Automatic connection to wireless network

Lars Stokholm · 2009-03-17 16:05:58

In FreeBSD I had my wireless connections set up in wpa_supplicant.conf and in rc.conf I had someting like: ifconfig_ath0="WPA DHCP". Nothing else. It would automatically connect to the first available network (according to the settings in wpa_supplicant.conf). I believe it also automatically switched over to another network, as I moved arround with my laptop.

In Arch I tried the same thing, but I don't think it understood wlan0="wpa dhcp" in rc.conf, because it didn't work. It surprises me that it doesn't seem to be as simple as that.

I have two questions:
1) Is there a way to set this up as simple as in FreeBSD - without installation of netcfg or anythink like that - just using wpa_supplicant?
2) With netcfg I have a long waiting time while wireless profiles fail at boot - one after another. Can I have netcfg do it faster - perhaps by having it do a scan and NOT try to connect to networks that aren't even in the scan results?

Lars Stokholm · 2009-03-17 17:31:52

Okay, I found out that AUTOMATIC_NETWORKS and net-auto answered my second question.

tomk · 2009-03-17 17:39:23

1) Briefly, no. More specifically, you will need netcfg, wicd, networkmanager, or some other similar utility to automate wpa connections. I'm not familiar with FreeBSD, but based on the information provided, I'm absolutely certain that it is using scripting similar to netcfg. The only difference seems to be that they provide it by default, whereas Arch allows the users to install it or not as required.

Lars Stokholm · 2009-03-17 17:53:35

Okay, thank you. I don't mind using netcfg, I just wanted to make sure it was the most simple solution.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-17 16:05:58

Automatic connection to wireless network

#2 2009-03-17 17:31:52

Re: Automatic connection to wireless network

#3 2009-03-17 17:39:23

Re: Automatic connection to wireless network

#4 2009-03-17 17:53:35

Re: Automatic connection to wireless network

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