The IWD thread

amish · 2019-04-05 04:41:10

Highlighting a new issue with version 0.16. (as I have same issue)

Someone has created a new thread instead of posting here - so I am linking it here.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=245463

kevku · 2019-04-18 08:04:09

does IWD work with broadcom-wl? all i get is Operation aborted after entering psk

Last edited by kevku (2019-04-18 08:04:21)

jpegxguy · 2019-05-16 17:32:49

Using

iwd 0.18-1
networkmanager 1.18.0-1

Networkmanager actually starts iwd normally without having to enable it in systemctl. Nice.
I wonder if it works with eduroam though. The combination of these 2 didn't work before

sudoku · 2019-05-17 05:19:09

IWD stopped working after updating to 0.18 and I'm a bit at loss with the reconfiguration needed after upgrading to 0.18.

The IWD page says:

Starting with version 0.18 IWD is actively managing network interfaces, something that is not done on most current Linux distributions and operating systems based on the Linux kernel, like Android. This page explains how this works and how it differs from interface management before 0.18.

Okay, but how do I, in practice get IWD 0.18 up and running again?

The Archlinux bug FS#62622 - iwd 0.18 changes interface name is also being closed because "this is intentional upstream change described in https://iwd.wiki.kernel.org/interface_lifecycle which can be disabled if user wishes to. Nothing do to in Arch package."

Is the wiki going to be updated to reflect this change?

EDIT: The workaround here works for me.

Last edited by sudoku (2019-05-17 05:44:10)

n8henrie · 2019-05-19 21:16:12

progandy wrote:

n8henrie, maybe ask the connman iwd people to improve 5G selection like choosing always 5GHz if the reception is better than -65 dBm? (At least allow setting that on a per-network basis or in the global configuration) You have a real world example of how their current implementation is flawed, so they might do something.
Edit: Accidentally wrote connman instead of iwd...

I asked on the mailing list, and they reported something was in the works; it looks like they have implemented something helpful to this regard in the /etc/iwd/main.conf: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/network/ … um=ios_app

[Rank]
#
# Manually specify a 5G ranking factor. 5G networks are already preferred but
# only in terms of calculated data rate, which is RSSI dependent. This means it
# is still possible for IWD to prefer a 2.4GHz AP in the right conditions.
# This ranking provides a way to further weight the ranking towards 5G if
# required. Also, a lower 5G factor could be used to weight 2.4GHz if that is
# desired.
#
#rank_5g_factor=1.0

Seems to be working for me (set mine to 2.0).

amish · 2019-06-23 06:32:35

@shibumi

systemd-networkd is coming up with a new feature in future release, with which you can select ([Match]) a config file based on network SSID.

This requires adding following dbus permissions to IWD dbus policy. (which gives read access to systemd-networkd)

File: /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/iwd-dbus.conf

<policy user="systemd-network">
    <allow send_destination="net.connman.iwd" send_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" send_member="GetAll" />
    <allow send_destination="net.connman.iwd" send_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" send_member="Get" />
</policy>

Can you please add the same to the IWD package (without waiting for feature to land in systemd stable version).

So that whenever systemd pushes the feature to stable branch it works right away.

PS: Note that this feature was requested by you yourself here: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/8157

Source PR: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/12842

Last edited by amish (2019-06-23 06:35:29)

remicmacs · 2019-07-24 18:40:23

tim3dman wrote:

Ok, Openvpn with PIA now working great with IWD, networkd and dhcpcd. I found that just putting a client.conf straight into /etc/openvpn/client/ is much easier than using the NM applet. Should've known.

@tim3dman
Could you provide pointers on how you made it work ?

I've tried to use openvpn with :

* systemd-networkd, systemd-resolvd and iwd
* systemd-networkd, systemd-resolvd (without iwd, with a cable connection)
* only systemd

Every time I tried to connect, with the openvpn or the nordvpn CLI, the DNS settings could not be set.

Works like a charm with NetworkManager and all services above disabled.

I don't understand why I keep having those DNS issues. I would really like to drop NetworkManager, because I am really fed up with it, but not having a VPN is not an option.

Can someone provide insight, please ?

tim3dman · 2019-07-24 19:42:36

Sorry @remicmacs that issue was 5 months ago and everything has been working great so I actually can't remember what the hell I did. I think that my process was to try and resolve each issue separately, I got iwd, systemd-networkd working first then sorted out the vpn. I do remember getting a openvpn file from PIA member site that solved some issue that I was introducing trying to make my own config file.
I also removed NetworkManager and wpa_supplicant and their daemons. Everything else is pretty much as supplied I think? I'll check my logs to see if I can provide some better info or let me know if you need any particular config.
Good Luck.

Brocellous · 2019-07-25 20:34:01

@remicmacs I am using resolved / networkd / iwd with both openvpn and wireguard and it works excellently.

This topic is not iwd related though. Open a new support thread in an appropriate forum like Networking or Newbie Corner. That way it can eventually be marked [solved] and other users with your issue can learn too.

digitalone · 2019-08-05 19:00:17

Hello everyone, I'm testing iwd on my system.

I had little issues with my 5GHz network, wifi connection was randomly disconnecting and I was forced to use 2.4GHz (no it wasn't poor link quality).

I'd like to continue to use plasma-nm, so I won't replace networkmanager, but I modified its package to get rid of wpa_supplicant and uninstall it using only iwd (I know, this operation is not required, but I wanted to test networkmanager "without" wpa_supplicant).

It's working good, connected to the 5GHz, didn't disconnect till now, but maybe it will. Only issue is that one time on reboot it didn't connect and plasma-nm was not showing available networks inside the widget, even if networkmanager and iwd service were not showing error messages. Resolved rebooting.

Another curiosity is that my wireless interface name is changed from wlo1 to wlan1. Don't know why, iwd service is not enabled to start at boot, networkmanager launches it, but I don't mind as long as it works.

Will write here any other future reports.

digitalone · 2019-08-06 21:21:32

No luck, same issues as wpa_supplicant. Don't know, maybe something wrong with my router or iwlwifi buggy on my system.

Anyway still testing iwd, now on 2.4 GHz.

dilyn · 2019-08-09 09:43:51

kevku wrote:

does IWD work with broadcom-wl? all i get is Operation aborted after entering psk

Similar; using broadcom-wl-dkms I get "Operation failed" after entering passphrase. No issues connecting to open networks, but I've built two different kernels with the required config options.

digitalone · 2019-08-10 19:35:23

Same issue also on 2.4 GHz with iwd, but I found the reason of the instability on my system:

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=203709

Anyway, I like iwd and will keep using it with networkmanager.

Meanwhile, I downgraded the kernel.

Last edited by digitalone (2019-08-10 19:35:57)

amish · 2019-08-12 05:46:09

iwd can now configure IP on its own. Arch Wiki was recently edited for the same.

Does anyone have official document (or link to blog) which shows all the options available?

1) How to configure IPv6?
2) How can it co-exist with systemd-networkd which manages my wired ethernet as well WiFi IP routes and rules?
3) How to tell it not to manage DNS at all?

Anyone has idea?

Thank you

jpegxguy · 2019-08-13 19:25:17

amish wrote:

iwd can now configure IP on its own.

I saw that. Why though?

Brocellous · 2019-08-14 07:19:45

@amish

Does anyone have official document (or link to blog) which shows all the options available?

I don't think there exists such a document. The feature is very new/small so at the moment so we can find all the options easily within the source.
I think the options and their defaults can all be found in src/network.c, and can be summarized as:

# /etc/iwd/main.conf

[General]
# Enable the new network configuration stuff.
enable_network_config=false

# Set (gateway?) priority. Lower priority is preferred.
route_priority_offset=300

# /var/lib/iwd/my-network-essid.psk

[IPv4]
# Static IP configuration.
ip=
# You can override DHCP options with these values
netmask=
broadcast=
gateway=
dns=

And that seems to be it.

1) How to configure IPv6?

iwd does not yet support IPv6 RA/RD; I suppose it will in a future release. I'm not sure if it supports IPv6 address configuration another way (see below), but there are no network configuration options for it.

2) How can it co-exist with systemd-networkd which manages my wired ethernet as well WiFi IP routes and rules

I think it can coexist. If you enable the IP configuration in iwd you may want to disable DHCP in systemd-networkd but otherwise I don't see where they conflict. Even that might be unnecessary in the future with some changes to iwd/networkd which doesn't sound too far fetched, as iwd now integrates with resolved with its DNS settings, and I think there is an upcoming patch for networkd which adds iwd support for matching .network on ssid/bssid. Denis kenzior has told me that it is not iwd's goal to repalce networkd, so I think they will continue to coexist.

3) How to tell it not to manage DNS at all?

Just don't enable network config stuff I guess and just keep using networkd. It's off by default in this release anyway.

@jpegxguy

Why though?

From what I can gather from the developer's discussion, my incomplete understanding is the following:

The nature of Wi-Fi is changing. The newest amendments to 802.11 protocol make it possible for clients to get address configuration directly from an AP on connection, without the use of DHCP. Other (non-managed) phy operating modes like p2p also get their address configuration at this layer apparently. These give the possibility for greatly accelerated connection times when (DHCP) address configuration is the biggest speed bump to network-online from boot. So naturally iwd wants to apply these features and has included a basic DHCP client to be able to uniformly assume that role for address configuration.

It seems that one such in-band method of address configuration is through FILS, but there is not much of information about it that I can find. The IEEE document will be very long and technical and behind a paywall anyway, so I don't know much about it or other modern address configuration methods. It seems there is more than just the one, though, from what I can gather from the discussion.

progandy · 2019-08-14 07:40:49

Brocellous wrote:

It seems that one such in-band method of address configuration is through FILS, but there is not much of information about it that I can find. The IEEE document will be very long and technical and behind a paywall anyway,

It's "only" a registration wall with the IEEE GET program.

Brocellous · 2019-08-14 09:46:49

progandy wrote:

It's "only" a registration wall with the IEEE GET program.

Well I suppose that's better.

So curiosity got me and I went ahead and made an account to see what I could make of it. I'm not really sure what this is gonna look like in practice, but FILS apparently does a bunch of stuff. The bit about address configuration actually already specifies two methods for address configuration as well:

IEEE 802.11ai wrote:

11.47.3.2 Higher layer protocol encapsulation
The FILS HLP Container element (9.4.2.184) is used for encapsulating higher layer protocol (HLP) packets.
[...]
For example, this mechanism can be used for IP address configuration. If the network uses DHCPv4/v6
(IETF RFC 2131, IETF RFC 3315), the FILS HLP Container element can carry DHCPv4/v6 packets. If the
network uses IPv6 stateless address autoconfiguration (IETF RFC 4862), it can carry Router Solicitation and
Router Advertisement packets (IETF RFC 4861).
---
11.47.3.3 FILS IP address configuration
In order to request an IP address, a STA may include a FILS IP Address Assignment element in the
(Re)Association Request frame or FILS Container frame that it sends to the AP.
The AP may send the IP address assigned to the STA in a FILS IP Address Assignment element (9.4.2.186)
that is included in a (Re)Association Response frame or a FILS Container frame. Methods for determining
the IP address to be assigned to a STA are out of scope in this document.
[...]

So Wi-Fi is fucking complicated, but maybe Wi-Fi setup will be blazing fast in the future? (The distant future -- 2016!)

As far as I can tell, neither of these are yet implemented in iwd.

amish · 2019-08-14 14:16:53

@Brocellous: Thanks for the replies. In past two days. I have been doing R&D with IWD by reading source too.

Brocellous wrote:

@amish

# /etc/iwd/main.conf

# Set (gateway?) priority. Lower priority is preferred.
route_priority_offset=300

This actually is not properly documented. It seems to be adding 300 to the last octet of the IP address.

When I tested it.. for IP 192.168.1.5.. the route was added with metric of 305. Not sure what is the purpose?

Why not simply have route_metric=305.. why have offset?

2) How can it co-exist with systemd-networkd which manages my wired ethernet as well WiFi IP routes and rules
I think it can coexist. If you enable the IP configuration in iwd you may want to disable DHCP in systemd-networkd but otherwise I don't see where they conflict. Even that might be unnecessary in the future with some changes to iwd/networkd which doesn't sound too far fetched, as iwd now integrates with resolved with its DNS settings, and I think there is an upcoming patch for networkd which adds iwd support for matching .network on ssid/bssid. Denis kenzior has told me that it is not iwd's goal to repalce networkd, so I think they will continue to coexist.

What I did is that I did not specify Address= line in .network file and just specified routes and rules and it worked as expected. i.e. IWD handled IP address and systemd-networkd handled IP routes and rules.

3) How to tell it not to manage DNS at all?
Just don't enable network config stuff I guess and just keep using networkd. It's off by default in this release anyway.

I enabled network config but did not specify dns= line. IWD complained "netconfig: Failed to obtain DNS addresses from setting file." and skipped DNS configuration. (leaving it as is)

Moo-Crumpus · 2019-08-18 06:44:15

I installed arch on a brand new computer and thought, I want to give systemd-networkd and iwd a try. Heck, is the wiki complete at all? While I have systemd-networkd doing fine, iwd lists my device but any action with iwctl fails.
systemd-networkd is running a kiss config for wireless and wired devices, just activating dhcp for them.
iwd is running a config with just the psk for the network.

digitalone · 2019-08-18 21:03:58

Moo-Crumpus wrote:

I installed arch on a brand new computer and thought, I want to give systemd-networkd and iwd a try. Heck, is the wiki complete at all? While I have systemd-networkd doing fine, iwd lists my device but any action with iwctl fails.
systemd-networkd is running a kiss config for wireless and wired devices, just activating dhcp for them.
iwd is running a config with just the psk for the network.

upstream iwd seems to be better configured for connman.

I modified networkmanager package to use exclusively iwd and initial configuration was not working in certain cases. Then I added some options to iwd service in order to start it at boot after udev and before networkmanager: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/networkmanager-iwd/

Had no issues. Maybe it's the same for systemd-networkd.

Moo-Crumpus · 2019-08-19 15:26:46

Thank you, I will give it a try.

digitalone · 2019-08-23 15:07:51

I tried to use iwd only, but I think I won't parse /etc/iwd/main.cont at all.

use_default_interface=true is ignored and enable_network_config=true is not working.

Last edited by digitalone (2019-08-23 15:08:08)

digitalone · 2019-08-23 16:11:42

I confirm that /etc/iwd/main.conf is useless.

Setting enable_network_config to true or false is equal. I managed to get an IP using dhcpcd.

In fact, you don't even need systemd-networkd. Just enable iwd.service, dhcpcd.service and systemd-resolved.

jpegxguy · 2019-08-23 17:19:35

It should work though, no dhcpcd needed. Iwd has an internal dhcp client. Don't give up immediately. Make sure you're using the latest version (0.19 right now) and send the contents of /etc/iwd/main.conf and systemctl status iwd when you've started it with the config file (and without dhcpcd)

Arch Linux

#126 2019-04-05 04:41:10

Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

#128 2019-05-16 17:32:49

Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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Re: The IWD thread

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