Re: LUG: Wi-Fi help. - Mon, 08 Jan 2018 10:51:22 -0500

Subject : Re: LUG: Wi-Fi help.

From : Quentin Young <qlyoung@ncsu.[redacted]>

Date : Mon, 08 Jan 2018 10:51:22 -0500

Jeffrey,

As with everything in Linux, some people are purists about using wpa_supplicant directly and configuring everything yourself. I personally lean towards having my wifi work. To that end I suggest you install the GNOME project utility named NetworkManager and let that program handle things. It generally does not require any configuration out of the box. Normally it places a little icon in your tray (if you are in a graphical environment) that works similar to the Windows or macOS wifi selectors. However there are also a couple of text mode interfaces bundled with it, one of them a traditional cli utility called “nmcli” and the other in ncurses called “nmtui”. Both of these are fairly easy to use.

I apologize for the non-answer with respect to wpa_supplicant, if you still want to go that route someone else is probably better equipped to help.

Quentin

> On Jan 7, 2018, at 5:15 PM, Jeffery Mewtamer <mewtamer@gmail.[redacted]> wrote:
>
> Following the guide at
> https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wireless/wireless-cli.md,
> I successfully got my Raspberry Pi 3 running a near stock Raspbian
> Stretch Lite connected to my wireless network. Copying
> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf and running wpa_cli -i wlan0
> reconfigure, I repeated this on my Raspbery Pi 2 using a USB Wi-Fi
> dongle without any effort.
>
> Now, I'm trying to repeat this on a desktop that has Wi-Fi onboard
> with much less success. I installed wpasupplicant and wireless-tools
> via Aptitude, copied over the wpa_supplicant.conf file, and ran
> wpa_cli -i wlan0 reconfigure to recieve the following error message:
>
> Failed to connect to non-global ctrl_ifname: wlan0 error: No such
> file or directory
>
> And running iwconfig produces the following output:
>
> wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:off/any
> Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm
> Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
> Power Management:off
>
> Neither of which is all that helpful, especially since the above
> mentioned successes with Raspberry Pis are the only successes I've
> ever had connecting a Linux machine to a wireless network.
>
> So, any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?
> --
> Sincerely,
>
> Jeffery Wright
> President Emeritus, Nu Nu Chapter, Phi Theta Kappa.
> Former Secretary, Student Government Association, College of the Albemarle.

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Re: LUG: Wi-Fi help.