troubleshooting:minimal_image_wifi_setup_nmcli

How to setup Wifi on minimal image with nmcli

Check if your Wifi module enabled

Enter the following commands.

target
root@odroid:~# ip address
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:1e:06:31:fe:2d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:13:ef:50:08:af brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
 
root@odroid:~# nmcli device
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE         CONNECTION 
wlan0   wifi      disconnected  --         
eth0    ethernet  unavailable   --         
lo      loopback  unmanaged     --

Make sure the network interface wlan0 is available.

Scan available Wifi list

Enable the network interface.

target
root@odroid:~# nmcli radio wifi on

And scan available Wifi list.

target
root@odroid:~# nmcli device wifi list
*  SSID                 MODE   CHAN  RATE       SIGNAL  BARS  SECURITY    
   ...
   Hardkernel Lab 2.4G  Infra  7     54 Mbit/s  100     ****  WPA2

The result depends on your environment and the Hardkernel Lab 2.4G Wifi is going to be used in this guide.
Select a Wifi network you want to connect and proceed to next step.

Connect to the network

Connect to the Wifi network with this commands.

target
root@odroid:~# nmcli device wifi connect "Hardkernel Lab 2.4G" password "PASSWORD_FOR_THE_WIFI"
Device 'wlan0' successfully activated with '6be4a6cd-6740-4b07-b6d2-82a34df7eb07'.

All done.

Check if it works

Let's see the result of the commands we entered at the first step.

target
root@odroid:~# ip address
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:1e:06:31:fe:2d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:13:ef:50:08:af brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.100.173/24 brd 192.168.100.255 scope global dynamic wlan0
       valid_lft 7061sec preferred_lft 7061sec
    inet6 fe80::2b63:224f:b9f1:c87/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
 
root@odroid:~# nmcli device
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE        CONNECTION            
wlan0   wifi      connected    Hardkernel Lab 2.4G 1 
eth0    ethernet  unavailable  --                    
lo      loopback  unmanaged    --

Okay, we can see that the wlan0 device connects to Hardkernel Lab 2.4G Wifi, and this interface is assigned a IP address 192.168.100.173.

Run ping command to check whether the internet works.

target
root@odroid:~# ping -c 10 8.8.8.8                                                                                   
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=39 time=55.2 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=39 time=59.9 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=3 ttl=39 time=54.2 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=4 ttl=39 time=54.3 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=5 ttl=39 time=54.2 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=6 ttl=39 time=54.0 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=7 ttl=39 time=55.1 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=8 ttl=39 time=56.3 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=9 ttl=39 time=56.2 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=10 ttl=39 time=56.9 ms
 
--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 9009ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 54.079/55.676/59.981/1.759 ms

This nmcli utility would let the system connects to the previous connected Wifi automatically when the system reboots.

Opt. If you can't connect via SSH to the device

If you have a problem with connecting to the assigned Wifi IP via SSH after set up these steps, maybe it is because the SSH daemon started before the wlan0 is initialized.

Try to restart the SSHD daemon.

target
root@odroid:~# service sshd restart

Opt. How to toggle the network

You can toggle the connection by the following commands.

Disconnect current network.

target
root@odroid:~# nmcli device
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE        CONNECTION          
wlan0   wifi      connected    Hardkernel Lab 2.4G 
eth0    ethernet  unavailable  --                  
lo      loopback  unmanaged    --                  
root@odroid:~# nmcli device disconnect wlan0
Device 'wlan0' successfully disconnected.
root@odroid:~# nmcli device
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE         CONNECTION 
wlan0   wifi      disconnected  --         
eth0    ethernet  unavailable   --         
lo      loopback  unmanaged     --

Connect again.
When it is connected, nmcli tries to connect the previous network.

target
root@odroid:~# nmcli device
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE         CONNECTION 
wlan0   wifi      disconnected  --         
eth0    ethernet  unavailable   --         
lo      loopback  unmanaged     --         
root@odroid:~# nmcli device connect wlan0
Device 'wlan0' successfully activated with '241a49dc-72a3-4d73-9074-1008e2dd4df9'.
root@odroid:~# nmcli device
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE        CONNECTION          
wlan0   wifi      connected    Hardkernel Lab 2.4G 
eth0    ethernet  unavailable  --                  
lo      loopback  unmanaged    --

Opt. How to select a network from the known networks

You can easily connect specific network you want at the network list that already had been connected before.

Deactivate current network.

target
root@odroid:~# nmcli device
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE        CONNECTION          
wlan0   wifi      connected    Hardkernel Lab 2.4G 
eth0    ethernet  unavailable  --                  
lo      loopback  unmanaged    --                  
root@odroid:~# nmcli connection down "Hardkernel Lab 2.4G"
Connection 'Hardkernel Lab 2.4G' successfully deactivated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Activ)
root@odroid:~# nmcli device
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE         CONNECTION 
wlan0   wifi      disconnected  --         
eth0    ethernet  unavailable   --         
lo      loopback  unmanaged     --

See the known networks.

target
root@odroid:~# nmcli connection
NAME                   UUID                                  TYPE             DEVICE 
Hardkernel Lab 2.4G    241a49dc-72a3-4d73-9074-1008e2dd4df9  802-11-wireless  --     
Hardkernel Lab 2.4G 1  6be4a6cd-6740-4b07-b6d2-82a34df7eb07  802-11-wireless  --     
Hardkernel Lab 2.4G 2  c8a98a9c-aa58-44bd-8b96-bc3a4cab8fe9  802-11-wireless  --     
Hardkernel Lab 2.4G 3  ab91a8b7-fb9f-4289-acad-c11e9ab02f9c  802-11-wireless  --     
Hardkernel Lab 2.4G 4  bf0968ca-c295-403c-94e0-35f84400fbc7  802-11-wireless  --     
Wired connection 1     d1356624-11d7-35a7-aa3a-c01ba86c26fe  802-3-ethernet   --

Select one and activate the network with that.

target
root@odroid:~# nmcli connection up "Hardkernel Lab 2.4G 3"
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/9)
root@odroid:~# nmcli device
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE        CONNECTION            
wlan0   wifi      connected    Hardkernel Lab 2.4G 3 
eth0    ethernet  unavailable  --                    
lo      loopback  unmanaged    --

References

[1] https://docs.ubuntu.com/core/en/stacks/network/network-manager/docs/configure-wifi-connections
[2] https://www.thegeekdiary.com/how-to-configure-and-manage-network-connections-using-nmcli/

  • troubleshooting/minimal_image_wifi_setup_nmcli.txt
  • Last modified: 2018/05/30 11:05
  • by joshua