WPA wireless "just works" in Ubuntu 7.04

Introduction

This past week I installed a pre-release of the next version of Ubuntu. This alpha version is called "Herd 4" and should NOT be installed on a production machine. Please wait until the final release of Ubuntu 7.04 which should be in April, 2007.

With that disclaimer behind us, let me tell you that this next release is going to rock! In addition to many other improvements such as automatically installing multimedia codecs, Ubuntu 7.04 will now allow you to painlessly connect to secure wireless networks.

I have been waiting a long-time for Linux to automatically connect to WPA-secured wireless networks. WPA is the minimum security for a modern wireless network to be considered "secure". (Even WPA can still be hacked if you use a small pre-shared key.) In past versions of Ubuntu, you had to manually install software (xsupplicant) and configure it if you wanted to connect to a WPA network.

Now you can connect in two simple steps. First, click on the wireless icon in the top-right of the screen and select the wireless network you want to connect to.

Then, depending on the type of security for the wireless network, you will be prompted to authenticate to the network. At my workplace, the prompt looks like this. The only fields I had to modify are "Identity" (my username) and "Password". Within a few seconds, I was connected!


How can it be improved?

I have one complaint about the wireless network authentication process. The network manager software is smart enough to remember all of your network credentials, but it requires you to create a master password to secure these passwords. So every time you reboot or come back from hibernation, you have to log into Ubuntu AND log into the network keyring. In my opinion, this is redundant and the network keyring should see that you have already authenticated yourself.

If you want to fix this manually, it is possible to do so by following a few simple instructions given by Johnny Chadda.


How does this compare to other operating systems?

Windows XP is normally thought to have great support for wireless networks. This is true for some networks, but many secure wireless networks require the user to perform multiple complex steps to configure the correct security and authentication settings. To see what I mean, just look at these instructions to connect to various University wireless networks.

On the other hand, the Mac OS X interface looks very similar to Ubuntu 7.04. Just like Ubuntu, it will allow you to painlessly connect to secure wireless networks.

Comments

  1. Possible Piper2/22/2007 12:31 AM

    What's even better is that you can have this on Edgy right now:

    apt-get install networkmanager networkmanager-gnome

    And you're right, it rocks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous2/22/2007 12:55 AM

    You can get single sign-on for your keyriing, provided that your master password is the same as your login password. Just install the package libpam-keyring (from universe) and adding "@include common-pamkeyring" to the end of /etc/pam.d/gdm.

    Entering the password after resume might be avoided by adding the same line to /etc/pam.d/gnome-screensaver, but I haven't tested that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous2/22/2007 1:24 AM

    Hi,

    I really agree that wireless in Feisty rocks hard!

    One comment: The example dialouge box on your page that asks about password for "default keyring". I was wondering if a different wording might be better. I am not really sure that I understand what a keyring is, and I am even less sure that someone new to Linux would. Do you think there could be a more user friendly wording?

    Keep up the good work :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous2/22/2007 10:39 AM

    Really sad they didn't solve the key ring thing. There where even guides to fix that in edgy.
    But at least if they manage to fix the BCM43xx problem currently in Feisty, this will make allot of people very happy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous2/22/2007 12:29 PM

    In my case, there were two showstoppers for "Just works":

    1. bcm43xx, I had to boot the older 2.6.20.6 kernel.

    2. The Network Manager only accepted the hex WPA-PSK passphrase, converted with wpa_passphrase. This is a known bug since dapper on PPC and it is not fixed yet, even despite the fact there is a patch included in the bug report!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous2/22/2007 5:42 PM

    Question to you all. I agree the network-manager-gnome is awesome, however, I can not use it because it does not allow you to set static ip information. Only allows dhcp. Found a few ubuntuforums posts complaining about the same thing.

    Has this been fixed in Feisty?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Justin A2/22/2007 11:32 PM

    Yeah, network-manager is nice. XP only makes you go though about 6 dialog boxes to connect to the same network.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous2/23/2007 6:19 AM

    I've been using NetworkManager since it appeared in the Dapper flights.
    Does the version in 7.04 support LEAP authentication yet? I know that slightly buggy support was in some of the CVS builds a few months ago, but I haven't been following the progress they've made.

    ReplyDelete
  9. jramskov2/23/2007 2:19 PM

    I wonder - will wpa work out of the box on Kubuntu Feisty as well? I checked herd4 and as far as I could tell, it still only had wep support...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous3/04/2007 11:26 AM

    I just installed ubuntu 7.04 and it does not display the wpa-possibility in the box. I cannot connect to my wireless network, it does show my router but no connectivity. I can only chose from WEP hexa and asci, no WPA. Im a n00b to linux but with 7.04 wpa networking does not work instantly. ah, well, its an alpha version so that figures..

    ReplyDelete
  11. Tristan Rhodes3/05/2007 3:43 PM

    Possible Piper,

    I have tried using network manager in Edgy, but I don't get the WPA option. So it was not working in 6.10 with my wireless card.

    Anonymous,

    Are you sure that your card supports WPA? If your card is only 802.11b then it is too old and does not support WPA, only WEP. If it does support WPA, there might be a driver issue.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous4/01/2007 4:04 PM

    sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome

    that one should work in edgy

    ReplyDelete
  13. vwRiver5/04/2007 11:02 PM

    before I updated to the official release, My wireless card worked very well with my WPA enabled router. but it doesnot show the WPA option at all now. What is wrong with that

    ReplyDelete
  14. Tristan Rhodes5/06/2007 2:24 PM

    vwRiver,

    The only thing I can think of is that you have not allowed Ubuntu to use the restricted driver for your wireless card. To change this, go to System > Administration > Restricted Driver Manager and enable your wireless card. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous5/07/2007 4:48 PM

    "First, click on the wireless icon in the top-right of the screen"

    How did get that wireless icon? I have none. My card seems to be working, though.

    lsmod | grep 2200
    ipw2200 148040 0
    ieee80211 34760 1 ipw2200

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous7/06/2007 3:26 AM

    As a previous poster from February also noted...
    I too just installed ubuntu 7.04 and it does not display the WPA options out of the box. I cannot connect to my wireless network, it does see my SSID and others, but no signal strength for any. (I can connect with XP.) I cannot connect with Ubuntu. I can only chose from WEP hexa and asci, no WPA. I'm not new to Linux, but I am new to Ubuntu. I have a Linksys WMP54G v4.0 card with Ubuntu 7.04. WPA networking does not work instantly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Unknown8/06/2007 1:46 AM

    I am having the same experience. That is, for the wmp54g card, there are no lines for wpa. I do have wpa working on my laptops.

    ReplyDelete
  18. marknewlyn8/07/2007 7:05 PM

    I had the same problem and then I followed the instructions on this page and it worked:
    http://www.debianadmin.com/enable-wpa-wireless-access-point-in-ubuntu-linux.html

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous9/18/2007 10:05 PM

    This is such biased nonsense.

    WPA wireless "just works" in Windows XP/Vista/OS X.

    It "sometimes works" in Ubuntu 7.04.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous11/06/2007 3:28 AM

    Are there any wi-fi cards or USB adapters that "just work" in any version of Ubuntu?

    I have tried four so far. No luck. Almost (actually all) the advice on installation of any of these cards (Netgear, D-Link and Belkin) has not worked.

    Presumably this stuff works for someone out there.

    The Ubuntu "free operating system" myth reminds me of the old gag "there is no such thing as a free lunch".

    Maybe in 4 to 5 years Ubuntu will be better.

    ReplyDelete
  21. docbill12/11/2007 9:40 PM

    I think you got it wrong. In 7.10, wireless is just broken... I upgraded my son's computer from 7.04 to 7.10 across my wifi connection. Once it rebooted to 7.10 wireless would not work. I tried WEP, and I tried WPA. Both are just broken. I could not figure out a way to revert, so now I am re-installing 7.04 and downloading his games all over again.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous3/17/2008 10:09 PM

    black mold exposure,
    black mold symptoms of exposure,

    wrought iron garden gates,
    your nest iron garden gates, here,

    hair styles for fine thin hair,
    search hair styles for fine thin hair,

    night vision binoculars,
    buy, night vision binoculars,

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using the Cisco console in Linux

Image
Introduction People who work with Cisco network equipment need to be able to connect to the console port on their devices. In Windows, you can simply fire up HyperTerminal to get basic access to your devices. If you are using Linux, then you need to know how this can be done with an application called Minicom . Hardware First, you are going to need a Cisco console cable , a Cisco device, and a computer. If your computer has a serial port , then you can use the standard console cable that comes with every Cisco device. If you do not have a serial port (like most new laptops), then you need to purchase a USB to Serial adapter that supports Linux. This device will allow you to use the standard Cisco cable, which has a serial port on one end. Install Minicom You can easily install Minicom by using "System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager". Search for "minicom" and choose to install the package. Click "Apply" and Minicom should be insta...
Read more

Linux NIC teaming recommendations

Image
Introduction In my job as a network engineer, I am constantly looking for ways to increase the availability of the network. This is especially true in the data center, where services are expected to always be available. One of the ways to increase the network availability of a server is by using multiple network interfaces. This technique has many different names, but I am just going to call it NIC teaming. Purpose of NIC Teaming NIC teaming increases network availability by removing single-points-of-failure (SPOF). These SPOFs are components that will cause a service outage if they become unavailable. If we consider a single network connection from your server to your switch, we can identify quite a few SPOFs: Server NIC failure Network cable failure (such as being cut or unplugged) Network switch failure (such as a planned firmware upgrade or unplanned outage) Methods of NIC Teaming The reason I am writing this blog is to help people understand the different options for NIC team...
Read more

What it takes to make Ubuntu ready for use

I recently installed Ubuntu 6.10 on a new PC at work. In this post I will document all the steps I had to perform to get it ready for everyday use. Each step is assigned a level of difficulty, which I define below: Very Easy Step can be completed without using the command prompt Intuitive to complete Easy Step can be completed without using the command prompt May require searching to find the right place to make the change Medium Requires a single command to be entered at the command prompt Requires searching internet resources to find the solution Hard Requires multiple commands to be entered at the command prompt Requires searching internet resources to find the solution Very Hard Requires multiple commands to be entered at the command prompt Requires searching internet resources to find the solution Requires the user to manually edit a configuration file These criteria are quite strict, because I believe that using an operating system should be intuitive, and not require any spec...
Read more