Fix for Wicd Network Manager Hanging and causing a Panic and Reboot(WPA types only)

[Sneux]

(Only works for WPA/WPA2-PSK this is not from a pentest point of view but for regularly connecting to the internet/an AP)

Alright, so lets start out by explaining what the problem is. Then I shall explain the fix, this is to make sure the problem you are trying to use this fix for is the correct one, so you do not cause further damage.

This Problem was universal for me, meaning on KDE or Gnome, 32bit or 64bit, LiveCD or USB it happened to me. Which is why I thought it might happen to someone else.

Problem:

I would load BT5, startx and then open Wicd Network Manager and try to connect to an AP, it would start fine for a moment, and as it started to disconnect me from all other active connections the OS would freeze/hang/stall(this also happens if you click the disconnect from all tab button on the top of the wicd network manager gui), now sometimes this may vary, it might just freeze....it might go black and freeze, it might revert to console and reboot, or any combination. However there are a few things that remain the same no matter what the outcome is. 1st you'll notice that the bar on the bottom of the GUI will freeze during the 'Disconnecting From All Active Network' stages then you'll notice an LED indicator blinking. Mine was the Caos Lock indicator light. It would then either reboot or just hang there, if it just hang there I would need to manually shut down the machine via the power button. This happened over and over and over. So finally I did some research and went around some IRC channels and found my answer.

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This fix will be written in a step by step sort of way.

Fix:

Ok first there are some terms you need to understand... (you should really already know these terms but if you don't here is a basic explanation. You also need some BASH/Command Line knowledge for this...if you don't understand these terms or what I'm talking about BT prooooobably isn't the right Operating System for you.)

ESSID/SSID this is the 'name' of the AP you are trying to connect to like, "Balding_Parrot's AP"

wlan0 this is most likely the name of the wireless device you'll be using to connect to the AP.

Passkey/Passphrase This is the 'password' to 'log in' to your WIFI AP. Usually it is ASCII or HEX.

(The following info is from many places over the internet that I have collected bits and pieces of info on how and just what all of the following steps mean.)

We will be using Wpa_Supplicant which is already on BT5 so you will not already need to download something, or shouldn't.

Step 1:
Open a BASH window and input the following command 'ifconfig wlan0 up' (without the ' ') this should wake up the wlan0 interface/device whatever you wish to call it.(I'm going to try to make this as least 'technical' as possible so as to try to avoid communication.) You shouldn't get any feedback info unless something is wrong.

Step 2:
On the next line you need to scan for your AP so you know your device can detect it and that it isn't a router problem using the command 'iwlist wlan0 scan'(again without the ' '). This will give you a lot of nice info including what you need, the AP's SSID/ESSID as well as if the network is employing WPA/WEP/WPA2-PSK et cetera. It might look something like this. (THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE.)

Example of iwlist wlan0 scan output:

Cell 01 - Address: 00:21:43:4E:9B:F0
ESSID:"Fake AP"
Mode:Master
Channel:5
Frequency:2.432 GHz (Channel 5)
Quality=100/100? Signal level:-45 dBm? Noise level=-95 dBm
Encryption key:on
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 22 Mb/s
6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s
36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=000002f1d9be01b7

As you can see it tells the ESSIDE and that the AP is using WPA2-PSK.

Step 3:
Next you will need to get the passphrase/passkey, to convert this to HEX from ASCII we can do the command(in a console) 'wpa_passphrase mywireless_ssid "secretpassphrase" (without the ' ' and the " ") so for example if we are using the AP above we would do...

wpa_passphrase 'Fake AP' thisisthesecretkey

It should output something like this...

network={
ssid="Fake AP"
#psk="thisisthesecretkey"
psk=7b271c9a7c8a9ac07d12404b87792d7d92b5957ff8dfd5 6046ced4648636515
}

This is the basic configuration required to get wpa working. The first line is the opening statement for the network, the second is the ssid of the base station you are wanting to connect to, the third line the passphrase, and the fourth the hex key which is required to connect.

Step 4:
Using the wpa_passphrase command, specify your actual ssid and passphrase, and redirect the output to /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf with the command wpa_passphrase 'Fake AP' "thisisthesecretkey" > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Step 5:
Changing the details where applicable to your own specific information. This will then create a basic /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf from the output of the wpa_passphrase command.

For example if you use the WPA2-personal protocol you will have to add a few lines in the network section(as I had to do this):

network={
ssid="Fake AP"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk=7b271c9a7c8a6ac07d12403a1f0792d7d92b5957ff8dfd 56481ced43ec6a6515
}

IMPORTANT NOTE!!!!
The information will be stored in plain text, ergo it may be wise to change permissions on the newly created /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file

Step 5:
Now do ifconfig wlan0 up once more just to be safe, then issue the following command.

wpa_supplicant -Bd -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

IMPORTANT!!!!
Make sure to wait about 10-30 seconds before issuing the last command.

Now we need an IP Address so issue this command....

dhcp wlan0

Wait a few seconds then do ifconfig wlan0 and check to make sure you are connected and have all relevant information. If you do congratulations! You are now connected to the Wireless Access Point via WPA_Supplicant if not then go to google and use this newly gained info and whatever info you've gotten from your specific problems and strengthen your Search-Fu young grasshopper!

Thank you all and hope this at least helps even 1 person who was as frustrated and 'head banging against the wall' as I was.

PS: I am not sure what causes this problem because I've been told those with the same WiFi adapter can use Wicd without any problems at all. So it might just be my hardware, or 'great luck' but I'm hoping it helps at least one person.

[alexmightyangus]

Hi,

Thanks firstly for your time to note this, im having exactly the same problem but when connecting to a WEP .. was wondering why this fix is reduced to wpa types only, as im obviously having difficulties with connecting to wep, just "hangs at disconnecting active connections" apparently this script below fixes the problem, but being a noob i dont know how to exectute it

--- networking.py.bak 2010-01-15 15:49:11.000000000 +1100
+++ networking.py 2010-03-11 12:25:53.000000000 +1100
@@ -215,8 +215,7 @@
if self.pre_disconnect_script:
print 'Running pre-disconnect script'
misc.ExecuteScript(expand_script_macros(self.pre_d isconnect_script,
- 'pre-disconnection', (mac,
- name)),
+ 'pre-disconnection', mac, name),
self.debug)
iface.ReleaseDHCP()
iface.SetAddress('0.0.0.0')
@@ -228,8 +227,7 @@
if self.post_disconnect_script:
print 'Running post-disconnect script'
misc.ExecuteScript(expand_script_macros(self.post_ disconnect_script,
- 'post-disconnection',
- (mac, name)),
+ 'post-disconnection', mac, name),
self.debug)

def ReleaseDHCP(self):

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Alex

[safiro21]

Thank you for your time.
But my computer "hang" "freeze" the moment connect to the network through terminal (bash) You have any other solution?