Can't Connect Wi-Fi to BionicPup32

[PuppyLinux01]

Hello,

As a new user to Puppy Linux (I am a newbie to Linux in general), I am trying to test its performance on one of my old notebook. However, I am having trouble connecting to my Wi-Fi network. After going through my Router I found that my service provider uses “WPA3-Personal Transition”, which is probably the newer version of encryption that Puppy Linux (currently it only shows OPEN, WEP, WPA and WP2) may not be able to connect to. I have also tried to create a separate connection for this node with at least WPA2 from the Router, but it looks like there is no option to do so. I tired all 4 available options anyway to see if any of those work but none worked for me. I was wondering if there is any way to connect to the Wi-Fi without using Ethernet at this moment.

Notebook: HP G60 414CA
RAM: 3GB
OS: BionicPup32 19.03 4.9.163-lxpup-32-pae

Wireless Router:
Device: Qualcomm Atheros AR242x AR542x Wireless Network Adapter PCIExpress
Module: ath5k

Thanks

[ozsouth]

@PuppyLinux01 - Welcome to the Kennels! When I first saw your post I was thinking ethernet was your simplest option, but checked my own router & found under the Advanced Wireless settings I could change protocols ranging from nothing thru to wpa2 enterprise. Default is wpa2 personal. Does your router not have these options?

Work has been done on updating Puppy's Network managers, but I believe you may need a 64bit pup (say fossapup64 or a variant). Your laptop apparently has an Intel Pentium T4200 (64bit) cpu & 3Gb ram should be OK.
see: https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic ... 2241#p2241 & maybe post a question to maintainer (rerwin).

[mikeslr]

"What is WPA3? And some gotchas..." https://www.networkworld.com/article/96 ... tions.html. Posted Nov 02, 2018.

..."WPA3 adoption may take years

As for timing, widespread adoption of WPA3 won’t happen overnight. A few Wi-Fi devices supporting WPA3 should begin appearing by the end of 2018, but WPA3 support is still an optional feature and may not be mandatory for Wi-Fi Alliance certification for up to two years. Some vendors might optionally release software updates with the WPA3 capability to existing products, but there’s no guarantee. Also, it’s important to note that some WPA3 functionality may require a hardware update in products...
In addition, it may take years for consumers and businesses to upgrade.
Even if a user buys a WPA3-capable laptop or smartphone, keep in mind that the network must support WPA3 in order to obtain any of the security improvements, although the WPA3 device will still be able to connect to WPA2 networks...
WPA3-Personal provides a transition mode to allow for gradual migration to a WPA3-Personal network while still allowing WPA2-Personal devices to connect. ."

PuppyLinux01 may be using the original bionicpup first published just about the time WPA3-Personal was announced and so unlikely to have the drivers and firmware necessary to even connect using the 'fall-back' WPA2-Personal.

As ozsouth suggested a newer 64bit OS such as fossapup64 or a variant may be required. The 3 Gbs of RAM is adequate (but not great). But you might want to try one of peebee's more recent 32-bit OSes. viewtopic.php?p=295#p295 Focalpup32 has received several recommendations for use with Low-RAM computers. Jammypup32 is a newer build employing (for the most part) Ubuntu long-term binaries. Bookworm32 is even newer using only debian binaries. And Void often being on the 'cutting edge', Voidpup32 is worth trying. So are the VanillaDpup's 10x, either 32 and 64bit OSes, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 045#p59045

[bigpup]

Unless you have spies in your area range of the service providers modem WIFI signal.
They are constantly trying to hack into your WIFI signal.
I do not think it would even matter to them what encryption settings you used!

Do try to see if the service providers modem does have a setting you could change to wpa2.

Hopefully you have been provided the way to get into the modems settings.

That is the biggest reason I use my own modem not the one the service will provide.
Plus I do not have to pay the service provider a rent charge for their modem.
They have to provide the hook up device to access their service for free.

[PuppyLinux01]

@PuppyLinux01 - Welcome to the Kennels! When I first saw your post I was thinking ethernet was your simplest option, but checked my own router & found under the Advanced Wireless settings I could change protocols ranging from nothing thru to wpa2 enterprise. Default is wpa2 personal. Does your router not have these options?

Work has been done on updating Puppy's Network managers, but I believe you may need a 64bit pup (say fossapup64 or a variant). Your laptop apparently has an Intel Pentium T4200 (64bit) cpu & 3Gb ram should be OK.
see: https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic ... 2241#p2241 & maybe post a question to maintainer (rerwin).

Hello @ozsouth Thanks, yes I have been through my router but all sections are grayed out it doesn't allow me to even touch it. So I thought of creating another separate Wi-Fi connection with WPA2 but looks like I have very limited access (even with admin account) to configuring this part, my router allows me to do some other basic administrative things.

When I tired to google my Notebook cpu architecture I think I saw I have a 32bit hence I was going with the 32bits OS, but I may be wrong I can try with a 64bit as you mentioned FossaPup64.

[PuppyLinux01]

"What is WPA3? And some gotchas..." https://www.networkworld.com/article/96 ... tions.html. Posted Nov 02, 2018.

..."WPA3 adoption may take years

As for timing, widespread adoption of WPA3 won’t happen overnight. A few Wi-Fi devices supporting WPA3 should begin appearing by the end of 2018, but WPA3 support is still an optional feature and may not be mandatory for Wi-Fi Alliance certification for up to two years. Some vendors might optionally release software updates with the WPA3 capability to existing products, but there’s no guarantee. Also, it’s important to note that some WPA3 functionality may require a hardware update in products...
In addition, it may take years for consumers and businesses to upgrade.
Even if a user buys a WPA3-capable laptop or smartphone, keep in mind that the network must support WPA3 in order to obtain any of the security improvements, although the WPA3 device will still be able to connect to WPA2 networks...
WPA3-Personal provides a transition mode to allow for gradual migration to a WPA3-Personal network while still allowing WPA2-Personal devices to connect. ."

PuppyLinux01 may be using the original bionicpup first published just about the time WPA3-Personal was announced and so unlikely to have the drivers and firmware necessary to even connect using the 'fall-back' WPA2-Personal.

As ozsouth suggested a newer 64bit OS such as fossapup64 or a variant may be required. The 3 Gbs of RAM is adequate (but not great). But you might want to try one of peebee's more recent 32-bit OSes. viewtopic.php?p=295#p295 Focalpup32 has received several recommendations for use with Low-RAM computers. Jammypup32 is a newer build employing (for the most part) Ubuntu long-term binaries. Bookworm32 is even newer using only debian binaries. And Void often being on the 'cutting edge', Voidpup32 is worth trying. So are the VanillaDpup's 10x, either 32 and 64bit OSes, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 045#p59045

@mikeslr thanks for information you shared. I actually downloaded the OS from "https://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/p ... onicpup32/" here it's showing the last modified date as 2022-APR-08 although the actual OS could be even older, but I think that's the latest one for BionicPuppy. But you have very good point may be the OS is not supporting this WPA3-Personal. Thanks for the alternative suggestions of 32bit OS, I will give those a try and update you.

[PuppyLinux01]

Unless you have spies in your area range of the service providers modem WIFI signal.
They are constantly trying to hack into your WIFI signal.
I do not think it would even matter to them what encryption settings you used!

Do try to see if the service providers modem does have a setting you could change to wpa2.

Hopefully you have been provided the way to get into the modems settings.

That is the biggest reason I use my own modem not the one the service will provide.
Plus I do not have to pay the service provider a rent charge for their modem.
They have to provide the hook up device to access their service for free.

Thanks @bigpup I tried to see if I could set the encryption but it's all grayed out and I can not create a new connection. I think that's how the ISP wants me to live with. May be I can start having my own modem too thats a good idea.

[wizard]

@PuppyLinux01

May be I can start having my own modem too thats a good idea.

Doesn't have to be "modem", any wireless router can be connected to your existing modem and it should give you a fully configurable wireless access.

wizard

[PuppyLinux01]

Hello,

I have experimented with the following operating systems:

1. FocalPup32-20.12-240112
2. JammyPup32-22.04-231231
3. VoidPup64-22.02-240112
4. fossapup64-9.5

Unfortunately, none of these systems possess the capability to support WPA3-Personal (Most of them shows the 4 options OPEN, WEP, WPA and WP2), nor can they utilize WPA2 for connecting to my Wi-Fi. It seems that the solution may involve installing a specific package onto my current operating system to enable support for WPA3 encryption.

Thanks

[mikeslr]

This is way above my paygrade. But hopefully it will generate some ideas among those who actually know what they are doing.

Perhaps the simplest solution would be to install rerwin's new network_connect_update-20240114.pet from here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 2241#p2241 into F96-CE or Bookworm. [Those are suggested as they are among the newest Puppys]. But I don't know if rerwin had WP3 in mind when he created the update.

Regrettably I booted into Bookworm64, Had I known I would have booted into either F96-CE or my much modified Fossapup64. [Rebooting into Fossa would have lost my open web-pages] This post suggest that "the nmcli command-line tool to change the key management setting to "sae" or directly edit the connection file. Rebooting the system may be required for the changes to take effect" and explains how. Running Bpplwprm I entered "nmcli" into both Bookworms's Puppy Package Manager and Synaptic which found nothing. However, some web-searching revealed that nmcli is a component of Ubuntu's network-manager_1.22.10-1ubuntu1_amd64, https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/fo ... cli.1.html. That networkmanager package can be downloaded: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/focal/+pac ... rk-manager

I did that, extracted it and examined the the nmcli binary at /usr/bin with ListDD (Right-Click or via menu entry on the Utilities SubMenu. Also available here https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=3554 if not already part of your system. ListDD reveal that there were NO missing dependencies despite that this was a Ubuntu Fossa binary being examined in debian Bookworm. One of the web-pages I encountered revealed that Fossa was using a debian package. So I would expect an appropriate networkmanager deb will be found in one of debian's repository.

I have no idea how well the nmcli binary will play with rerwins network-manager.

Both F-96 and Bookworm offer conman, an alternative to rerwins networking tools. So there's also the question of how well nmcli can work with those.

Totally untested are the other tools provided by networkmanager, and networkmanager, itself.

[ozsouth]

@PuppyLinux01 - did you try Simple_network_setup-3.4 pet in link I posted earlier? Apparently that does wpa3. See: https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic ... 2241#p2241
To install, download .pet (at bottom of post), then click on it in ROX-Filer (filemanager), wait a few seconds & try to connect.
Should at least work in fossapup64.