Why wpa_supplicant does not connect to a -61dbm access point?

[Jouni Malinen]

On Mon, Feb 26, 2007 at 12:43:54PM +0100, J?rg Sommer wrote:

> http://www.uni-jena.de/Linux_Fedora_Core___Scientific_Linux_4_x_mit_WPA_EAP_TTLS_PAP.html

> % wpa_supplicant -D wext -i eth1
> Trying to associate with 00:14:1b:60:6a:40 (SSID='802.1X' freq=2472 MHz)
> Authentication with 00:00:00:00:00:00 timed out.

> Why is it 00:00:00:00:00:00?

Sign of the driver never reporting association.

> % iwevent
> 12:29:08.536222   eth1     Set Mode:Managed
> 12:29:08.866442   eth1     Scan request completed
> 12:29:08.866542   eth1     Set Mode:Managed
> 12:29:08.877978   eth1     Set Frequency:2.472 GHz (Channel 13)
> 12:29:08.878259   eth1     Set ESSID:"802.1X"
> 12:29:09.222180   eth1     Scan request completed
> 12:29:09.224278   eth1     Custom driver event:authenticated

> Does wpa_supplicant understand the "authenticated" event?

No, that is of no importance to wpa_supplicant. This issue is not at the
supplicant level, but at the driver/SoftMAC. wpa_supplicant is just
waiting for the driver to report association here and that does not seem
to happen.

> [371477.746191] SoftMAC: Sent Authentication Request to 00:14:1b:60:6a:40.
> [371477.747539] SoftMAC: Open Authentication completed with 00:14:1b:60:6a:40

SoftMAC seems to be able to complete authentication (that is the
"authenticated" event above), but for some reason, it does not seem to
even try to associate after this. I would recommend directing this
question to SoftMAC maintainers.

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA