Description of problem: Attempting to start wpa_supplicant as daemon fails Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):wpa_supplicant-0.6.3-5.fc9.i386 How reproducible:Every time Steps to Reproduce: 1. Test that wpa supplicant starts manually using wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf 2. Now stop the supplicant and attempt to start the daemon 3. service wpa_supplicant (re)start Actual results: Terminal output is Starting wpa_supplicant: /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, -iwlan0, -Dwextwpa_supplicant: option requires an argument -- f Expected results:Supplicant daemon should start normally Additional info:/etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant is defined in the normal way and includes -f as an argument to OTHER_ARGS
Created attachment 298414 [details] wpa_supplicant /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant Note that there were no messages related to wpa_supplicant that appeared in /var/log/messages at the time the attempt was made to start the daemon.
This test was with rawhide fully up to date as of 18th March 2008 1500 UTC With wpa_supplicant started manually (and NetworkManager stopped of course) the wireless connection runs in a normal and stable fashion. It is only the wpa_supplicant daemon that will not start.
If you are using a static network configuration with the supplicant and you want the supplicant to start at boot time, please: chkconfig wpa_supplicant on it is not set to start up automatically because not everone has/needs WPA connectivity.
I was not using static address - I normally run wpa_supplicant to start the wireless connection, and then dhclient to get an address - this is my typical way of working with wireless laptops, and it allows me to set it up so that I have control over the wireless AP that the machine connects to, e.g. to a different AP at home and at work (by adding network blocks to the config file), and requires no intervention during the boot and login phase. This allows the non-expert user to be free of having to use NetworkManager to select networks. The easiest way is to run the wpa_supplicant daemon as a service that starts by default at boot, and then start dhclient in rc.local. In this case "chkconfig wpa_supplicant on" will fail at next boot, since service "wpa_supplicant start" does not work whilst the machine is running anyway. Hence it is essential to get this working for f9.
I have re-opened this as it is a bug that needs fixing. It should normally be possible to start wpa_supplicant either manually or as a daemon. In this case the daemon does not work.
So if you want supplicant startup on F9 here's what you do: 1) chkconfig wpa_supplicant on 2) Remove "-u" from /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant 3) set up your wpa_supplicant.conf for your network this isn't a bug; that's simply what you need to do since you are manually configuring the supplicant.
I removed the -u flag from /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant/ and then tried again. i.e. exactly as you list in comment #6 It fails to start the supplicant during boot. I had already set up the wpa_supplicant.conf for my networks... and indeed this file is already used with the manual start of the supplicant. Just to clarify - in my initial comments above I said: "Actual results: Terminal output is Starting wpa_supplicant: /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, -iwlan0, -Dwextwpa_supplicant: option requires an argument -- f" After this there is a spew of comments to the terminal including a list of the paramaters that can be used by wpa_supplicant i.e. usage but then fails to start. There is then a lockfile in /var/lock/subsys which needs removing - so something is amiss.... I have done exactly as you say in comment #6 but this does not work on reboot. Indeed immediately after reboot the same lockfile is there. If this is not a bug how can I start the wpa_supplicant daemon since I have done everything I have normally done in the past to run it for F8?
Ah sorry; one more thing you will have to do is to change your /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant file to include the path to the logfile (which is already fixed in wpa_supplicant-0.6.3-5.fc9 if you have not already edited that config file). You have two options then: 1) remove the -f option from /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant 2) add "/var/log/wpa_supplicant.log" after the -f option in that file If you have not modified that file before you installed -5.fc9, it should have updated for you already. If you did modify that file, then because it's a config file, you would need to fix it up.
Perfect - thanks Dan. I must have missed the documentation about having to add the log filename. I guess there is a bz I missed? Changing the line: OTHER_ARGS="-f" to OTHER_ARGS="-f /var/log/wpa_supplicant" works perfectly. Apologies for the noise.