Monday, June 4, 2012

Using WiFi just from Linux Terminal

Are you tired of Network Managers that try to reduce pain regarding Wireless connections and end up with unstable or never-connecting Wireless problems? Then, command line comes to the rescue and `wpa_supplicant` as our weapon. Throughout the tutorial, I will be using these random access point details with WPA-PSK:
SSID: linuxdo
Passphrase: myphrase
And, `wlan0` is the wireless interface. Find the one corresponding in your system using `iwconfig`.
Install `wpa_supplicant` for your distro if not installed.
For CentOS/RedHat and other Yum based systems:
# yum install wpa_supplicant

For Debian based systems including Ubuntu:
# apt-get update && apt-get install wpa_supplicant
Now, we need to create the configuration file for `wpa_supplicant`. There is an easy way out using:
# wpa_passphrase linuxdo myphrase >/root/linuxdo.conf
It's the time to connect now. Run `wpa_supplicant` as:
# wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/root/linuxdo.conf
After you get `CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED`, you should run `dhclient` as:
# dhclient wlan0
This way, you will get a dynamic IP from the router.
Test your internet connection by opening a web browser and loading `linuxdo.blogspot.com`. You will get it.
Since, we are now familiar with `wpa_supplicant` now, disable Wireless in NetworkManager interface to avoid conflicts.

1 comment:

  1. This is such an informative article and very clearly written. Every single thought and idea is direct to the point. Perfectly laid out. Thank you for taking your time sharing this to you readers.
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