wpa_supplicant and hostap driver - no association with AP - SOLVED

[Zdenek Pizl]

On Wed, 2004-06-23 at 04:07, Jouni Malinen wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 22, 2004 at 07:18:30PM +0200, Zdenek Pizl wrote:
> 
> > there is an output from wpa_supplicant :
> 
> > l2_packet_receive - recv: Network is down
> > Starting AP scan (specific SSID)
> > Scan SSID - hexdump_ascii(len=8):
> >      53 59 53 54 49 4e 45 54                           SYSTINET
> > ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: Operation not supported
> > Failed to initiate AP scan.
> 
> It looks like something set the network interface down. wpa_supplicant
> requires that the interface is up. Likewise, the driver will completely
> disable to card when the interface is down, so AP scans will not work
> either.
> 
> Are you using a DHCP client that could be setting the interface down if
> it fails to update a lease for the IP addrss?

yes, I am using dhclient to be able to get IP address from our DHCP
server.

if I kill dhclient instances remaining from previous tests, it works
again. Thanks for a hint.

BTW - IMO there is no need to have wlan0 up when starting
wpa_supplicant, even there is no need to have drivers loaded into
kernel. I have only a definition in modules.conf:

  alias wlan0 hostap_pci
  options hostap_pci essid OURNETWORK iw_mode Managed

... and everything goes well.

-- 
Zdenek Pizl
Systinet Corporation
Vinohradska 190
130 00 Praha 3