Package: wpasupplicant
Version: 2:2.10-12
Severity: important
X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected]
There is no problem using a closed Wi-Fi network that requires a
password. But unencrypted open networks are all wholly unusable. Many
have been tried (libraries, cafes, etc). This problem goes back to
Bullseye, maybe further back, and persists in Bookworm.
Pre-Bullseye, I think I used the Gnome and the graphical network
manager. Then I switched to Wayland in Bullseye which neglected to
present a GUI Network Manager out of the box. In preference with CLI
and text anyway, I went whole-hog CLI instead of sorting out NM.
It’s crippling to be limited to encrypted networks. This procedure was
used to attempt to connect to a public library:
===8<----------------------------------------
$ wpa_cli
> scan
> scan_results
> add_network
> set_network 0 ssid "library_free_assange"
> set_network 0 key_mgmt NONE
> list_networks
> enable_network 4
> disable_network 0
> save config
===8<----------------------------------------
Edited /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Added an “id_str” field and custom identifier to the wpa_cli-generated stanza,
yielding:
===8<----------------------------------------
…
network={
ssid="library_free_assange"
key_mgmt=NONE
mesh_fwding=1
id_str="public_library"
}
…
===8<----------------------------------------
Side note: I do not recall “mesh_fwding=1” being there in Bullseye. No
idea what introduced that but I do not think it was me¹. The interfaces
config needs to be told to use DHCP for public_library (hence the need
for id_str):
$ echo "iface public_library inet dhcp" >> /etc/network/interfaces
===8<----------------------------------------
$ wpa_cli
> status
bssid=[redacted library MAC address 2]
freq=0
ssid=library_free_assange
id=4
id_str=public_library
mode=station
pairwise_cipher=NONE
group_cipher=NONE
key_mgmt=NONE
wpa_state=COMPLETED
address=[redacted MAC address of my NIC]
uuid=[redacted some unique hash]
<3>CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=[redacted library MAC address 2] reason=0
<3>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
<3>WPS-AP-AVAILABLE
<3>Trying to associate with [redacted library MAC address 1]
(SSID='library_free_assange' freq=5240 MHz)
<3>Associated with [redacted library MAC address 1]
<3>CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to [redacted library MAC address 1]
completed [id=0 id_str=]
<3>Trying to associate with [redacted library MAC address 1]
(SSID='library_free_assange' freq=5240 MHz)
<3>CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=[redacted library MAC address 1] reason=0
<3>Associated with [redacted library MAC address 1]
<3>CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to [redacted library MAC address 1]
completed [id=4 id_str=public_library]
<3>CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=[redacted library MAC address 1] reason=0
<3>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
<3>WPS-AP-AVAILABLE
<3>Trying to associate with [redacted library MAC address 2]
(SSID='library_free_assange' freq=5320 MHz)
<3>Associated with [redacted library MAC address 2]
<3>CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to [redacted library MAC address 2]
completed [id=0 id_str=]
<3>Trying to associate with [redacted library MAC address 2]
(SSID='library_free_assange' freq=5320 MHz)
<3>CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=[redacted library MAC address 2] reason=0
<3>Associated with [redacted library MAC address 2]
<3>CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to [redacted library MAC address 2]
completed [id=4 id_str=public_library]
===8<----------------------------------------
===8<----------------------------------------
$ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group
default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s25: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state
DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether [redacted ethernet MAC] brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wls3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group
default qlen 1000
link/ether [redacted MAC address of my NIC] brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
altname wlp3s0
inet6 f00d::bad:cafe:d3ad:fa11/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
4: vnet0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state DOWN
group default qlen 1000
link/ether de:ad:be:ef:de:ad brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 172.16.0.1/24 brd 172.16.0.255 scope global vnet0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
===8<----------------------------------------
↑ It’s bizarre that there seems to be an IPv6 assignment for wls3
sometimes (IIUC), but not IPv4. I overwrote the hex for privacy but
retained format. I would somewhat expect IPv6 to work these days, but
to be clear, the network is dead. No DNS resolution. The library has a
captive portal but pointing a browser to http://neverssl.com gives a
no network message. Nor does it work to attempt to point the browser
to the library’s gateway or captive portal URL. We can see it’s
dysfunctional at a very low level because “route” shows nothing for
wi-fi:
===8<----------------------------------------
$ route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
172.16.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 vnet0
===8<----------------------------------------
↑ vnet0 is just noise. It’s a Tor “middlebox”. What’s important here
is the lack of wls3 rows.
===8<----------------------------------------
$ nmcli device wifi list
IN-USE BSSID SSID MODE CHAN RATE SIGNAL BARS SECURITY
===8<----------------------------------------
syslog:
===8<----------------------------------------
2024-05-18T18:35:41.350002+02:00 steampnk wpa_supplicant[675]: wls3:
CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=[redacted library MAC address 2] reason=0
2024-05-18T18:35:41.350712+02:00 steampnk wpa_supplicant[675]: BSSID [redacted
library MAC address 2] ignore list count incremented to 2, ignoring for 10
seconds
2024-05-18T18:35:41.351847+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1452.412741] wls3:
authenticate with [redacted library MAC address 2]
2024-05-18T18:35:41.351860+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1452.412767] wls3: send
auth to [redacted library MAC address 2] (try 1/3)
2024-05-18T18:35:41.351865+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1452.413438] wls3:
authenticated
2024-05-18T18:35:41.351868+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1452.415086] wls3:
associate with [redacted library MAC address 2] (try 1/3)
2024-05-18T18:35:41.354814+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: WPA_IFACE=wls3
WPA_ACTION=DISCONNECTED
2024-05-18T18:35:41.356518+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: WPA_ID=0 WPA_ID_STR=
WPA_CTRL_DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
2024-05-18T18:35:41.360230+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: DISCONNECTED event
blocked by hysteresis check
2024-05-18T18:35:41.420160+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1452.481463] wls3: RX
AssocResp from [redacted library MAC address 2] (capab=0x1 status=0 aid=47)
2024-05-18T18:35:41.420185+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1452.482765] wls3:
associated
2024-05-18T18:35:41.420696+02:00 steampnk wpa_supplicant[675]: wls3: Associated
with [redacted library MAC address 2]
2024-05-18T18:35:41.421091+02:00 steampnk wpa_supplicant[675]: wls3:
CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to [redacted library MAC address 2] completed
[id=4 id_str=public_library]
2024-05-18T18:35:41.424266+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: WPA_IFACE=wls3
WPA_ACTION=CONNECTED
2024-05-18T18:35:41.425961+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: WPA_ID=4
WPA_ID_STR=public_library WPA_CTRL_DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
2024-05-18T18:35:41.429144+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: CONNECTED event blocked
by hysteresis check
2024-05-18T18:35:41.463879+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1452.524086] wls3: Limiting
TX power to 18 dBm as advertised by [redacted library MAC address 2]
===8<----------------------------------------
user.log:
===8<----------------------------------------
2024-05-18T18:38:04.040922+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: ifup wls3=default
2024-05-18T18:38:04.048523+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: creating sendsigs
omission pidfile: /run/sendsigs.omit.d/wpasupplicant.wpa_supplicant.wls3.pid
2024-05-18T18:38:04.053678+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: bssid=[redacted library
MAC address 1]
2024-05-18T18:38:04.054101+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: freq=0
2024-05-18T18:38:04.054702+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: ssid=library_free_assange
2024-05-18T18:38:04.054866+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: id=0
2024-05-18T18:38:04.055017+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: mode=station
2024-05-18T18:38:04.055157+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: pairwise_cipher=NONE
2024-05-18T18:38:04.055300+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: group_cipher=NONE
2024-05-18T18:38:04.055464+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: key_mgmt=NONE
2024-05-18T18:38:04.055602+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: wpa_state=COMPLETED
2024-05-18T18:38:04.055748+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: address=[redacted MAC
address of my NIC]
2024-05-18T18:38:04.055948+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: uuid=[redacted some
unique hash]
2024-05-18T18:38:04.095101+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: WPA_IFACE=wls3
WPA_ACTION=DISCONNECTED
2024-05-18T18:38:04.096998+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: WPA_ID=0 WPA_ID_STR=
WPA_CTRL_DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
2024-05-18T18:38:04.100893+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: DISCONNECTED event
blocked by hysteresis check
2024-05-18T18:38:06.647719+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: WPA_IFACE=wls3
WPA_ACTION=CONNECTED
2024-05-18T18:38:06.650939+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: WPA_ID=0 WPA_ID_STR=
WPA_CTRL_DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
2024-05-18T18:38:06.658351+02:00 steampnk wpa_action: CONNECTED event blocked
by hysteresis check
===8<----------------------------------------
kern.log:
===8<----------------------------------------
2024-05-18T18:40:29.088608+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.150379] wls3:
authenticate with [redacted library MAC address 2]
2024-05-18T18:40:29.091879+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.153104] wls3: send
auth to [redacted library MAC address 2] (try 1/3)
2024-05-18T18:40:29.091906+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.153763] wls3:
authenticated
2024-05-18T18:40:29.091917+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.155119] wls3:
associate with [redacted library MAC address 2] (try 1/3)
2024-05-18T18:40:29.155863+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.216269] wls3: RX
AssocResp from [redacted library MAC address 2] (capab=0x1 status=0 aid=47)
2024-05-18T18:40:29.155894+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.217737] wls3:
associated
2024-05-18T18:40:29.203873+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.266519] wls3:
deauthenticating from [redacted library MAC address 2] by local choice (Reason:
3=DEAUTH_LEAVING)
2024-05-18T18:40:29.231849+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.293192] wls3:
authenticate with [redacted library MAC address 2]
2024-05-18T18:40:29.231863+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.293219] wls3: send
auth to [redacted library MAC address 2] (try 1/3)
2024-05-18T18:40:29.231868+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.293875] wls3:
authenticated
2024-05-18T18:40:29.239835+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.299108] wls3:
associate with [redacted library MAC address 2] (try 1/3)
2024-05-18T18:40:29.295892+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.356604] wls3: RX
AssocResp from [redacted library MAC address 2] (capab=0x1 status=0 aid=47)
2024-05-18T18:40:29.295905+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.357856] wls3:
associated
2024-05-18T18:40:29.323901+02:00 steampnk kernel: [ 1740.384360] wls3: Limiting
TX power to 18 dBm as advertised by [redacted library MAC address 2]
===8<----------------------------------------
===8<----------------------------------------
$ systemctl status networking
● networking.service - Raise network interfaces
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/networking.service; enabled; preset:
enabled)
Active: active (exited) since Mon 2024-05-18 18:45:50 CEST; 23s ago
Docs: man:interfaces(5)
Process: 13688 ExecStart=/sbin/ifup -a --read-environment (code=exited,
status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 13795 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c if [ -f /run/network/restart-hotplug ];
then /sbin/ifup -a --read-environment --allow=hotplug; fi >
Main PID: 13795 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
CPU: 137ms
Apr 29 18:45:49 steampnk systemd[1]: Starting networking.service - Raise
network interfaces...
Apr 29 18:45:49 steampnk sh[13815]: /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant:
120: cannot create /dev/stderr: No such device or address
Apr 29 18:45:49 steampnk sh[13815]: /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant:
120: cannot create /dev/stderr: No such device or address
Apr 29 18:45:49 steampnk sh[13811]: run-parts:
/etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant exited with return code 1
Apr 29 18:45:49 steampnk sh[13796]: ifup: failed to bring up wls3
Apr 29 18:45:50 steampnk systemd[1]: Finished networking.service - Raise
network interfaces.
===8<----------------------------------------
footnote 1: someone else noticed the mysterious appearance of “mesh_fwding=1”:
https://reddit.fabiomanganiello.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/170bamm/wifi_suddenly_stopped_working_after_my_laptop/
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.5
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (990, 'stable-updates'), (990, 'stable-security'), (990,
'stable'), (500, 'oldstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386
Kernel: Linux 5.10.0-28-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU threads)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
Versions of packages wpasupplicant depends on:
ii adduser 3.134
ii libc6 2.36-9+deb12u7
ii libdbus-1-3 1.14.10-1~deb12u1
ii libnl-3-200 3.7.0-0.2+b1
ii libnl-genl-3-200 3.7.0-0.2+b1
ii libnl-route-3-200 3.7.0-0.2+b1
ii libpcsclite1 1.9.9-2
ii libreadline8 8.2-1.3
ii libssl3 3.0.11-1~deb12u2
wpasupplicant recommends no packages.
Versions of packages wpasupplicant suggests:
pn libengine-pkcs11-openssl <none>
pn wpagui <none>
-- no debconf information