make wpa_supplicant automatically log

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

I wanted to debug wpa_supplicant by including a wpa.log file or the like under /var/log. I know I could do
wpa_supplicant -f /var/log/wpa.log
once I've logged on, but I wanted to see if I could make the logging start automatically, through configuration of /etc/conf.d/net. So far, I had

khayyam

Logicien · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:07 am Post subject:

I am not sure if it is necessary to set the debug USE flag to be able to use the -f switch of Wpa_supplicant. The -f switch refer to a log file. Log is not identical to debug. The -d switch refer to the debug verbosity level. That switch could need the debug USE flag to work.

One think that can be done before setting the debug USE flag is to start wpa_supplicant manually in command line with the -f switch activated and if needed in foreground to see if the logs output are write to the log file or shown to stdout when the -B switch is not used. I use Wpa_supplicant with the -f switch with others distributions, and it work as expected.
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Paul

khayyam · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:33 am Post subject:

Logicien · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:54 am Post subject:

This is what I have in the man wpa_supplicant for the -d and -f switch:

khayyam · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:34 am Post subject:

paul ... OK, but the manpage is imprecise in this instance. If you want to test then rebuild with USE="debug" and provide a "-f /var/log/wpa_supplicant.conf" in wpa_supplicant_wlan0= you'll see it works, but with USE="-debug" it won't.

The manpage assumes that 'debugging' is enabled (which is probably the default, and why it 'works' with other distros), with Gentoo this is optional based on USE.

I assure you this is correct ... so yes, precision.

best ... khay

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

So, I have
config_wlan0=( "dhcp" )
modules=( "wpa_supplicant" )
wpa_supplicant_wlan0="-Dwext"
wpa_supplicant_wlan0=( "-f /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log" )
wpa_supplicant_wlan0=( "-dd" )

I know that last part works, since without the -dd, my /var/log/messages wouldn't have all the extra information. I was able to make the -f option work when starting wpa from the terminal myself (before, -f would give a usage error). I looked in the log file, and saw that it was basically everything in the messages file, just separate. I don't exactly need that separation, just the information, so I won't pursue this further too much, but if there is something I did wrong, and somebody knows what makes it work, I've recompiled so that the debug flag is included. There must be something to the configuration...

khayyam · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 12:12 pm Post subject:

technopenguin ...

wpa_supplicant_wlan0 is a variable, if you define it multiple times then the last will have precidence, hence the '-dd' working but the '-f' not. So ... combine the required options into one variable:

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

This will help with debugging, now that I see the resultant log file. Thank you, that was extremely helpful! Many thanks to the both of you for your input and response