Linux without Network Manager


Configuration of wireless connection with faculty's network using program wpa_supplicant and DHCP client (not using Network Manager).

Method was tested on Fedora 8 distribution, but should work on every Linux (and even on different BSD flavors).

Before starting, make sure that newtwork adapter is working (usually it limit itself to copying firmware into appropiate place).

To connect this way to wireless network, root privileges are required. One should never log in to system as root. Root privileges are gained by entering in console su -.

Installation of required programs

On majority of distributions wpa_supplicant is located in the installation drive. All that has to be done is installing it. Depending on a distribution, commands will look more-or-less like this (one of the following):

rpm -Uvh path_to_file/wpa_supplicant.rpm

yum install wpa_supplicant

apt-get install wpasupplicant

DHCP client is installed by default in all major distributions.

Network configuration

Create (or edit) wpa_supplicant configuration. By default it's the file /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, but if one pleases it can be put in arbitrary place. This file should have a following content:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel

network={
ssid="wmi"
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
eap=PEAP
identity="s123456"
password="secret password"
}

Change accordingly lines identity i password.

Network initialization

To initialize a connection execute (as root) commands:

wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -D wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

dhclient wlan0

In examples above we presume that network adaper is named wlan0 and that installed driver supports so-called wireless extensions (this applies to majority of newer drivers).

Some distributions may be missing dhclient program, other programs with the same functionality are dhcpcd or pump.