Arch Linux

ssfootball04

Member

Registered: 2017-07-26

Posts: 1

Peculiar Issue of wpa_supplicant

Hi,

I have run into a strange issue while installing arch linux on my GE72 6QF MSI laptop.
To connect to my wifi network, I am using the wpa_supplicant command. It runs successfully and I'm able to connect, but the output of the command is dumped over all the zsh shells ( six in all, which is the maximum ), rendering all interaction with the shell impossible. Using the -B flag with the command doesn't help at all. I took resort to the standard methods of redirection of stdout and stderr, but passing the flags ">/dev/null 2>&1" and all manner of others, does not change the process's behavior. To compound the problem, when run with the -B flag, or when redirecting output, the command doesn't exit with the Ctrl+C interrupt. I have to turn off the wifi, which reduces the verbose verbiage chunked out by the process, allowing me to find the procid with the top command and consequentially kill it.

The other methods I have tried to suppress the output are :
1. Running wpa_supplicant with -f flag, for logging its output to a given file. No effect.
2. Starting bash inside the zsh shell, and running the command inside it. Doesn't help, command output still spills over into all the shells.
3. Using netctl instead to connect to Internet, but its underlying functionality exploits the wpa_supplicant command,and the result is the same insuppressible output.
4. Killing the stderr stream, but this does not help too ! There is a file descriptor 10 that I can see, and killing it makes the shell output refresh, this descriptor points to the tty console output I suspect, and this is the one to which the command may be writing. Unfortunately, passing 10>& /dev/null flag to the command doesn't work either.

I am perplexed by the combined behavior of the shell and the wpa_supplicant command that is leading to such insuppressible output, and halting my installation. Any help regarding this would be appreciated.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,532

Website

Re: Peculiar Issue of wpa_supplicant

I suspect the output you are getting is not actually wpa_supplicant output, but kernel/firmware messages from the wireless device and/or driver.

What are some of the messages?  What is the wireless device (lspci output)?  What driver are you using?

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