[Solved] XpressConnect Installation

Message

hex9 · #1 Post by **hex9** » 2013-04-18 10:31

Hi guys, after using Debian for a while i must say im loving it!

The only issue im having is using a script called XpressConnect (Used to connect to University Wifi)

The script runs perfectly on Ubuntu 12.10, but it seems to be broken on debians side.

Im using a Thinkpad T420.

I can also upload the script if requested.

Thanks, John

llivv · #2 Post by **llivv** » 2013-04-18 11:05

can you post the instructions for the script?

also please post the contents of /etc/apt/sources.list

#3 Post by **dilberts_left_nut** » 2013-04-18 11:10

Can you connect to any other wifi normally?

Post output of 'lspci -k'

verahill · #4 Post by **verahill** » 2013-04-18 11:13

1. Does your wireless card 'work' under normal circumstances? What does

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sudo ifconfig -a

give you?

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lspci -vv |grep iwl

If it does it's not driver related.

2. Which XpressConnect version are you using?

3. Are you using network-manager? For some stupid reason this is apparently required by XpressConnect.

4. To see whether there was anything odd about the download, I tested it (wheezy, am64, lenovo thinkpad sl410; intel wlan)

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cd ~/Downloads
wget http://hosted.cloudpath.net/Xavier/Production/tools/XpressConnect-Linux.tar
tar xvf XpressConnect-Linux.tar
./XpressConnect-DoubleClickToRun 
Will download x64 version...
--2013-04-18 21:11:16--  http://hosted.cloudpath.net/Xavier/Production//tools/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2
Resolving hosted.cloudpath.net (hosted.cloudpath.net)... 72.18.151.75
Connecting to hosted.cloudpath.net (hosted.cloudpath.net)|72.18.151.75|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 6266475 (6.0M) [application/x-bzip2]
Saving to: `/tmp/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2'

100%[==============================================================================================================================>] 6,266,475    780K/s   in 10s     

2013-04-18 21:11:27 (600 KB/s) - `/tmp/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2' saved [6266475/6266475]

files
files/logo.jpg
network_config.xml
resources.properties
XpressConnect-x64

and the gui starts. I don't have network manager (using wicd) so I haven't tested it beyond that.

hex9 · #5 Post by **hex9** » 2013-04-18 11:55

This is the script i have downloaded from the university.

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#!/bin/sh

download_x86()
{
    wget --output-document="/tmp/XpressConnect-x86.tar.bz2" http://www.its.swin.edu.au/wifi/swinburneconnect/tools/XpressConnect-x86.tar.bz2
}

download_x64()
{
    wget --output-document="/tmp/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2" http://www.its.swin.edu.au/wifi/swinburneconnect/tools/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2
}

export HW_TYPE=`uname -m`

if [ "$HW_TYPE" = "i686" ] || [ "$HW_TYPE" = "i386" ] || [ "$HW_TYPE" = "i486" ] || [ "$HW_TYPE" = "i586" ]
then
    if [ -f "cabs/XpressConnect-x86.tar.bz2" ]
    then
	echo "Running x86 version..."
	export MY_DIR="`pwd`"
	cd /tmp
	tar xvjf "$MY_DIR/cabs/XpressConnect-x86.tar.bz2"
	"./XpressConnect-x86"
    else
      if [ -f "/tmp/cabs/XpressConnect-x86.tar.bz2" ]
      then
	  echo "Running x86 version from /tmp..."
  	  cd /tmp
	  tar xvjf "/tmp/cabs/XpressConnect-x86.tar.bz2"
          rm -f "/tmp/cabs/XpressConnect-x86.tar.bz2"
	  "./XpressConnect-x86"
      else
  	  echo "Will download x86 version..."
	  download_x86
	  if [ "0" = "$?" ]
	  then
              cd /tmp
	      tar xvjf "XpressConnect-x86.tar.bz2"
	      "./XpressConnect-x86"
	  else
	      echo "Unable to download the x86 version.   Please check your network connection" > /tmp/ubrun
	      echo "and verify it is working properly!" >> /tmp/ubrun
	      echo "(URL : http://www.its.swin.edu.au/wifi/swinburneconnect/tools/XpressConnect-x86.tar.bz2)" >> /tmp/ubrun
	      echo "" >> /tmp/ubrun
	      uname -a >> /tmp/ubrun
	      xmessage -file /tmp/ubrun
	      rm /tmp/ubrun
	  fi
      fi
    fi
else 
     if [ "$HW_TYPE" = "x86_64" ]
     then
	 if [ -f "cabs/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2" ]
	 then
	     echo "Running x64 version..."
	     export MY_DIR="`pwd`"
	     cd /tmp
	     tar xvjf "$MY_DIR/cabs/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2"
	     "./XpressConnect-x64"
       else
	   if [ -f "/tmp/cabs/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2" ]
	   then
	       echo "Running x64 version from /tmp..."
	       cd /tmp
	       tar xvjf "/tmp/cabs/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2"
               rm -f "/tmp/cabs/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2"
	       "./XpressConnect-x64"
	   else
	       echo "Will download x64 version..."
	       download_x64

	       if [ "0" = "$?" ];
	       then
		   cd /tmp
		   tar xvjf "XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2"
		   "/tmp/XpressConnect-x64"
	       else
		   echo "Unable to download the x64 version.   Please check your network connection" > /tmp/ubrun
		   echo "and verify it is working properly!" >> /tmp/ubrun
		   echo "(URL : http://www.its.swin.edu.au/wifi/swinburneconnect/tools/XpressConnect-x64.tar.bz2)" >> /tmp/ubrun
		   echo "" >> /tmp/ubrun
		   uname -a >> /tmp/ubrun
		   xmessage -file /tmp/ubrun
		   rm /tmp/ubrun
	       fi
           fi
	 fi
     else
	echo "Unable to determine the type of processor in this machine.  Reported type was " $HW_TYPE "."
	xmessage "Unable to determine the type of processor in this machine. Reported type was " $HW_TYPE "."
     fi
fi

Output of my sources.list

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## DEBIAN
deb http://http.debian.net/debian wheezy main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian wheezy main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free

Yes, my normal wifi works fine.

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john@Debian:~$ lspci -k
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: i915
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
00:16.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family KT Controller (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: serial
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: e1000e
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b4)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b4)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b4)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev b4)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation QM67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: ahci
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] (rev 34)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN
	Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
0d:00.0 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd PCIe SDXC/MMC Host Controller (rev 08)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
0d:00.3 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 PCIe IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 21ce
	Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci

sudo ifconfig -a outputs:

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john@Debian:~$ sudo ifconfig -a
[sudo] password for john: 
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:cc:cc:87:1b  
          inet addr:192.168.0.7  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::221:ccff:fecc:871b/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:12367 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:6559 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:11966595 (11.4 MiB)  TX bytes:630347 (615.5 KiB)
          Interrupt:20 Memory:f2500000-f2520000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:1204 (1.1 KiB)  TX bytes:1204 (1.1 KiB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 60:67:20:a4:72:c6  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

Output of lspci -vv |grep iwl

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john@Debian:~$ lspci -vv |grep iwl
	Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi

I cant see what version of XpressConnect im running (although its probably in the script, right in front of my eyes..)

Yes, i have network-manager to the latest version

Sorry about all this, if there is anything wrong let me know. Im still new. and thanks a lot for the help

verahill · #6 Post by **verahill** » 2013-04-18 12:03

So in what sense isn't it working? What are you doing (in detail) and what happens?

Your wireless card is properly set up and you've got the drivers loaded ok, so there must be something odd which you're doing.

Try the following:

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cd ~/Downloads
wget http://www.its.swin.edu.au/wifi/swinwifi/tools/XpressConnect-Linux.tar
tar xvf XpressConnect-Linux.tar
./XpressConnect-DoubleClickToRun

It's basically what I showed in my earlier post, but by downloading the script from swinburne.

hex9 · #7 Post by **hex9** » 2013-04-18 12:27

When i run the script and it loads the GUI it tells me "A configuration was not found for this device. If you think this is in error, click "Retry" to reevaluate your machine" Im assuming this is because Ubuntu is the only distro officially supported, when i click continue and try to connect to the network it reverts me back to the page with the warning on it.

verahill · #8 Post by **verahill** » 2013-04-18 12:41

So the issue is with XpressConnect then, not debian. The IT support at your uni might be able to help you. In particular, I wonder what XpressConnect actually does -- a brief search seems to indicate that it does nothing but configure your connection. You should presumably be able to do that by hand.

Anyway, someone with experience of using XpressConnect might be able to assist you

Edit: looking at http://www.its.swinburne.edu.au/student ... index.html it seems Swinburne is simply using eduroam, which is easy to set up manually. It really annoys me when they can't simply post the required settings, instead of using a useless wrapper script to complicate things, and then artifically cripples it by refusing to run on distros which aren't specifically supported.

Anyway, if that's the case just use network manager to connect directly -- I'm using something similar to the settings here with debian at a certain uni in Melbourne.

Edit 2: 'here' in the previous edit was referring to this: https://www.it.unsw.edu.au/students/edu ... vices.html

Edit 3: Another doc with similar settings (of course they show how to do it for android, ipad, iphone, win 7, win xp and a couple of os x flavours, but not linux): http://wireless.k-state.edu/connect/manual_connect.pdf. Still, if my uni is anything to go by, all the info you need is there.

hex9 · #9 Post by **hex9** » 2013-04-18 12:43

Thanks verahill, ill post back here if i find a solution.

llivv · #10 Post by **llivv** » 2013-04-18 12:52

When in the gui you can click the
Options -> Support -> Generate Support File

it may or may not contain relevant data

hex9 · #11 Post by **hex9** » 2013-04-18 13:15

Thanks, i've just generated thew support file. Would you like me to upload it here? It's quite large (5000 lines) or just pass it on to support?

llivv · #12 Post by **llivv** » 2013-04-18 13:20

you can use
paste.debian.net
and post the url

not sure if any of us will be able to help, but you never know.

hex9 · #13 Post by **hex9** » 2013-04-18 13:34

I uploaded it on pastebin as i was having trouble with its length on paste.debian.net

http://pastebin.com/qEudRe2M

llivv · #14 Post by **llivv** » 2013-04-18 13:49

line # 5340 option id='416'>Authentication failed.</option>

verahill · #15 Post by **verahill** » 2013-04-18 22:53

llivv,
I don't mean to say that you're wrong, but I don't think that's an actual error message in this case - it's just seems to be the last one in a long list of possible messages.

hex9,
for another eduroam configuration, see e.g. the instructions at monash for network-manager: http://intranet.monash.edu.au/esolution ... linux.html

I'm also setting up a virtual machine with gnome/network-manager and a sub wifi dongle to test the xpressconnect script. I don't think you ever mentioned whether you were using squeeze or wheezy though.

hex9 · #16 Post by **hex9** » 2013-04-19 00:34

Im currently using wheezy, i really appreciate your help, i cant see anything on the monash page to help me though, i cant login.

verahill · #17 Post by **verahill** » 2013-04-19 06:51

Again, I'm making the assumptions that
1. XpressConnect doesn't do anything other than configure the network for you.
2. Monash and Swinburne have set up eduroam in the same way

If that is the case, try connecting to eduroam using network-manager with the following settings:

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Security: WPA&WPA2Enterprise
Authentication: Protected EAP (PEAP)
Anon. Identity:
CA Certificate: (none)
PEAP version: Automatic
Inner Authentication: MSCHAPv2
Username: myuser@swinburne.edu
Password: mypasswordatswinburne

As username put your staff/student email. As password, use your Swinburne password.
If it all works, you can always add the CA cert later.

If this doesn't work, contact IT, especially as they do say that if you OS isn't supported you SHOULD contact them. It's part of their job to field these questions (and ideally to solve them too), after all.

verahill · #18 Post by **verahill** » 2013-04-19 08:01

As an aside, I set up a virtual machine with Squeeze and plugged in a USB wifi dongle, and used network manager. I had no luck with XpressConnect here either -- same error as before. I'll try in an ubuntu vm as well to see if, and if so how, it behaves differently.

It worked in ubuntu 10.04 lts. I've got strace logs and files to compare now.

Note that I used 32 bit ubuntu and 64 bit debian (squeeze). Also, I added no non-free drivers or firmware to debian (but it's using the rtl8187 driver), and I didn't make any post-install modifications.
Ubuntu gives the following in /tmp/xpressconnect.log:

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---- Gathering Data ----
Parsing OS information...
Checking OS bit depth.
OS bits info : i686

OS is 32 bits.
Checking hardware information.
Looking for extra NIC data.
Found driver name for 'wlan0' from DBus.
   - Driver : rtl8187
Couldn't get capabilities from DBus, trying the hard way.
Attempting to release lock.
Release processing lock.
Set welcome banners.
Using DBus UUID for client ID.
Using DBus UUID for client ID.
Client ID : f3af3f95c2229c756e98556050ed0cc4
Session ID : 6980532961366355275
Upload value (1) : 0
Moving to widget 3.

and Debian gives

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---- Gathering Data ----
Parsing OS information...
Checking OS bit depth.
Validating checksum.
OS bits info : x86_64

OS is 64 bits.
Checking hardware information.
Looking for extra NIC data.
Network manager didn't return any NIC details.  Skipping.  (Interface : eth0)
Network manager didn't return any NIC details.  Skipping.  (Interface : eth1)
Network manager didn't return any NIC details.  Skipping.  (Interface : wlan0)
Attempting to release lock.
Release processing lock.
Checking license.
License validation checked out properly.
Today is : 04/19/2013
License expires : 
The date validation checked out properly.
Checking for valid networks for this platform.
No valid networks found in the configuration.
Config parser terminated.
Failed to parse configuration.
Set 'static' window labels.
Set welcome banners.
Using DBus UUID for client ID.
Using DBus UUID for client ID.
Client ID : fe88ef3cf6716df910e7fa570000000b
Session ID : 5805931841366354767
Moving to widget 9.

Looks like the answer might be right there -- either to do with nm or dbus?

The network manager version in debian is 0.8.1-6+squeeze2 and in ubuntu is 0.8-0ubuntu3.2.

The XpressConnect script downloads a 64 bit dynamically linked executable on debian 64 bit, and a 32 bit dyn. linked executable on ubuntu 32 bit.

I've repeated this on debain 32 bit with only eth0 and wlan0. Same issue.

On debian no /tmp/netdata.txt gets written (it's empty), while on ubuntu netdata.txt contains the following

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 *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 3
       bus info: pci@0000:00:03.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 02
       serial: 08:00:27:53:23:4c
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=e1000 driverversion=7.3.21-k5-NAPI firmware=N/A ip=10.0.2.15 latency=64 mingnt=255 multicast=yes
       resources: irq:10 memory:f0000000-f001ffff ioport:d010(size=8)
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: wlan0
       serial: 00:11:a3:08:12:1d
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg

It get's overwritten each time you run /tmp/Xpressconnect-x64.

Anyway, this seems to be the configuration file which xpressconnect is complaining about as being missing.

Stupidly, write-protecting netdata.txt doesn't solve anything.

Anyone has any suggestions on what I can check to help the OP?

hex9 · #19 Post by **hex9** » 2013-04-19 11:38

I really appreciate your help so far verahill..

verahill · #20 Post by **verahill** » 2013-04-19 12:13

hex9,
you should try connecting without xpressconnect as I describe above and see if it works. XpressConnect should just be a wrapper script, so we don't want to spend too much time trying to get it to work if it isn't necessary. Also, contact the university IT services.

I tried xpressconnect on arch (64 bit) and it behaves exactly like it does on debian.

I don't think there's going to be a simple fix, so try simply connecting and manually configuring instead.

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