Arch Linux

ashh

Member

Registered: 2014-11-03

Posts: 5

[Solved] Setting up wifi manually - how to find WPA2 key

HI, just getting Arch all setup. Relative Linux newcomer.

I've been following the manual Wi-fi setup guide and can't get passed the following line:

# wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c <(wpa_passphrase your_SSID your_key)

where do I get 'your_key' from? It's not in the Access Point Discovery?? Also if I have a wifi named John's Stupid Network. Then for the 'your_SSID' section should I input 'John\'s\ Stupid\ Network'?

Sorry if these are stupid questions.
Cheers for any help.

Last edited by ashh (2014-11-04 13:00:17)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,822

Re: [Solved] Setting up wifi manually - how to find WPA2 key

Welcome to Arch Linux,

Yes to the 'your_SSID' question, Although that is a terrible network name.  As to 'your_key', you would get it from John.
On a less hypothetical level, is it your network?  Do you know if the network is open, or if it uses WPA?  Is that really the network name?    If you own the network, you should know the key.  If it is not your network, then the network owner has to give it to you to allow you to join their network.

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
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How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

ashh

Member

Registered: 2014-11-03

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Setting up wifi manually - how to find WPA2 key

I agree it is. It's not the actual network name. The real one is "Pat's Mac Network". He's quite obsessed with apple products.

I've just revisited the wiki page. Turns out I was a bit hasty in my read through - I thought the appearance of RSN and WPA info blocks (when I ran ' iw dev wlan0 scan | less') meant it was WPA2. However I now realise that wasn't true.

In the RSN info block:

Version: 1
Group cipher: TKIP
Pairwise ciphers CCMP TKIP
Authentication suites: PSK

the WPA info block is the same except it only lists TKIP in the 'pairwise ciphers'.

What command would I use to sign into these? I just tried the other two types for WEP on the wiki and neither worked.

edit: just found out about the wpa_passphrase setting from https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … arch-linux which I have now done. Still doesn't work.

Last edited by ashh (2014-11-03 06:33:57)

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: [Solved] Setting up wifi manually - how to find WPA2 key

Has Pat given you the key to his network?

ashh

Member

Registered: 2014-11-03

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Setting up wifi manually - how to find WPA2 key

Hi guys. Alright I've realised I've been a bit of an idiot. When I saw wpa_passphrase I thought that was the password and your_key was something else

Just ran:

           # wpa_supplicant -i wlp0s29f7u2 -c <(wpa_passphrase Pat\'s\ Mac\ Network password)

and it worked!

Sorry, my fault for being an idiot.

Last edited by ashh (2014-11-03 09:46:43)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,611

Website

Re: [Solved] Setting up wifi manually - how to find WPA2 key

One should never apologize for leaving a state of ignorance.  All support threads come down to something that seems obvious in hindsight.

But to the network name question, you can escape the spaces as you have done, but you could also quote the name which is my preference:

wpa_passhrase "Pat's Mac Network" xxxxxx

Also, if this is now up and running please mark the thread as [SOLVED] by editing your first post to revise the title.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

ashh

Member

Registered: 2014-11-03

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Setting up wifi manually - how to find WPA2 key

Cheers. I didn't know you could use quotes. That would make the process much more intuitive.

(also updated the title.)