Arch Linux

useradded

Member

From: Edinburgh, UK

Registered: 2010-05-15

Posts: 77

when is anything other than a minimal wpa_supplicant.conf required?

I'm a little confused about wpa_supplicant.conf. 

I seem able to connect to virtually all wpa protected networks with a very minimal entry in wpa_supplicant.conf, as below:

network={
    ssid="some_ssid"
    #psk="some_key"
    psk=1405f3dde16fsfsdfsfsfsjhgjgjgkgjkgkjghkjghkjghkjgkj
}

But many of the guides I've seen, including the Arch wiki, suggest adding a load more detail to this basic configuration, such as 'proto', 'Key_mgmt', 'pairwise' and 'group'.

I suppose my question is why bother with this extra detail when I can generally connect fine without it?  Is it there for my later reference, or does it enable some more advanced features of wpa_supplicant?

I understand, of course, that some networks have more complicated authentication procedures, involving multiple stages and stuff like MSCHAPv2 etc, and that these require greater complexity, but is there anything to be gained by filling in the details for networks I'm already connecting to quite happily now?

.:B:.

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2006-11-26

Posts: 5,819

Website

Re: when is anything other than a minimal wpa_supplicant.conf required?

I guess if you're online, that says everything no?

You do not absolutely need to specify all that stuff - they're optional. Some of it wpa_supplicant can figure out on it's own (e.g. is this network WPA or WPA2), other things tell wpa_supplicant to e.g. skip AP scans and just connect.

---

Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy

useradded

Member

From: Edinburgh, UK

Registered: 2010-05-15

Posts: 77

Re: when is anything other than a minimal wpa_supplicant.conf required?

Yes, sure, actually having it connect reliably is what's most important.  It's just that every wpa_supplicant guide I've read makes it sound like all those extra details are pretty mandatory.

I don't even have a 'ctrl_interface' defined in my conf file, yet it seems to work just fine.  Is that right?  I'm just concerned as to whether I'm missing out on some features by running it so minimally.