[HOWTO] Linux + Tcd Wireless

Jim_No.6

Hello all!

Just thought I'd share my method for accessing the Trinity Wireless network using Linux. I've come across a bunch of people who've tried it, so I think that this should be useful for a bunch of people. I'm a Gentoo user - so I'll be referring to the config files as laid out in Gentoo - adapt this for your own distro - and post up the differences! (I'd say that Ubuntu/Debian is probably going to be the most popular, so that'd be appreciated if you get it to work). Oh, and I'm assuming that you're doing this as root - if not, "sudo" everything. Also: <this> means you type whatever values you've been given, without the "<>" characters eg. <your-IP> should be replaced with 134.111.111.111 (not that that address will work... )

Another point: This is a very bare bones solution - do this before you try it with a fancy gui.

First things first:
- Register your MAC address with isservices. Say you're using Linux, and they'll send you an IP address.

- Get your wireless card up and running. (If you've built your kernel, make sure that it's appearing in ifconfig). Mine appears as eth1, so replace that with whatever yours appears as in the following commands (common entries are wlanX or athX, depending on what driver you're using)

- Install iwconfig and wpa_supplicant (emerge -av wireless-tools wpa_supplicant in Gentoo)

/etc/conf.d/net wrote:

modules=( "wpa_supplicant" )
wpa_supplicant_eth1="-D<your-wpa_supplicant-driver-here>"

config_eth1="<your-IP-address-here> netmask 225.225.0.0 broadcast 134.226.255.255"

routes_eth1=(
"default via 134.226.101.2"
)

dns_servers_eth1=(
134.226.1.24
134.226.1.114
134.226.1.28
)

-Add the following to your wpa_supplicant.conf

/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf wrote:

network={
ssid="tcdopencampus"
key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
eap=LEAP
identity="<your-username-here>"
password="<your-password-here>"
}

Then, write a script (trinitywireless)

trinintywireless wrote:

/etc/init.d/net.eth1 stop
/etc/init.d/net.eth1 start
iwconfig eth1 essid tcdopencampus
sleep 5
route add default gw 134.226.101.2

(Change /etc/init.d/net.ethX to wherever your init scripts are.)

-> The 5-second timeout should give the card time to connect to a node - alter as it affects you.

- chmod +x trinitynetwork
- ./trinitynetwork
- Pray, then open up your web-browser!
(You'll need the proxy information in the config as well - in Firefox, set Auto Proxy Config to http://www.tcd.ie/proxy.cgi and hit Reload)

- To get the proxy working from the command-line, run
export http_proxy="http://<your-username>:<your-password>@tcdproxy.tcd.ie:8080&quot;
export ftp_proxy="ftp://<your-username>:<your-password>@tcdproxy.tcd.ie:8080&quot;


Good Luck! Oh, and I take no responsibility, and won't know how to get it working on your Suse install etc.

DemonOfTheFall

I said no, because I'm a filthy Windows user but I know that htis will be helpful to a lot of people in my course

Looks like filthy windows users are kicking ASS!

Go GUI!

Thirdfox

It seems that the we must bow down to the Windows overlord...

Though I am using Openoffice and Firefox/Thunderbird... do I get brownie points for that?

Jim_No.6

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

I said no, because I'm a filthy Windows user but I know that htis will be helpful to a lot of people in my course

You'd be CS, right?

Well, that's why I posted it up - once you've confirmed that all these components are functional you can start looking for a nice gui for a click-and-connect kind of interface. It's just a good idea to get the basics functional (kernel-driver, wpa_supplicant config etc) before you try that. Try kwifimanager, but I'm sure that there's some gnome equivalent.

Oh, and I'm not at all surprised that there are far more MS-heads here; but I know that I'd have been very grateful for a post like this at this point last year, so if I get one vote (aside from mine, so I could see the results) I'll be happy.

Edit: whoops - that's kwifimanager, not kwirelessmanager (ammended)

cianclarke

Yeah, the majority of laptops in JF CS are running linux.
Me, I like my cross compatibility. Maria, if you read this, now would be a good time to post pictures of pengiuns.

Nietzschean

majority of the sys admins in college i know are all running OS X(while alot of them admin linux servers...very few really want it on their laptops if given a choice...)

melekalikimaka

estilos

Happy?

osd

Send your HOWTO to ISS!! It's bloody fantastic that you figured it out... I had gotten so close before but never got it to work. Well done!

Jim_No.6

Heh - glad you liked it!

Not much point sending it to them - I figure that it's more useful up here (their one is for Red Hat from years ago).

Woo hoo - one happy customer!