[Voyage-linux] how to configure wds if iwpriv always reports "no private ioctls."

[Alfonso Fiore]

Hi,

and thank you for your help!

This is what I'm trying to achieve:

(ISP wireless router - 192.168.1.1) <---wireless---> (ALIX setup as
bridge) <---wired---> (PC - 192.168.1.x)

I'd like my PC to have an address over the same network as all other
devices. If I could have the ALIX as a repeated AS WELL I would prefer
it since my XP laptop gets faster wireless from the ALIX (when
configured as AP) compared to my ISP router.
But let's consider this the next step.

> Once you are connected all you need to do is bridge the wireless NIC with the wired ones.

how can I achieve this?

I tried to configure both eth0 and wlan0 to have IP 0.0.0.0 (so that
br0 gets the address from my AP):

/etc/network/interfaces

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
        address 0.0.0.0
        netmask 255.255.255.255
auto wlan0

iface wlan0 inet static
        address 0.0.0.0
        netmask 255.255.255.255
        wpa-driver wext
        wpa-ssid mySSID
        wpa-psk myPASSWORD
        wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
        wpa-pairwise TKIP
        wpa-group CCMP TKIP
        wpa-proto RSN
        wireless-mode Managed

I know the configuration is correct because if I setup wlan0 with dhcp
I can connect to the AP and go on internet from the ALIX.

then I run:

# brctl addbr br0
# brctl addif br0 wlan0
can't add wlan0 to bridge br0: Operation not supported
# iw dev wlan0 set 4addr on
Failed to read classid file: Object not found (this error seems irrelevant)
# brctl addif br0 wlan0
device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
# brctl addif br0 eth0
device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
# ifconfig br0 up
# dhclient br0

but br0 never gets an IP from my wireless router.

I also tried to run "ping 192.168.100.254" from the PC and using
tcpdump on the ALIX I can see the ALIX probably never forwards the
DHCP request from eth0 to wlan0.

thank you,
alfonso

On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 12:51 AM, Gustin Johnson <gustin at meganerd.ca> wrote:
> First don't try to use iwpriv.
>
> Second WDS stands for wireless distribution system.  You are essentially
> creating a repeater.  If this is what you want then look at hostap as you
> are also acting as an AP,
>
> If you do not want your wireless card to also be an AP (you did say it had
> to be in managed mode), then just configure the wifi card as plain client.
>
> To do this you need to have the following lines in your interfaces file for
> your wireless NIC:
> wpa-ssid MySSID
> wpa-psk someRanDoM_PSK
>
> Of course you should put in your own SSID and PSK.
>
> Once you are connected all you need to do is bridge the wireless NIC with
> the wired ones.
>
> Hth,
>
> On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 6:34 PM, Alfonso Fiore <alfonso.fiore at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm trying to setup wds using voyage 0.8.0 and an ALIX 3d3 with a
>> dcma81 (Atheros AR5414).
>>
>> I first want to setup the wds from command line but every time I try a
>> iwpriv command I get "no private ioctls." error.
>>
>> I'm not sure if this really my problem, but I read here (
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/99432 ) that some
>> driver doesn't support iwpriv (despite the HW).
>>
>> But now if I want to setup a bridge between wlan0 and eth0 what should I
>> do?
>>
>> /etc/network/interfaces suggests:
>>
>> #auto br0
>> #iface br0 inet static
>> #        address 192.168.1.2
>> #        netmask 255.255.255.0
>> #        network 192.168.1.0
>> #        broadcast 192.168.1.255
>> #        gateway 192.168.1.1
>> #        bridge_ports eth0 wlan0 wlan0wds0
>> #        pre-up iwconfig wlan0 mode Master essid voyage-wds channel 1
>> #        pre-up iwpriv wlan0 wds_add AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF
>>
>> but it doesn't work due to iwpriv not working (and I need my wireless
>> to be in Managed mode, but this is irrelevant to this problem).
>>
>> I tried to manually bring up wlan0 like this:
>>
>> auto wlan0
>> iface wlan0 inet dhcp
>>        wpa-driver wext
>>        wpa-ssid
>>        wpa-psk
>>        wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
>>        wpa-pairwise TKIP
>>        wpa-group TKIP
>>        wpa-proto WPA
>>        wireless-mode Managed
>>
>> and then manually creating a bridge but it doesn't work (and this is
>> why wds exists as far I understand).
>>
>> Any help is appreciated.
>>
>> Thank you,
>> alfonso
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Voyage-linux mailing list
>> Voyage-linux at list.voyage.hk
>> http://list.voyage.hk/mailman/listinfo/voyage-linux
>
>