This HOWTO describes the way to configure and manage a WPA-PSK (TKIP) connection between a HP 530 laptop running Slackware 12.1 and a Lantech router with a wireless access point. To get the encryption running, the wpa_supplicant package is required. Unfortunately, the stock package didn’t work correctly for me, which I worked around by building it from source, using SlackBuild.

The package consists of the following programs: the wpa_supplicant daemon, managing the wireless encryption, the wpa_passphrase program, generating pre-shared keys (PSK) and the wpa_cli program, setting up the connection and encryption parameters.

First, the access point needs to be configured on the router:

• The configuration for WPA-PSK (TKIP) case reads as follows :







Slackware-12.1 configuration:

• The /etc/rc.d/rc.local entries read as follows :



• The newly created /etc/rc.d/rc.wifi_wpa executable script reads as follows:



• The PSK value to be entered into above file can be obtained using the following command :

#wpa_passphrase ssid pre-key(passphrase)



Where the SSID and the passphrase must match these entered into the access-point configuration.

• The /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf entries read as follows :



• The /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf entries read as follows :

The commented out entries are related to a WEP-encrypted connection brought up using iwconfig and ifconfig commands.

The #iwconfig command yields :

The #iwlist auth command yields :

The #iwlist encryption command yields :

The network monitor shows the connection as follows :

Our network is also visible using the wpa_gui program (run as root):

The laptop utilizes a firewall of its own. The only downside to this type of connection is its initialization time, being around 20 seconds to 1 minute in my setup.

Translated-by : el es