{"id":578,"date":"2014-10-03T22:34:14","date_gmt":"2014-10-04T02:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonesling.us\/blog\/?p=578"},"modified":"2015-05-04T21:11:46","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T01:11:46","slug":"adventures-in-wifi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jonesling.us\/?p=578","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in WiFi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple and hostapd<\/h1>\n

The problem<\/h2>\n

I set up my fileserver to be a router and wireless gateway using hostapd and dnsmasq, after I got fed up with Verizon’s crappy Actiontec router.\u00a0 Works great, except for Apple products.\u00a0 Neither Megh’s Mac nor my iPad would connect.<\/p>\n

The various Linux boxes, Android devices, Nintendo Wii, and HP printer connected to it without a problem, so I held out hope that this was a solvable configuration problem and not some fundamental hardware incompatibility.\u00a0 I’ve been running both routers for weeks while I tried to figure this out.<\/p>\n

My iPad has been prompting for a username and password to log into wifi, even though I’m only using WPA Personal.\u00a0 Megh’s Mac refused to connect at all.<\/p>\n

Logging hasn’t been much help, as it fills with messages like this, over and over:<\/p>\n

Oct\u00a0 3 21:30:02 dandelion hostapd: wlp3s6: STA 01:02:03:04:05:06 IEEE 802.11: authentication OK (open system)\nOct\u00a0 3 21:30:02 dandelion hostapd: wlp3s6: STA 01:02:03:04:05:06 IEEE 802.11: authenticated\nOct\u00a0 3 21:30:02 dandelion hostapd: wlp3s6: STA 01:02:03:04:05:06 IEEE 802.11: association OK (aid 2)\nOct\u00a0 3 21:30:02 dandelion hostapd: wlp3s6: STA 01:02:03:04:05:06 IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 2)\nOct\u00a0 3 21:30:11 dandelion hostapd: wlp3s6: STA 01:02:03:04:05:06 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to local deauth request<\/pre>\n
Not much indication of what’s wrong there.<\/p>\n
The Server<\/h2>\n
Wireless is provided by an Ralink RT61-based card.\u00a0 I’ve used the same hardware to set up wireless networks before, because I know this chipset can enable master mode.\u00a0 Not all wireless chipsets can.\u00a0 This is the first where I know Apple hardware is in use, though.<\/p>\n
Googling gave me some ideas, but nothing that I found solved the problem.\u00a0 Various posts pointed fingers at hostapd’s integrated EAP server, AES, the wireless hardware itself (oh noes!), and more.<\/p>\n
I started with a basic hostapd config file, no encryption, to rule out hardware issues.<\/p>\n
\/etc\/hostapd\/hostapd.conf<\/strong><\/p>\n
\ndriver=nl80211\nlogger_syslog=1\nlogger_syslog_level=0\nlogger_stdout=-1\nlogger_stdout_level=2\ndump_file=\/tmp\/hostapd.dump\nctrl_interface=\/var\/run\/hostapd\nctrl_interface_group=0\nssid=My crappy wifi name\ncountry_code=US\nhw_mode=g\nchannel=1\nmacaddr_acl=0\ndeny_mac_file=\/etc\/hostapd\/hostapd.deny\nauth_algs=3\nwmm_enabled=0\nap_max_inactivity=600\nieee8021x=0\neap_server=1\nown_ip_addr=127.0.0.1\n<\/pre>\n
\/etc\/conf.d\/modules<\/strong><\/p>\n
Apparently, the hardware crypto can be a little flaky with rt61 cards so it’s safer to load it as a module (instead of compiling it into the kernel, so you can unload\/reload it) and disabling hardware crypto at run time.<\/p>\n
modules=\"rt61pci\"\nmodule_rt61pci_args=\"nohwcrypt=1\"<\/pre>\n
Like that, everything connected.\u00a0 Hallelujah.<\/p>\n
Now came the fun (if tedious is fun) process of enabling and modifying options until we get an encrypted signal that everything can connect to.\u00a0 The linux-based devices, bless their little electronic souls, seem to be very tolerant about network settings and kept reconnecting no matter what the encryption config was.<\/p>\n
Here’s my final configuration:<\/p>\n
interface=wlp3s6\ndriver=nl80211\nlogger_syslog=1\nlogger_syslog_level=0\nlogger_stdout=-1\nlogger_stdout_level=2\ndump_file=\/tmp\/hostapd.dump\nctrl_interface=\/var\/run\/hostapd\nctrl_interface_group=0\nssid=My crappy wifi name\ncountry_code=US\nhw_mode=g\nchannel=1\nmacaddr_acl=0\ndeny_mac_file=\/etc\/hostapd\/hostapd.deny\nauth_algs=3\nwmm_enabled=0\nap_max_inactivity=600\nieee8021x=0\neap_server=1\nown_ip_addr=127.0.0.1\nwpa=2\nwpa_passphrase=My crappy wifi password\nwpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK\nwpa_pairwise=CCMP<\/pre>\n
Notes:<\/p>\n