KerbyServer

UPDATE: For what it's worth, this sounds exactly like my issue: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.1...

I just installed a wireless card in my MythTV system. I was nervous about which card to buy, so I found myself in CompUSA entering model numbers in my phone to check for Linux compatibility. I ended up choosing a TRENDnet TEW-443PI, which I found out has an Atheros chipset. Atheros chipsets have nice Linux support through the madwifi drivers, so this made me happy :). The model is advertised as one of their 108Mbps models and supports WEP, WPA, and WPA2 as any new model should.

Here is what I did to get this working in Ubuntu on my MythTV box:
This document proved useful: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WPAHowTo

I did not have to install the madwifi drivers since they are compiled in my kernel (2.6.20-16-386).

I also already had wpa_supplicant installed. If you don't, just run sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant.

I have been unable to get WPA working reliably with this card. So, for the time being, here are the details for a simple unencrypted connection:

/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf looks like:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1
network={
ssid="Unwired"
key_mgmt=NONE
}


The relevant part of /etc/network/interfaces looks like:
auto ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

After setting up those two files, I am able to use ifdown and ifup to bring up the wireless card. It connects pretty much flawlessly to an unencrypted network.

When I was trying to connect to a WPA 1/2 network, my /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf looked like:
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1
### wpa personal encrypted network ###
network={
ssid="Unwired"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
proto=WPA
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
#psk="really_hard_password_here"
psk=a098bd7f0a_psk_generated_by_wpa_passphrase_here_987dcf8a
priority=3
}


When running wpa_supplicant in this manner, however, I kept running into an issue with the card failing to associate with the network. It kept throwing the following two lines:

Trying to associate with 00:0d:93:7d:3b:d7
Authentication with 00:00:00:00:00:00 timed out.


If anyone can lead me in the right direction to get WPA working, you would be my hero. My requirement is that it must be done on the command line and able to start at boot. In the meantime, I will continue googling and fiddling with this in my spare time.