[PLUG] Ubuntu Feisty WPA

[jeff <jeffv@op.net>]

Nothin' but heartache trying to set up wireless networking on two 
laptops with Ubuntu Feisty.  I can find the network but cannot connect 
with WPA.  It's not even an option on Feisty.

I messed with wpa_supplicant an awful lot, to no avail.
I was most gratified to find that Feisty picked up the wireless card in 
the newer laptop (ipw3945?) and I put that into the configs.  Nope.

I was all over the Ubuntu forums.  Be careful, as most references are to 
versions earlier than Feisty, and not applicable.

I also had to divine whether what my router called WPA was in fact WPA 
home, WPA Business, WPA2 home, or WPA2 Business.

One bright fellow suggested setting wireless back to the default - 
roaming mode, and allowing the system to find the network by itself.  It 
would them prompt you for a passphrase and allow you to select WPA. 
This person deserves an award.... this solution was so frighteningly 
simple that I never would have thought of it, possibly in my lifetime.

So off I went, promptly falling on my face.  Again.
Finally I asked myself how the hell the system could know its static IP 
address if I had set the network to roaming?

Yup, that was it.  When I started dhcp on the router, POOF - I was 
connected.  Bloody hell.


Bravo to Ubuntu on the functionality.
Less than bravo to Ubuntu on the documentation.


P.S.  Dell Latitude D820, w/XP.  I used the cd to shrink the XP 
partition and create room for a better OS.  I shall not drive tonight, 
as I'm drunk with success (it's the little things, you know).



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