"Modprobe for TUN driver failed" What now?

My school's network requires authentication either through WPA with AES encryption, which I have no idea how to make work, or Network connect from Juniper. I can install the network connect software, but when it runs I get an error message stating "Modprobe for TUN driver failed", followed by getting no IP address at the school network. I'm running an unaltered version of Linpus, and I'm pretty clueless when it comes to Linux. Where do I go from here? It's pretty vital that I get this machine up and running at the school network, so I'll be grateful for any and all help.

 

The WPA should actually be easier.

Click on the Network icon in settings. Click (I don't have the Linpus thing open right now, I forget if it's a plus sign, or a button saying Add, but click whatever you use to add a network.)

It should probably see the school's access point unless they've set it not to broadcast, but they should give its name or IP address. (Ask them what the SSID is.) If it doesn't show you can type it in.

Ok, hold on, let me boot this thing up....

Alright, sorry to keep you waiting.
Click settings.

Click Network Center.
Click New (so THAT's what it was called.)
Click WLAN (as in wireless local area network--I'm not sure how inexperienced you are, so please don't feel I'm patronizing, I've just found one is better off giving too much information than too little.)

Click Next.
You'll see a textbox saying
Access Point Name(SSID)
Put in the name, which they should give you. (You can try, instead of entering it, clicking the select button and seeing if the name they give you is visible. If so, you can just click the name, but either way, it doesn't matter.)

For encryption type, click the dropdown box and you'll see a choice of WPA & WPA2 Personal.
The next line is Security key/passphrase, which they should give you. It shouldn't matter if it's AES or TKIP, the connection manager should be able to handle either one.

Then click Next. It will show you the connection name. You can then click Finish and optionally, check off the box that says Connect after finish to make sure it works.

Otherwise, you'll have to find something that contains the tun driver. Ah, you're in luck.

yum provides tunctl shows that there is a tunctl package available. (It wasn't in F7, F9, or something else, but my memory is hazy.)

If doing the WPA stuff doesn't work then
sudo yum -y install tunctl
should provide you the tun driver. (You might have change permissions on it in /dev/network/tun)

If it comes to that, post again. (Or you can look at the CentOS wiki for my article on KVM which goes through setting permissions in /etc/udev.) However, I think you'll be better off with WPA.

 

Thanks for your help, but it seems I haven't given you enough information. The school uses 802.1X authentication, so I'm guessing I have to do something else. But what?

 

One other thing, one of the people on a linux user group I read reported that the tun.ko module is missing from their AA1, which means OpenVPN can't work. They compiled a version of the tun.ko especially for their AA1 and put it up for download via their blog.

As your error message talked about the tun driver I wondered if this might be related. The blog is at:

http://frl1nux.blogspot.com/2008/08/ace ... envpn.html

 

That looks good--as it's tested already, I would try that rather than yum install tunctl.

Yes, it seems as if the version of Network Manager included doesn't include the option corporate WPA networks. Sigh. (Did you try with the version of WPA included with the O/S? I'm not sure that it wouldn't work, though it seems as if it wouldn't.

Of course, they make it almost impossible to do it by command line and editing wpa_supplicant.conf (though I haven't tried playing with that yet.)

While I understand that the developers were trying to make something for a non-technical user, I almost feel as if I'm not using LInux here.

 

Thanks for all the help. The tun driver from Gleth worked like a charm, and I found a way to update the network manager on another section of the forum. I got both things up and running. It's smoother to use the WPA stuff at school, but I need the Network Connect thing to be able to get access to journals and whatnot from home. It seems the only real problem was the software supplied by Acer. I can see why they want to make the machine as easy to use as possible, but when your needs are somewhat outside normal home usage, you have to do some real digging to get to the heart of the problem.

 

Yes, to take this completely off topic, I agree.

I am guessing they're aiming it at Windows users who want to save money or try something new.

In certain ways, it's quite good for such users---I guess the single user with no password and unlimited power is what they do with XP Home, though there, at least you can choose your user name.

On the other hand, if one is used to Linux, much of it is a bit frustrating--I almost feel like I'm working in Windows, as so much of it seems hidden in some xfce startup scripts and I've yet to find out where. <grumble grumble>.

Anyway, I'm glad you got it working--I should probably update NetworkManager too, as my wife will possibly be using this when she travels. It's also handy to know that the tun.ko worked. It's kind of you to post back, as it will definitely help others searching in the future.

 

I know I might be derailing here, but I'm rather concerned with what you mentioned in your last post. Namely that you have unlimited power as user. If I sudo "whatever" there's no prompt for password, no prompt for anything. It's not exactly difficult to get full control of the machine from that point on.

 

That's very easy to change, however.

Are you familiar with the vi editor? If so, it's best to use visudo to edit /etc/sudoers, as it checks for syntax errors.

Look for two lines
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

That's what they look like in the Aspire One's /etc/sudoers file.

Comment out the second line so that it now reads
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
#%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Now, you will be asked for your password when executing commands that require root privilege.
(Note that the default is a 5 minute timeout--that is, if you type command a, you will be asked for a password--if you type command b within a 5 minute period, you probably won't be asked for a password. 5 minutes is typical for most versions of sudo, I don't know if this version of Linpus has changed that too, I haven't checked it.)

You can also set it so that you get a log in screen, rather than being automatically logged on. It's on these forums in post
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