Debian doesn't enable wireless iface

[banderas20]

Hi all,

I'm using Debian Jessie and I can't get WiFi card to work.

It's listed in lspci, in lshw and in /etc/network/interfaces. However, if I do

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rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
   Soft blocked: no
   Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
   Soft blocked: no
   Hard blocked: no

lshw -C network

*-network
description: Ethernet interface
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface

In GNOME the Wifi option is there, but greyed out.

¿Any help?

Thanks!

[bigrigdriver]

Here is the HowTo setup wifi from the Debian wiki.
https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse

[banderas20]

Here is the HowTo setup wifi from the Debian wiki.
https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse

Thanks. I've already tried everything with no result.

If I run

iwlist scan

it displays a whole bunch of networks, which means the hardware is working properly.

The thing is my ssid is not broadcasted. I configure it in

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/etc/network/interfaces

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid my_SSID
wpa-psk hash_of_WPA
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK

and in wpa_supplicant.conf as:

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network={
       ssid="my_SSID"
       psk=hash_of_WPA
       key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
       proto=WPA
       scan_ssid=1
 }

Then I make ifup wlan0

And still not working..

¿Any clue?

I want to remark that my SSID is NOT BROADCASTED.

Thanks!

[edbarx]

So, your networking interfaces are recognised, but you cannot connect to a wifi hotspot. My suggestion is to comment the lines following "iface wlan0 inet dhcp". Keep security settings in wpa_supplicant.conf. I have discarded using ifupdown as it fails to connect to OPEN wifi hotspots. These days I use a low level method to connect except for wired connections that are excellently managed automatically by the operating system.

My method goes something like this:

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ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid mycoolessid
wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -B -c /path/to/wpa_supplicant.conf
dhclient -v wlan0

All the above require root privileges.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

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wpa-psk hash_of_WPA

Please post the exact command that you used to generate this "hash_of_WPA", whatever that means.

Also, a wpa_supplicant configuration file is *not* needed for Debian's ifupdown connection method.

Finally, "hiding" your SSID does *not* improve security in any way whatsoever so you should probably stop that, if you can

[banderas20]

@edbarx

Thanks. I'll give it a go and provide feedback on the results.

@Head_on_a_Stick.

Sure! From https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse#wpa_supplicant

2. Use the WPA passphrase to calculate the correct WPA PSK hash for your SSID by altering the following example:

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$ wpa_passphrase myssid my_very_secret_passphrase

The above command gives the output:

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network={
        ssid="myssid"
        #psk="my_very_secret_passphrase"
        psk=ccb290fd4fe6b22935cbae31449e050edd02ad44627b16ce0151668f5f53c01b
}

you'll need to copy from "psk=" to the end of the line, to put in your /etc/network/interfaces file.

Thank you all.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Did you type in "wpa_passphrase myssid my_very_secret_passphrase" or did you use your actual SSID and password?

Have you tried broadcasting your SSID, as I suggested?

Your laptop will broadcast the SSID once it is connected so there really is no benefit to be had from "hiding" it.

[banderas20]

Did you type in "wpa_passphrase myssid my_very_secret_passphrase" or did you use your actual SSID and password?

Have you tried broadcasting your SSID, as I suggested?

Your laptop will broadcast the SSID once it is connected so there really is no benefit to be had from "hiding" it.

I typed "wpa_passphrase myssid my_very_secret_passphrase" as the documentation states. I don't want to broadcast mi ssid. It's a personal issue by now.

@edbarx.

I have done as you have said and I have been able to achieve this:

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ifconfig
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr [edited]  
          inet addr:192.168.1.150  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::de85:deff:fec5:98ca/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:7367 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:5839 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:9514836 (9.0 MiB)  TX bytes:640368 (625.3 KiB)

But I still cannot access to network. If i set eth0 down, then I have no connectivity at all.

BTW, it's very strange that in

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/etc/network/interfaces

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

I only have "lo". Nothing about eth0. But yet it works.
So I don't see eth0 but I have connectivity. I do see wlan0 but I can't connect.
I don't understant nothing at all.

BTW, i have two

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wpa_supplicant.conf

files

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/etc/dbus-1/system.d/wpa_supplicant.conf
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Thanks!

EDIT: Unplugged Ethernet cable and WiFi worked like a charm . ¿Why?