I'm setting up a new install on a Medion Akoya P6611. It uses Intel 5100 AGN for the wireless networking. When trying to get the wireless network configured, I have found that iwconfig is unable to set the encryption key and thus fails to associate with the router. I issue the command:
iwconfig wlan0 key myhexkey
and the error message is:
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    Set failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
I get the same error if I use iwconfig wlan0 key s:mypassphrase. I can set essid and mode without errors.

But, wpa_supplicant (with an appropriate configuration file that contains the passphrase) can succesfully set the key and associate with the router. If I then type iwconfig wlan0, it reports that the encryption key has been set. I can then successfully ifup wlan0 (though it still complains about setting the key).

I'm using the iwlagn module with the firmware downloaded by firmware-iwlwifi (which the kernel complains is out of date - see bug 532207).  I also tried the newest firmware downloaded from the link provided in that bug report.  This did not help.

Perhaps this is a driver problem, and not specifically something with iwconfig, but I don't know how to tell beyond what I've already tried.

Can you try bringing the interface up first (ifconfig wlan0 up), and then
running the iwconfig command, and see if that works?  If you already tried it
with the interface up, try it with the interface down before running the
command.

I suspect it is a driver problem.

I've now tried both of the following sequences:

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 key myhexkey

and

ifconfig wlan0 down
iwconfig wlan0 key myhexkey

Both produce the same error message as before. I also tried unloading and reloading the iwlcore and iwlagn modules before each sequence of commands. This also made no difference.

----- Original Message ----- 

Can you try bringing the interface up first (ifconfig wlan0 up), and then
running the iwconfig command, and see if that works? If you already tried it
with the interface up, try it with the interface down before running the
command.

I suspect it is a driver problem.

Guus Sliepen wrote :

	It's a bit more complex.
	You are trying to set a passphrase. This tells me that you are
not using plain WEP, but WPA. The Wireless Tools can not do WPA, you
absolutely need wpa_supplicant.
	To set WPA, wpa_supplicant uses a different API than the plain
WEP API that iwconfig uses. That's why wpa_supplicant works and
iwconfig does not.
	Now, why is the driver not accepting a plain WEP key ? It
could be a driver bug, but I suspect that it's just that the key is
not the right size. Make sure you have the proper number of bytes for
plain WEP (see iwlist).

	Good luck...

	Jean

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