For those EEE PC owners out there, you can now get on the net with wireless on campus! Unfortunately, its not trivial; the EEE PC is missing support for "enterprise wireless" in many ways. Fear not, through this howto we'll address the show-stopping shortcomings and get it working!

First off, we need to get some additional software repositories configured so we can pull in additional or updated software packages. The people over at http://wiki.eeeuser.com/addingxandrosrepos have written up how to do this; I'll include the important parts here.

First, a word of warning: doing this haphazardly WILL break your EEE! You must follow all the instructions (especially the pinning instructions). Do not go adding repos as you see fit; few repos will work safely with your EEE!

Now, on to the work: First, open a terminal (ctl-alt-t), and open /etc/apt/sources.list with your favorite editor as root:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

It should contain some lines already, we want to add 4 additional lines to the end of this file. Position your cursor on an empty line at the end and pate this in:

Write and quit (ctrl-X, yes to save changes, same filename).

If you update your system at this point, you will break it First, we must "pin" the package repositories correctly:
sudo nano /etc/apt/preferences
(note: this file does not yet exist; we are creating it)

Now paste the following into the file:

Write and quit.

Ok, now your repositories are updated, and your eee is more or less safe from accidental package breakage. On to the wireless set up.

[Note: most of the following was derived from a howto at: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/wpa_default_xandros]

So, now time to get to work on the wireless stuff directly. Lets backup the old xandros wpa stuff, delete it, and install the new:

Unfortunately, the version of the atheros drivers that are included on the EEE do not include decent WPA support (or so I read), so lets go replace them as well:

First, download them. They're at: http://lug.wsu.edu/files/ath.tar_.bz2
Put them in /home/user/ (the default place)

Now, lets install them:

Ok, we're most of the way there. We need to clean up some symlinks:

Now tell Xanderos to use the new wireless drivers:
sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/functions.sh
Look for "wext" (ctrl-x can help you search). You should find a line like this (second result):
WPA_SUP_DRIVER="wext"
Change "wext" to "madwifi", save and quit.

Now, for the WSU configuration:
create a file /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf_MINE:
sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf_MINE
Add to it the following, substituting your WSU network ID and Password as indicated:

Ok, most of the way there. Lets fix the little network monitor app at the bottom of the screen to register wireless networks again:
sudo nano /usr/bin/startsimple.sh
In that file, look for the line:
networkmonitor ath0 eth0 &
Modify it to read:
networkmonitor wifi0 eth0 &

Now lets create the connection that appears in the GUI:
(If you have previously created a connection for "WSU Wireless", please delete it first to avoid confusion later)

Create a new wireless connection type:

• In the "Network Connections" GUI, click on "Create..." button.
• Choose "Local Area Network - Wireless"
• Choose "Atheros Communications, Inc - AR50..." (might be only option).
• Choose "Dynamic IP Address (DHCP)"
• Input Network name (SSID) "WSU Wireless". Leave the other two at auto.
• Under "Wireless Channel Settings", leave it at "Any".
• Check the box for "Enable encryption" For "Encryption Type", select WPA. Under "Key", enter any number of letters until you see the WPA256 type in ASCII format". This key will be ignored using this procedure, but has to be there to "trick" the config gui into using WPA.
• Name your connection. I recommend "WSU Wireless (PEAP)".
• Choose whether or not you want to "Connect automatically at system startup". Do NOT check the box for "Start this connection when finished".
• Click on the "Finish" button.

Now we have to go correct for a few shortcomings of the network manager. Edit the interfaces file:
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
Look for the section including "WSU Wireless". This should be the one we just created. It will look something like:

(note that the iface number and wireless key will likely be different than mine).
Insert these two lines right before the first "up" line:

Now, you should be done! Save your changes, find the network listed in the network monitor, click on it once, click on "connection" and select "connect".

You may or may not have to reboot your computer for the changes to fully take effect. Also, I recommend unplugging the wired network, if used, at least 30 seconds before you try to bring up the wireless network. Also, at this point I would recommend only connecting to the network through the network manager; do not use the wireless networks tool -- it may create a new connection and ignore all your hard work.

Have fun! If you have any problems, hop on #wsulug or contact me!

--Jim

Attachment	Size
ath.tar_.bz2	295.35 KB