wpa_supplicant for ad-hoc mode

[Dan Williams]

On Mon, 2009-03-02 at 23:29 -0500, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Mon, 2009-03-02 at 13:15 -0700, Shawn Rutledge wrote:
> > Next problem though: if one peer is not running wpa_supplicant, it can
> > work.  If both peers are running wpa_supplicant, they will keep timing
> > out.  Each timeout, the ESSID is de-configured:
> > 
> > wlan0     Disconnected  ESSID:off/any
> >           Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Bit Rate=1 Mb/s
> > 
> > Authentication with 00:00:00:00:00:00 timed out.
> > BSSID 00:00:00:00:00:00 blacklist count incremented to 12
> > No keys have been configured - skip key clearing
> > State: ASSOCIATING -> DISCONNECTED
> > 
> > I tried to fix it like this:
> > 
> > static void wpa_supplicant_timeout(void *eloop_ctx, void *timeout_ctx)
> > {
> > 	struct wpa_supplicant *wpa_s = eloop_ctx;
> > 	const u8 *bssid = wpa_s->bssid;
> > 	if (is_zero_ether_addr(bssid))
> > 		bssid = wpa_s->pending_bssid;
> > 	wpa_msg(wpa_s, MSG_INFO, "Authentication with " MACSTR " timed out.",
> > 		MAC2STR(bssid));
> > 	// In ad-hoc mode, this can be normal because we're waiting for a
> > 	// peer to appear with the same SSID.
> > 	if ( wpa_s->current_ssid->mode == IEEE80211_MODE_INFRA)
> > 	{
> > 		wpa_blacklist_add(wpa_s, bssid);
> > 		wpa_sm_notify_disassoc(wpa_s->wpa);
> > 		wpa_supplicant_disassociate(wpa_s, WLAN_REASON_DEAUTH_LEAVING);
> > 	}
> > 	wpa_s->reassociate = 1;
> > 	wpa_supplicant_req_scan(wpa_s, 0, 0);
> > }
> > 
> > which tentatively seems to be working.
> > 
> > Why doesn't anybody comment on this thread?  Is nobody interested
> > using wpa_supplicant in ad-hoc mode?  Is there something wrong with
> > the very idea of it?  I think it would be helpful for easy wireless
> > configuration in every Linux distro, if one could unconditionally run
> > wpa_supplicant on every system, and it fit every wireless use case
> > (including ad-hoc).  Some typical distro-dependent scripting could be
> > simplified.
> 
> I use it (well, 0.6.x) in ad-hoc mode all the time with the 'wext'
> driver and ipw2200 hardware.  Seems like you shouldn't even be getting
> to this point though.  The driver should be signalling association
> completed way before the timeout triggers.  What driver was this again?

(The Socket P300 driver as I now read below).  So the problem is
probably in the driver.  The driver needs to send the WEXT association
event in *both* cases, either for association to an Infrastructure AP,
or when it starts/joins an IBSS as well.  The BSSID sent along with the
event should include the BSSID that the driver just
associated/joined/started.

Run 'iwevent' when the supplicant tries to make the connection.  You
should see something like:

09:44:31.634205   eth2     New Access Point/Cell address:00:1E:FE:EE:AA:BB

when the card sends the association event.  Obviously, when joining an
IBSS, the "address" will be different (usually starting with 00:02:...).
If you don't see that event, the driver needs to be fixed.

Dan

> Dan
> 
> > On 2/20/09, Shawn Rutledge <shawn.t.rutledge at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > For what it's worth, ad-hoc mode is working when I use the latest
> > >  wpa_supplicant from git (calls itself 0.7.0).  There were some fixes
> > >  to the proprietary Socket P300 driver from Embwise... maybe that has
> > >  something to do with it.  My custom GUI sends something like
> > >
> > >  SET_NETWORK 5 mode 1
> > >
> > >  and so mode=1 gets put into the conf file.  If wpa_gui is not yet
> > >  doing the same thing, I still think it should.
> > >
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