Ubuntu In Laptop - Enabling TKIP in Linux

Ubuntu WPC54g card installation with TKIP Enabled

Finally I got the WPC54g working in my Dell c610 laptop.

My home network has the SSID broadcasting disabled and uses PSK-TKIP security. It was a big pain in the neck to use the open source ndiswrapper and wpa_supplicant. This weekend I stumbled on this little company called Linuxant (hmm.. where are they located?) that provides an easy to use driver loader for a nominant price of $19(US). They allow you to try the software for upto a month. I don't mind paying that for a linux company if it really works and makes my life easier.

Did I make the right decision to go with Linuxant's driver loader. Oh yes, it is a breeze to install the driver. Honestly this is the first time I've experienced a browser based install for a linux software. Here are the steps in brief to install the software. I will add more information if anybody needs.

1. Download linuxant's excellent installation tool.
2. Run the dldrdriverloader.run, it will launch a web browser and will ask for windows driver .ini file and
3. download wpa_package from the link in linuxant's website. For more about wpa_supplicant see here.
4. build it using the dldrwpaconfig tool
5. Use KWifiManager to monitor the signal strength
6. Open /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file and add the following.
# WPA-PSK/TKIP

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={
ssid="example wpa-psk network"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
proto=WPA
pairwise=TKIP
group=TKIP
psk="secret passphrase"
}
7. If needed do /etc/init.d/dldrdriverloader restart
8. Launch KWifiManager to see if the wireless network is connected.
9. You can either use iwconfig/ifconfig or use the network config tool to activate the wlan0 interface.

Your wireless connectivity should be up and running now.