0.151 -- renewal in 579250 seconds.


After some minutes it starts to lose packages when I ping in router (192.168.0.1)... rate of successful packages 100% goes to 80%, 60%, 40%...

My log files listed bellow start logging problems...
/var/log/kern.log
/var/log/messages
/var/log/syslog

Dec 9 11:51:52 kernel: [ 1035.974387] acx: got IV_ICV_Failure (crypto) IRQ(s)
Dec 9 11:52:21 kernel: [ 1064.191699] wlan0: tx error 0x10, buf 05! (MSDU lifetime timeout? - try changing 'iwconfig retry lifetime XXX')
Dec 9 12:00:52 kernel: [ 1575.379976] NETDEV WATCHDOG: wlan0: transmit timed out
Dec 9 12:00:52 kernel: [ 1575.379984] wlan0: FAILED to free any of the many full tx buffers. Switching to emergency freeing. Please report!
Dec 9 12:00:52 kernel: [ 1575.380015] wlan0: tx timeout!
Dec 9 12:00:52 kernel: [ 1575.380118] wlan0: recalibrating radio
...
Dec 9 12:05:52 kernel: [ 1875.164877] wlan0: got disassoc frame with reason 4 (due to inactivity)
A cada 2segundos printa essa mensagem:
Dec 9 12:06:29 kernel: [ 1912.366504] acx: BUG: no free txdesc left


$ iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11b+/g+ ESSID:"[MY_ESSID]" Nickname:"acx v0.3.36"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity=1/3
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=43/100 Signal level=20/100 Noise level=0/100
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:2 Missed beacon:0


$ sudo dhclient wlan0
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.pid with pid 5944
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.5
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:13:46:34:d3:85
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:13:46:34:d3:85
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
No DHCPOFFERS received.
Trying recorded lease 192.168.0.151
PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 0 received, +1 errors, 100% packet loss, time 0ms

No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.


$ sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
Stops to log errors.

$ sudo dhclient -r wlan0
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.pid with pid 6505
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.5
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:13:46:34:d3:85
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:13:46:34:d3:85
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on wlan0 to 192.168.0.1 port 67
send_packet: Network is unreachable
send_packet: please consult README file regarding broadcast address.


$sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
Starts to log again:
Dec 9 12:18:33 kernel: [ 2635.423531] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Dec 9 12:19:10 kernel: [ 2672.586353] acx: BUG: no free txdesc left

$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid "[MY_ESSID]"
$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 key s:[MY_KEY]
$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
$ sudo dhclient wlan0

After last command
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.pid with pid 0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.5
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:13:46:34:d3:85
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:13:46:34:d3:85
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 9
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 16
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.


My /var/log/syslog prints
Dec 9 12:33:22 dhclient: No DHCPOFFERS received.
Dec 9 12:33:22 dhclient: No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
Dec 9 12:33:22 avahi-autoipd(wlan0)[6945]: Found user 'avahi-autoipd' (UID 105) and group 'avahi-autoipd' (GID 113).
Dec 9 12:33:22 avahi-autoipd(wlan0)[6945]: Successfully called chroot().
Dec 9 12:33:22 avahi-autoipd(wlan0)[6945]: Successfully dropped root privileges.
Dec 9 12:33:22 avahi-autoipd(wlan0)[6945]: Starting with address 169.254.7.33
Dec 9 12:33:23 kernel: [ 3524.796812] acx: BUG: no free txdesc left
Dec 9 12:33:26 kernel: [ 3527.294933] acx: BUG: no free txdesc left
Dec 9 12:33:27 avahi-autoipd(wlan0)[6945]: Callout BIND, address 169.254.7.33 on interface wlan0
Dec 9 12:33:27 avahi-daemon[5278]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wlan0.IPv4 with address 169.254.7.33.
Dec 9 12:33:27 avahi-daemon[5278]: New relevant interface wlan0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Dec 9 12:33:27 avahi-daemon[5278]: Registering new address record for 169.254.7.33 on wlan0.IPv4.
Dec 9 12:33:30 kernel: [ 3531.841374] acx: BUG: no free txdesc left
Dec 9 12:33:31 avahi-autoipd(wlan0)[6945]: Successfully claimed IP address 169.254.7.33
Dec 9 12:33:32 kernel: [ 3533.338381] acx: BUG: no free txdesc left
Dec 9 12:33:34 kernel: [ 3535.836501] acx: BUG: no free txdesc left
Dec 9 12:33:37 kernel: [ 3538.334619] acx: BUG: no free txdesc left
Dec 9 12:33:39 kernel: [ 3540.832737] acx: BUG: no free txdesc left
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-autoipd(wlan0)[6945]: SIOCSIFFLAGS failed: Permission denied
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-autoipd(wlan0)[6945]: Callout STOP, address 169.254.7.33 on interface wlan0
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-daemon[5278]: Interface wlan0.IPv4 no longer relevant for mDNS.
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-daemon[5278]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface wlan0.IPv4 with address 169.254.7.33.
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-daemon[5278]: Withdrawing address record for 169.254.7.33 on wlan0.
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-daemon[5278]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wlan0.IPv4 with address 169.254.7.33.
Dec 9 12:33:41 dhclient: receive_packet failed on wlan0: Network is down
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-daemon[5278]: New relevant interface wlan0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-daemon[5278]: Registering new address record for 169.254.7.33 on wlan0.IPv4.
Dec 9 12:33:41 dhclient: receive_packet failed on wlan0: Network is down
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-daemon[5278]: Withdrawing address record for 169.254.7.33 on wlan0.
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-daemon[5278]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface wlan0.IPv4 with address 169.254.7.33.
Dec 9 12:33:41 avahi-daemon[5278]: Interface wlan0.IPv4 no longer relevant for mDNS.


After I restart my machine...
Dec 9 12:44:55 NetworkManager: <info> Updating allowed wireless network lists.
Dec 9 12:44:55 NetworkManager: <WARN> nm_dbus_get_networks_cb(): error received: org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerInfo.NoNetworks - There are no wireless networks stored..

Dec 9 12:50:16 kernel: [ 420.557064] wlan0: rx: 8 DUPs in 21 packets received in 10 secs
Dec 9 12:50:35 kernel: [ 439.245000] wlan0: tx error 0x20, buf 02! (excessive Tx retries due to either distance too high or unable to Tx or Tx frame error - try changing 'iwconfig txpower XXX' or 'sens'itivity or 'retry')
Dec 9 12:50:35 kernel: [ 439.245012] wlan0: tx error 0x20, buf 03! (excessive Tx retries due to either distance too high or unable to Tx or Tx frame error - try changing 'iwconfig txpower XXX' or 'sens'itivity or 'retry')
Dec 9 12:50:35 kernel: [ 439.245023] wlan0: tx error 0x20, buf 04! (excessive Tx retries due to either distance too high or unable to Tx or Tx frame error - try changing 'iwconfig txpower XXX' or 'sens'itivity or 'retry')
Dec 9 12:50:39 kernel: [ 443.182437] wlan0: several excessive Tx retry errors occurred, attempting to recalibrate radio. Radio drift might be caused by increasing card temperature, please check the card before it's too late!
Dec 9 12:50:39 kernel: [ 443.182450] wlan0: tx error 0x20, buf 05! (excessive Tx retries due to either distance too high or unable to Tx or Tx frame error - try changing 'iwconfig txpower XXX' or 'sens'itivity or 'retry')
Dec 9 12:50:39 kernel: [ 443.182458] wlan0: tx error 0x20, buf 06! (excessive Tx retries due to either distance too high or unable to Tx or Tx frame error - try changing 'iwconfig txpower XXX' or 'sens'itivity or 'retry')
Dec 9 12:50:39 kernel: [ 443.182468] wlan0: tx error 0x20, buf 07! (excessive Tx retries due to either distance too high or unable to Tx or Tx frame error - try changing 'iwconfig txpower XXX' or 'sens'itivity or 'retry')
Dec 9 12:50:39 kernel: [ 443.182489] wlan0: recalibrating radio
Dec 9 12:50:39 kernel: [ 443.229739] wlan0: successfully recalibrated radio



If you you have some advice, I'd like to "hear". Any words for you is much for me to understand Ubuntu better.