WLAN Interfaces on the D7 Platform

Table of Contents

• • Connecting to Wi-Fi via GUI
  • Connecting to Wi-Fi via CLI
    • Saving and Modifying Network Settings
    • Advanced Usage

< Details index

The D7 has a single WLAN interface wlan0 which allows Wi-Fi connectivity. This interface is managed by NetworkManager and a GUI wrapper is provided using Qt D-Bus.

Connecting to Wi-Fi via GUI

The D7 SDK contains a simple example to scan and connect to Wi-Fi networks using Qt D-Bus. Please see Qt D-Bus Wi-Fi example.

Connecting to Wi-Fi via CLI

Important

NetworkManager requires root privileges to manage connections. Use sudo on the D7 shell to run all the commands below.

nmcli command-line tool can be used to connect to Wi-Fi on the D7.

By default NetworkManager is started as a systemd service on boot. To check the status of the service:

$ systemctl status NetworkManager.service

To check the status of all interfaces (including wlan0) managed by NetworkManager:

$ nmcli device status

Viewing general information and properties of a Wi-Fi interface:

$ nmcli -p -f general,wifi-properties device show wlan0

To disable and re-enable Wi-Fi:

# Disable
$ nmcli radio wifi off
 
# Enable 
$ nmcli radio wifi on

To list Wi-Fi networks:

$ nmcli device wifi list

To connect to a Wi-Fi network:

# Secure networks
$ nmcli device wifi connect <SSID/BSSID> password <Password>
 
# Open networks
$ nmcli device wifi connect <SSID/BSSID> 

If the provided information is correct, the daemon establishes connection to the network and saves this network configuration.

To verify your network connection:

$ nmcli connection show --active

If the connection was successful, the SSID of the network should appear in the row corresponding to the type 'wifi'.

To get additional details about the connected network such as UUID, key managements, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses:

$ nmcli connection show <SSID>

You can also verify connection status by running network inspection commands like ip addr or ifconfig in the root shell.

To disconnect from a network:

$ nmcli connection down <SSID>

To reconnect to a saved network:

$ nmcli connection up <SSID>

To delete a saved network configuration:

$ nmcli connection delete <SSID>

Saving and Modifying Network Settings

NetworkManager stores network profile information, such as passphrases IPv4, IPv6 config, etc in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections. This information is used to automatically connect to that network on boot.

To view all saved connections including active connections:

$ nmcli connection show

By default network manager enables autoconnect for all connection profiles. To disable autoconnect:

$ nmcli connection modify <SSID> connection.autoconnect no

To batch edit a network configuration:

$ nmcli connection edit <SSID>  

This opens an interactive editor:

$ nmcli connection edit <SSID>
 
Type 'help' or '?' for available commands.
Type 'print' to show all the connection properties.
Type 'describe [<setting>.<prop>]' for detailed property description.
 
You may edit the following settings: connection, 802-11-wireless (wifi), 802-11-wireless-security (wifi-sec), 802-1x, ethtool, match, ipv4, ipv6, hostname, link, tc, proxy
nmcli> 

To set a property value, for example autoconnect=no, use set as set <setting>.<property> <value> like:

nmcli> set connection.autoconnect no

Save the your changes and quit using:

nmcli> save
nmcli> quit

Advanced Usage

Please refer to nmcli docs other options available for advanced configuration.