29 November 2008

Thinkpad X60s, WiFi and Debian

You will need following packages:

  • wireless-tools
  • wpasupplicant
  • firmware-iwlwifi
  • >=linux-image-2.6.23
After installing the packages create wpa_supplicant.conf (change 'your_ssid' to your router SSID and 'your_password' to your real passphrase):
# wpa_passphrase your_ssid your_password > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Open /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant and make sure it looks like this:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

# Only WPA-PSK is used. Any valid cipher combination is accepted.
network={
ssid="your_ssid"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
priority=2
#psk="your_password"
psk=6d5324610d3627ab4f97b80cf22b742996d82c022b283a874e88d083a299734c
}
Open and add to /etc/network/interfaces following text:
# Wireless
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wpa-drive wexp
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp
Run this command and you're done:
# ifconfig wlan0 up

More information can be found on Debian Wiki.