Wpa supplicant

Setup for wireless interface[edit | edit source]

For usage with a single wireless interface only one configuration file will be needed.

# Allow users in the 'wheel' group to control wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel
 
# Make this file writable for wpa_gui / wpa_cli
update_config=1

To allow unprivileged users to control the connection using wpa_gui / wpa_cli, make sure the users are in the wheel group.

This file does not exist by default; a well documented template configuration file can be copied from /usr/share/doc/${P}/wpa_supplicant.conf.bz2 where the value of the P variable is the name and version of the currently emerged wpa_supplicant:

Setup wired 802.1X[edit | edit source]

It's possible to have wired connections handled via wpa_supplicant, which is useful for networks using 802.1X. Create a separate configuration file containing the wired configuration. Below example use certificates for authentication, check the wpa_supplicant.conf man page for examples of other methods.

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=0
fast_reauth=1
 
network={
	key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
	eap=TLS
	identity="COMPUTERAACT$@DOMAIN"
	ca_cert="/etc/wpa_supplicant/ca.pem"
	client_cert="/etc/wpa_supplicant/COMPUTERACCT.pem"
	private_key="/etc/wpa_supplicant/COMPUTERAACT.key"
	private_key_passwd="secret_password"
	eapol_flags=0
}

Since the configuration file contains sensitive information, chmod accordingly.

wpa_supplicant needs some extra parameters to apply above configuration to the wired interface (eth0) Note that below wpa_supplicant arguments assumes wpa_supplicant is version >=2.6-r2 (-M, CONFIG_MATCH_IFACE=y)

wpa_supplicant_args="-ieth0 -Dwired -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant_wired.conf -M -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"

Let wpa_supplicant handle start/stop of the interfaces by removing them from /etc/init.d and enabling the wpa_supplicant daemon

Check the status of the wired interface via wpa_cli

wpa_cli v2.8
Copyright (c) 2004-2019, Jouni Malinen <j@w1.fi> and contributors
 
This software may be distributed under the terms of the BSD license.
See README for more details.
 
 
Selected interface 'p2p-dev-wlan0'
 
Interactive mode
 
> interface eth0
Connected to interface 'eth0.
> status
bssid=00:00:00:00:00:00
freq=0
ssid=
id=0
mode=station
pairwise_cipher=NONE
group_cipher=NONE
key_mgmt=IEEE 802.1X (no WPA)
wpa_state=COMPLETED
ip_address=10.10.10.100
p2p_device_address=bb:bb:bb:bb:bb:bb
address=aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa
Supplicant PAE state=AUTHENTICATED
suppPortStatus=Authorized
EAP state=SUCCESS
selectedMethod=13 (EAP-TLS)
eap_tls_version=TLSv1
EAP TLS cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA
...

WPA2 with wpa_supplicant[edit | edit source]

Connecting to any wireless access point serving YourSSID

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel
#ap_scan=0
#update_config=1
 
network={
        ssid="YourSSID"
        psk="your-secret-key"
        scan_ssid=1
        proto=RSN
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        group=CCMP TKIP
        pairwise=CCMP TKIP
        priority=5
}

Using bssid to specify which access point it should connect to using its MAC address, in case there are repeaters in place. Remember to use wpa_passphrase <ssid> [passphrase] to generate the psk

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel
ap_scan=1
 
network={
        bssid=00:50:17:31:1a:11
        ssid="YourSSID"
        psk="your-secret-key"
        scan_ssid=1
        proto=RSN
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        group=CCMP TKIP
        pairwise=CCMP TKIP
        priority=5
}

Auto-connect to any unsecured network[edit | edit source]

network={
        key_mgmt=NONE
        priority=-999
}

Enable logging for Gentoo net.* scripts[edit | edit source]

modules_wlan0="wpa_supplicant"
wpa_supplicant_wlan0="-Dnl80211 -d -f /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log"
config_wlan0="dhcp"

Now, within one terminal issue a tail command to monitor output and restart the net.wlan0 device in another: