Hidden Wi-Fi won't connect

Question

I'm not getting an IP address and the wpa_gui won't ever connect. I have a belkin N300 which the wiki says it runs without a self-powered hub. I have it connected directly to the pi. I've setup the config file like all the manuals say it should be setup for a hidden wifi but it's not connecting.

/etc/network/interfaces

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp

wpa-scan-ssid 1
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan- inet manual
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_configs=1

network={
    bssid=00:11:22:33:44:55:66 # my hidden wireless's bssid
    ssid="my ssid name"
    scan_ssid=1
    key_mgmt=NONE
    auth_alg=OPEN
}

I'll call sudo ifconfig wlan0 down and sudo ifconfig wlan0 up and sudo reboot

ifconfig never gets an IP address. When i go into the wpa_gui it show:

Adapter: wlan0
Network: 0: "my hidden network"
Current Status
   Status: Scanning
   Last Message: WPS-AP-AVAILABLE-PBC
   # everything else is blank

Any idea what I'm missing?

Answer 1

Your /etc/network/interfaces file is not well-formed. wpa-scan-ssid 1 or any other interface-specific config lines need to go after the interface configuration. Actually you don't need this line, as wpa-conf will read all this from wpa_supplicant.conf. Also, iface wlan- is a typo. You will also need to start up a dhcp client to obtain an IP address (iface wlan0 inet dhcp).

Please try this interfaces:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

iface default inet dhcp

You can also try to start wpa_supplicant from the command line to see if it connects to your wifi (this does not start a dhcp client!):

sudo wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -D wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Answer 2

If you've already fixed the typos that @thpani mentioned and that didn't work, you could also try running iwlist scan just to double-check that you've got the SSID exactly right; I had a similar problem, and it turned out I had an extra space at the end of my network name I wasn't aware of which was causing the problem.