Wireless Networking Bug(s) in 9.1-RC2 (?)

[Kevin Oberman]

On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 1:19 AM, Ronald F. Guilmette
<rfg at tristatelogic.com> wrote:
>
> In message <CAJ-Vmonk0xtmqPMFnCZp-YVzmC3-boeu0o9A4DwSeBGYC+5=sg at mail.gmail.com>
> , you wrote:
>
>>for wifi - you need to configure /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf as well,
>>right?
>
> Did that.  Yes.
>
>>You don't need the ssid in the ifconfig line;
>
> OK.  If you say so.  (See my prior e-mail where I wondered aloud if there
> are circumstances where the ssid might have to appear in both places.)
>
>  wpa_supplicant
> 9
>>will scan and find your AP.
>>
>>The driver should call back to non-n and non-g if needs be.
>>
>>As for the config - erm, you have two interfaces on the same L2.
>>That's going to confuse things, right?
>
> Well, I can't speak for the hardware, but it sure as hell does confuse
> *me*. (1/2 :-)
>
>>What's 'netstat -rn' show?
>
>
> Routing tables
>
> Internet:
> Destination        Gateway            Flags    Refs      Use  Netif Expire
> default            192.168.1.1        UGS         0   104122    re0
> 127.0.0.1          link#10            UH          0        0    lo0
> 192.168.1.0/24     link#4             U           0    23515    re0
> 192.168.1.21       link#11            UHS         0        0    lo0
> 192.168.1.23       link#4             UHS         0        0    lo0
>
> Internet6:
> Destination                       Gateway                       Flags      Netif Expire
> ::/96                             ::1                           UGRS        lo0
> ::1                               link#10                       UH          lo0
> ::ffff:0.0.0.0/96                 ::1                           UGRS        lo0
> fe80::/10                         ::1                           UGRS        lo0
> fe80::%re0/64                     link#4                        U           re0
> fe80::224:21ff:fe65:ada0%re0      link#4                        UHS         lo0
> fe80::%lo0/64                     link#10                       U           lo0
> fe80::1%lo0                       link#10                       UHS         lo0
> fe80::%wlan0/64                   link#11                       U         wlan0
> fe80::222:fbff:fe76:6d18%wlan0    link#11                       UHS         lo0
> ff01::%re0/32                     fe80::224:21ff:fe65:ada0%re0  U           re0
> ff01::%lo0/32                     ::1                           U           lo0
> ff01::%wlan0/32                   fe80::222:fbff:fe76:6d18%wlan0 U         wlan0
> ff02::/16                         ::1                           UGRS        lo0
> ff02::%re0/32                     fe80::224:21ff:fe65:ada0%re0  U           re0
> ff02::%lo0/32                     ::1                           U           lo0
> ff02::%wlan0/32                   fe80::222:fbff:fe76:6d18%wlan0 U         wlan0

To use WPA and a static address, you need something like:
ifconfig_wlan0 ="WPA inet 192.168.1.21/24"
so that was OK.

Now, you seem to have both interfaces on the same /24 with a /24
netmask. This is probably going to result in some poorly defined
behavior. I'm not sure just what you are trying to do, but I suspect
that it is not what you are doing.

If you are trying to allow the system to use wired when it is
connected and wireless when disconnected, thi is the wrong way. You
should put both interfaces into a lagg and have a single IP on the
lagg interface. As it is, there is no way to be sure which outgoing
interface will be used when both are connected and exactly

This said, I am not sure how this might cause the interface to fail to
associate. I'm guessing that you are simply not associating and the
scan is falling back to 'B' after failing to find an AP in faster
modes.  The question is "why?". What is the output of "ifconfig wlan0
list aps"?

One thing I see is:
country US authmode WPA1+WPA2/802.11i privacy OFF

For home users I would normally expect WPA-PSK to be used. What
key_mgmt are you specifying? It looks like authentication might be
failing. You might try running the supplicant manually (after stopping
any that is running) and see what you get.

> P.S.  I ain't using IPv6... like not at all.

Unfortunate, but I can't run it at home, either, as Comcast is not yet
offering it in my area. (Nor is Verizon who will be my provider next
month.)

-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
E-mail: kob6558 at gmail.com