WLAN Interfaces

Table of Contents

• • Managing Wi-Fi via GUI
  • Managing Wi-Fi via CLI
    • NetworkManager service
    • Enable Wi-Fi
    • List all available Wi-Fi Networks
    • Connect to a network
    • Verify network connection
    • Get additional information about connected network
    • Disconnect from network
    • Reconnect to a network
    • Disable Wi-Fi
    • Check network status
    • Delete a network configuration
    • View saved network settings
    • Disable autoconnect
    • Batch edit network configuration
    • 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.

Managing 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.

Managing Wi-Fi via CLI

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

Important

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

NetworkManager service

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

$ systemctl status NetworkManager.service
 
# Enable service if disabled
$ systemctl start NetworkManager.service

Enable Wi-Fi

$ nmcli radio wifi on

List all available Wi-Fi Networks

$ nmcli device wifi list

Connect to a 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.

Verify 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'.

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

Get additional information about connected network

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

$ nmcli connection show <SSID>

Disconnect from network

$ nmcli connection down <SSID>

Reconnect to a network

$ nmcli connection up <SSID>

Disable Wi-Fi

$ nmcli radio wifi off

Check network status

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

Delete a network configuration

$ nmcli connection delete <SSID>

View saved network settings

NetworkManager stores network profile information, such as passphrases, IPv4 and 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

Disable autoconnect

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

$ nmcli connection modify <SSID> connection.autoconnect no

Batch edit 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 your changes and quit using:

nmcli> save
nmcli> quit

Advanced Usage

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