[NCLUG] Debian wireless broken

[Chad Perrin]

O Wise and Mysterious Linux Experts, I humbly beg your aid.

## Conditions

I have installed Debian Squeeze/Stable on a ThinkPad T510.  I then
changed /etc/apt/sources.list to "testing" rather than "squeeze" when I
remembered that Stable sucks for daily laptop use.

    03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000 BGN
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 34
        Memory at f2400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: iwlagn

## What Works

I have edited the /etc/network/interfaces file to contain stuff that, so
far as I know, should be appropriate for my networking needs:

    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback

    auto wlan0

    iface wlan0 inet dhcp
      wpa-ssid <SSID>
      wpa-psk <KEY>

When I do this, it connects (no problems):

    /etc/init.d/networking [re]start

. . . where [re] indicates that I either use start or restart, depending
on circumstances.

## What Doesn't Work

If I change the iface wlan0 stanza to the following, and try to connect
to an open network (at, for instance, Panera), it doesn't work:

    iface wlan0 inet dhcp

I have also tried variants that the Interwebs tell me should allow the
networking script to dynamically connect me to what's available.  I have
also tried using GUI tools like NetworkManager and wicd.  I have also
tried pushing functionality to wpa_supplicant.  I have tried just
bringing up the wlan0 interface with ifconfig and manually running
dhclient as well.  The end result is always one of two things:

1. I can connect at home just fine, but I cannot connect to open wireless
access points that do not use encryption.

2. I can't connect to anything (as in the case of trying to use
wpa_supplicant configuration -- how screwed up is that?).

## What do I mean by "cannot connect"?

I'll use Panera as my example.

I am perfectly able to detect the AP at Panera (for instance) using the
iwlist command.  I can set the SSID association for wlan0 to PANERA.  I
cannot get iwconfig to show an AP MAC address association -- it just
keeps telling me it isn't associated.  Whether I preset the SSID or not,
and whether I try to preset the AP association or not, the results are
the same when I try to establish a connection.

It will go through the process of requesting an IP address, then inform
me it did not get an IP address assignment from any DHCP server, and the
DHCP client will "sleep".

## Other Details of What I've Tried

I have also tried installing dhcpd, because of documentation I found on
the Intertubes suggesting that wicd sometimes works with dhcpd but not
dhclient -- but wicd will not even recognize the existence of a DHCP
client other than dhclient.

When screwing around with NetworkManager, I have come to the conclusion
that if it does not automagically work when installed, it will never
work, since trying to configure it is an exercise akin to wandering
around Willy Wonka's chocolate factory while ODing on LSD.

When trying to get wicd to work, I have tried both doing as recommended
by the Google, to borrow a phrase from McCain:

    configuring /etc/network/interfaces to contain no configuration data
    for any interface except lo

. . . and half a dozen variations on not following wicd related advice,
such as configuring a bunch of stuff in /etc/network/interfaces, just in
case the wicd information I found was out of date and counterproductive
somehow.

## My Plea

Help . . . ?  What (other than using Debian) am I doing wrong?

-- 
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
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