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Manage and connect to WIFI

Last updated: March 4, 2019

Step by step guide

  1. Install required packages wireless-tools, network-manager.

  2. Display wireless devices using iwconfig:

    $ iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on

  3. Check status of device using ip:

    $ ip a

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether b8:27:eb:0d:38:af brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.2.126/24 brd 192.168.2.255 scope global dynamic eth0
       valid_lft 85767sec preferred_lft 85767sec
    inet6 fe80::ba27:ebff:fe0d:38af/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether b8:27:eb:58:6d:fa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

  4. Set wlan0 up using nmcli:

    $ sudo nmcli radio wifi on

  5. Check status of wifi:

    $ nmcli radio wifi

    and

    $ nmcli dev status

  6. Scan for wifi:

    $ nmcli dev wifi list

IN-USE  BSSID              SSID                           MODE   CHAN  RATE        SIGNAL  BARS  SECURITY
    F0:F7:F9:F7:F3:FC  home_wifi                      Infra  3     270 Mbit/s  100     ▂▄▆█  WPA2
    10:C2:5A:0B:74:70  Fuen6Kli007                    Infra  1     130 Mbit/s  60      ▂▄▆_  WPA1 WPA3
    58:90:43:A5:B9:24  Sunrise_2.4GHz_A5B920          Infra  1     195 Mbit/s  57      ▂▄▆_  WPA1 WPA2

  7. Connect to the wifi network (SSID=home_wifi):

    $ sudo nmcli --ask dev wifi connect home_wifi

Password: ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Device 'wlan0' successfully activated with 'ffffa3ff-ffc0-44ff-9792-2ff39f2affe28'.