NetworkManager <> System Bus Configuration

English Network/Internet
1

Hi:

I’m trying to connect wirelessly to a WEP protected network, @Home78CB, and am not sure what to do in response to the following error message (read from the NetworkManager log):


Jan 29 15:17:04 linux-930n NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) starting connection '@Home78CB'

--snip--

Jan 29 15:17:04 linux-930n NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0/wireless): connection '@Home78CB' has
security, and secrets exist.  No new secrets needed.
Jan 29 15:17:04 linux-930n NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure)
complete.
Jan 29 15:17:04 linux-930n NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth0/wireless): association request to the
supplicant failed: (null) - A security policy in place prevents this sender from sending this message to
this recipient, see message bus configuration file (rejected message had interface
"fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant.Interface" member "setAPScan" error name "(unset)" destination
"fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant")

--snip--

Jan 29 15:17:04 linux-930n NetworkManager: <info>  (eth0): deactivating device (reason: 0).

I’ve checked the dbus system.conf file and the comments suggest that anyone can connect… really don’t know where to go from here (disabling NetworkManager in Yast and going with ifup does not work; one thing I haven’t been able to do is delete the device, not just the configuration, and reboot as suggested in the forum primer).

2

Check your settings

The contents of your post contain info on 2 different types of security

WEP

WPA
you can’t have WEP at one side and WPA the other

WPA would be my choice

3

Yes, thanks for pointing that out – since I need WEP to connect my not WPA enabled handheld I guess my question is how to disable WPA? Do I simply uninstall the supplicant software (but what if I go to a wifi hot spot kind of place and need it again, is there a more flexible solution than doing away with WPA support?)

I’m still hoping for a way to configure the system bus configuration (for example the files in /etc/dbus-1/system.d/ where there is a NetworkManager and wpa_supplicant file; although both reference root as user – which I’m therefore tempted to change into my local user name – I’m hesitant to poke around without advice).

4

Using WEP, you might as well just disable security anyway. WEP is very weak.

If you disable it - can you add access control by MAC to your config.

5

Thank you once again – I believe you are making a valid point; yet I’m not sure I want to go there (unless you can point me to detailed instructions on how to do the access control; keep in mind that my dad and grandma should still be able to access the internet with their windows machines. In addition my dad has a T-Mobile phone which he uses to make phone calls over the internet and he would also have to configure that…)

In short, isn’t there an easier way, i.e. through the system bus config?

6

So change network manager to use WEP

make sure you have the WEP key. Should be fine.

7

Well, I am using WEP as per NetworkManager and, after that failed, YAST configuration. The error message comes up nonetheless.

8

If you are using WEP, make sure you are using hexadecimal for security and not passphrase,as this can cause problems

Andy