I could not associate: is it my fault?

[Igor Pesando - Dept. Th. Phys. - University of Torino]

Hi *,
I have read some documentation before posting but I still cannot understand why my ipw2200 could not associate
when I was at a conference.

When I was there I received the following instruction: the system used a WEP key made by 10 digits and the mode was hex.
Obviouslly I tried with iwconfig but it did not work while M$ XP worked...
Then I realized that the system was very likely not using wep since iwlist eth2 scan returned

            Cell 02 - Address: 00:40:05:5D:F8:7A
                     ESSID:"DESICA"
                     Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
                     Mode:Master
                     Channel:6
                     Encryption key:on
                     Bit Rates:54 Mb/s
                     Extra: Rates (Mb/s): 1 2 5.5 9 11 6 12 18 24 36 48 54
                     Quality=41/100  Signal level=-76 dBm
                     Extra:rsn_ie=3010000000037f20020000037f0000037f20
                     Extra: Last beacon: 441ms ago

I then tried with wpa_supplicant with configuration file

# Static WEP keys

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={
         ssid="DESICA"
         key_mgmt=NONE
         wep_key0="0000000000"
#       wep_key1=0102030405
#       wep_tx_keyidx=0
}

but  when I ran wpa_supplicant I got an error on a malformed ie and the supplicant looped for ever, here there is a part
of the output

ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[IPW_IOCTL_WPA_SUPPLICANT]: Operation not supported
Initializing interface 'eth2' conf '/etc/wpasupplicant.conf' driver 'ipw' ctrl_interface 'N/A'
Configuration file '/etc/wpasupplicant.conf' -> '/etc/wpasupplicant.conf'
Reading configuration file '/etc/wpasupplicant.conf'
ctrl_interface='/var/run/wpa_supplicant'
Priority group 0
    id=0 ssid='DESICA'
Initializing interface (2) 'eth2'
EAPOL: SUPP_PAE entering state DISCONNECTED
EAPOL: KEY_RX entering state NO_KEY_RECEIVE
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state INITIALIZE
EAP: EAP entering state DISABLED
EAPOL: External notification - portEnabled=0
EAPOL: External notification - portValid=0
wpa_driver_ipw_init is called
SIOCGIWRANGE: WE(compiled)=19 WE(source)=16 enc_capa=0x0
   capabilities: key_mgmt 0x0 enc 0x3
Own MAC address: 00:12:f0:15:1f:ae
wpa_driver_ipw_set_wpa: enabled=1
wpa_driver_ipw_set_key: alg=none key_idx=0 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
Failed to set encryption.
wpa_driver_ipw_set_key: alg=none key_idx=1 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
Failed to set encryption.
wpa_driver_ipw_set_key: alg=none key_idx=2 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
Failed to set encryption.
wpa_driver_ipw_set_key: alg=none key_idx=3 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
Failed to set encryption.
wpa_driver_ipw_set_countermeasures: enabled=0
wpa_driver_ipw_set_drop_unencrypted: enabled=1
Setting scan request: 0 sec 100000 usec
Added interface eth2
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b06 len=8
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'eth2' added
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'eth2' added
State: DISCONNECTED -> SCANNING
Starting AP scan (broadcast SSID)
Scan timeout - try to get results
Received 239 bytes of scan results (1 BSSes)
Scan results: 1
Selecting BSS from priority group 0
0: 00:40:05:5d:f8:7a ssid='DESICA' wpa_ie_len=0 rsn_ie_len=18 caps=0x11
wpa_parse_wpa_ie_rsn: malformed ie or unknown version
    skip RSN IE - parse failed
No suitable AP found.
Setting scan request: 5 sec 0 usec


So the questions are: is it my fault? Was my configuration file wrong?

Thanks in advance
	Igor