NetworkManager cannot connect to WPA hidden network

English Network/Internet
1

My IT department upgraded the local wireless network and now NetworkManager no longer just works. I can connect to the network through ifup but prefer working with NetworkManager. This is a hidden network (not my choice). Prior to the hardware upgrade, I was able to connect while running an 11.1 kernel and KDE 4.1. Subsequent to the hardware upgrade and loss of connection, I tried upgrading my OS to 11.2 and KDE 4.3.5, in hopes of things just working again.

Results of my debugging efforts are below. Anecdotally, and take it with a grain of salt, but my local network folks tried monitoring my attempts to access the local access point and reported that I was attempting to connect via 802.11a, which is not supported by the local network.

I would appreciate any suggestions. I tried setting the DEBUG=“yes” variable in /etc/sysconfig/network/config but that doesn’t seem to increase the verbosity of the NetworkManager output.

Kernel: Linux 2.6.31.12-0.1-default x86_64
KDE: 4.3.5
NetworkManager: 0.7.1_git20090811-4.2x86_64
NetworkManager-kde4: 0.9.svn1043876-1.4.1 wpa_supplicant: 0.6.9-4.2

tail of /var/log/NetworkManager:
Mar 11 19:09:31 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): driver supports SSID scans (scan_capa 0x01).
Mar 11 19:09:31 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> Found new 802.11 WiFi device ‘wlan0’ (driver: ‘ath9k’).
Mar 11 19:09:31 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): exported as /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/net_00_24_2c_37_04_b3
Mar 11 19:09:31 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> Trying to start the supplicant…
Mar 11 19:09:31 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> modem manager appeared
Mar 11 19:09:31 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> Trying to start the system settings daemon…
Mar 11 19:09:31 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant manager state: down → idle
Mar 11 19:09:36 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (eth0): device state change: 1 → 2 (reason 2)
Mar 11 19:09:36 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (eth0): bringing up device.
Mar 11 19:09:36 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (eth0): preparing device.
Mar 11 19:09:36 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (eth0): deactivating device (reason: 2).
Mar 11 19:09:36 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 1 → 2 (reason 2)
Mar 11 19:09:36 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): bringing up device.
Mar 11 19:09:36 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): preparing device.
Mar 11 19:09:36 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 2).
Mar 11 19:09:36 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 2 → 3 (reason 0)
Mar 11 19:09:36 hyperion NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: starting → ready
Mar 11 19:09:57 hyperion NetworkManager: <WARN> connection_get_settings_cb(): connection_get_settings_cb: Invalid connection: ‘NMSettingWireless’ / ‘mac-address’ invalid: 1
Mar 11 19:09:57 hyperion NetworkManager: <WARN> connection_get_settings_cb(): connection_get_settings_cb: Invalid connection: ‘NMSettingWireless’ / ‘mac-address’ invalid: 1

tail of /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log:
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
No suitable AP found.
Setting scan request: 5 sec 0 usec
No enabled networks - do not scan
State: SCANNING -> INACTIVE
Setting scan request: 0 sec 0 usec
State: INACTIVE -> SCANNING
Starting AP scan (broadcast SSID)
Scan requested (ret=0) - scan timeout 30 seconds
RTM_NEWLINK: operstate=0 ifi_flags=0x1003 ([UP])
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface ‘wlan0’ added
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b19 len=16
Scan results did not fit - trying larger buffer (8192 bytes)
Scan results did not fit - trying larger buffer (16384 bytes)
Received 12321 bytes of scan results (24 BSSes)
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
No suitable AP found.
Setting scan request: 5 sec 0 usec
No enabled networks - do not scan
State: SCANNING -> INACTIVE

initial part of iwlist scan:
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:17:0F:81:F1:55
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=41/70 Signal level=-69 dBm
Encryption key:on
ESSID:"\x00"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=000000430f2ce1e3
Extra: Last beacon: 592ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000100
IE: Unknown: 010882848B0C12961824
IE: Unknown: 030101
IE: Unknown: 050400010000
IE: Unknown: 0706555320010B1A
IE: Unknown: 0B0502000E8D5B
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : CCMP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : 802.1x
IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
IE: Unknown: 851E08008F000F00FF03590053434E452D332E37000000000000000002000027
IE: Unknown: 9606004096001400
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101800003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
IE: Unknown: DD06004096010104
IE: Unknown: DD050040960305
IE: Unknown: DD050040960B09
IE: Unknown: DD080040961301003401
IE: Unknown: DD050040961405
IE: Unknown: DD1D0040960C0145785FE9E34127010000D8B1290100008342C7ED9A7C5A92

2

Just to update the folks who are reading this post. My wireless is now working through NetworkManager and connecting to a hidden WPA2/Enterprise PEAP/CCMP network.

Honestly, I don’t know what I did to fix it. I followed all of the steps in the stickies, supplemented with other more recent suggestions, to no avail. What I think I did differently today was deleting the device. In Yast/Network Devices/Network Settings, select Global Options/Traditional Method with ifup.

Delete your device from the Overview, close Yast and reboot. In Yast again after booting, configure the device through the GUI interface
and close Yast. In a terminal window as root, enter

ifconfig wlan0 up

Open a browser to confirm that you can actually see the internet. Go back to Yast and change the network back to being managed by NetworkManager. Reboot. If the network gods are smiling, you should get prompted by the wallet utility for your password.

In looking at my /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-wlan0 file, the variables WIRELESS_AP_SCANMODE=‘2’ and WIRELESS_HIDDEN_SSID=‘yes’ are NOT set and are not included in the file at all. The file did contain my WIRELESS_WPA_PASSWORD but I deleted that line and everything still works.

Clearly NetworkManager is finding some bit of information somewhere through the process of attaching to the network through ifup but there does not appear to be a mechanism to force NetworkManager to be more forthcoming about what it is thinking.

I’m back on the air, maybe this will help.

3

Tried your method, having similar problem (succesfully activated my wireless device, connected to my wlan, received an IP, yet I wasn’t able to connect internet: I suspected some issue in encryption).

But now after rebooting my device disappeared and I can’t get it back… any idea about what should I do? (I am quite a noob, I haven’t got any on my own)

4

fucertov:

I’m not an expert at all but, as to your first problem, there were a number of posts about the 11.2 NetworkManager not having a correct nameserver as delivered. The solution was, I think, to point to the Google nameservers by their IP addresses and then update your NetworkManager to the latest version. That may have caused your inability to get out onto the
internet once you had an IP address assigned.

When I deleted the wlan0 device through Yast, it magically reappeared after the reboot. If yours is lost forever, you’ll probably have to go reinstall the drivers like you did the first time. The stickies on this site are pretty explicit about all of the steps that you need to follow to accomplish that.

Good luck!