WPA Encryption in Fedora 9 -- Don't Use TKIP ...? (Sunday, July 06, 2008 9:58:00 PM)
I had originally intended to make "geek info" posts like this more often, but as you can see, I'm more often tied up making sex jokes or laughing at the Colbert Report. Anyways, today I've got a nifty little discovery for you!
I installed Fedora 9 today ... and not without an adventure. I accidentally installed GRUB in my primary hard disk MBR instead of making a new MBR on the second disk. I nearly shit a brick the size of Texas when I realized that my Windows boot loader was gone. Turns out the GRUB boot loader did a fine job in booting up Windows itself (which it rarely does). Crisis averted ... but I digress.
The real reason I'm posting this little nugget of info today is because of wireless support in Fedora 9. Hey, how about it? It's gotten a lot better since even the FC 6 days when I jumped on. But ... it's still not all there.
I learned today that, despite no documentated mention that I could find, Fedora 9 does
not support WPA encpryption under the TKIP algorithm. Sure, it's an older algorithm than AES, but NetworkManager never gives you even the slightest clue what the problem is. It just keeps asking for the WPA password over and over again. It says right at the top "WPA/WPA2 Personal" as if it's going to support both AES and TKIP. But no, it does not support TKIP.
I changed my algorithm to AES and it worked, so there. I just hope someone, somewhere in the world is doing furious Google searching and happens upon my post here. WPA + TKIP+ Fedora 9 = no. Go to AES.