How to Show Available WiFi Networks on Linux from the Command Line

https://www.linuxuprising.com/2019/11/how-to-show-available-wifi-networks.html

by logix • 7 years ago

80 27 7 years ago

linuxuprising.com

smegma2• 7 years ago

I usually go with nmtui. You can also connect using it.

spacedome• 7 years ago

If you switch to iwd from wpa_supplicant there is also iwctl.

CaptainMarvel• 7 years ago

I strongly recommend iwd over wpa_supplicant. It is simple, intuitive, and just works. I have been using it on my laptop for over a year with no issues.

oftenwrong• 7 years ago

I use and recommend this. iwd actually makes wireless easy.

cbsmith3• 7 years ago

It's kind of funny that it's espousing GNOME tools for command line work. ;-)

tuukkah2• 7 years ago

NetworkManager does not depend on GNOME. It's part of the freedesktop.org stack and used in server distros likewise.

cbsmith3• 7 years ago

My bad. I forgot it was freedesktop.org, not GNOME. Sure it's used in many server distros, but it's really a desktop tool.

foobarbecue• 7 years ago

Is iwlist not the thing anymore?

nurettin• 7 years ago

both iw and iwlist are still a thing. There is probably some convoluted proc path that gives a listing as well.

majewsky• 7 years ago

procfs is unlikely. Scanning is not something that the kernel does by itself, a userspace application (usually wpa_supplicant) needs to perform it actively. You can see this by running e.g.

  sudo iw dev $IFACE scan

on a system running wpa_supplicant (e.g. through NetworkManager). Every so often you'll get a "Device busy" error because wpa_supplicant is scanning already.

kevinoid• 7 years ago

It is. Personally, I find the format far too verbose for casual use and have to process the output to make it concise enough:

  iwlist wlan0 scan | awk -F: '
  BEGIN {
    printf "%-40s | %3s | %5s | %4s\n", "SSID", "Enc", "Qual", "Chan"
  }
  function print_network() {
    printf "%-40s | %3s | %5s | %4s\n", essid, key, quality, channel
  }
  /^[[:space:]]*Cell [0-9]+/ { if (key) { print_network() } }
  /^[[:space:]]*Channel:/ { channel=$2 }
  /^[[:space:]]*Encryption key:/ { key=$2 }
  /^[[:space:]]*ESSID:/ { essid=$2 }
  /^[[:space:]]*Quality=/ {
    match($0, /[0-9]+\/[0-9]+/)
    quality=substr($0, RSTART, RLENGTH)
  }
  END { print_network() }'

hjek• 7 years ago

I find nmtui imminently usable, for scanning and connecting, especially in Sway where nmapplet doesn't work.

MayeulC• 7 years ago

I agree and that's what I use most of the time, but sometimes nothing beats the simplicity of doing

    nmcli c my-wifi up

When you know you want to connect to a Wi-Fi network you know is in range. Also, nmtui doesn't support "enterprise" Wi-Fi (PEAP, for eduroan, for instance).

roadbeats• 7 years ago

What works best for me (as a sway user): attaching a keyboard shortcut that opens / closes a floating window of nmtui.

derkha• 7 years ago

I prefer the simplicity of https://github.com/firecat53/networkmanager-dmenu, which works fine under sway

seqizz• 7 years ago

If I remember correctly, that one didn't mask my password with rofi.

thomasfedb• 7 years ago

Pleasantly surprised that this is actually very simple, was psyching myself up for some horror of pipes and /dev.

The output from nmcli is quite pretty to boot!

prox2• 7 years ago

what is the best way under Raspian Buster without installing anything?

h2odragon• 7 years ago

`iwlist wlan0 scan` works

prox2• 7 years ago

Thanks!

ghostDancer• 7 years ago

I tend to use wicd[1] they have gtk/curses/cli versions , I've had problems with nm before.

(1) https://launchpad.net/wicd

kc0bfv• 7 years ago

I loved wicd, and had had problems with nm.

Then I had a problem with wicd - interface issues caused by the deprecation of ifconfig in favor of "ip" tools (Debian). Wicd is a set of Python scripts that call ifconfig.

So I submitted a patch to fix my issue, and tied it to the multiple bug requests already reporting the issue...

Wicd hasn't been updated in years though. With ifconfig starting to break (at least in some situations) it's going to need some updates soon.

I switched back to nm and found it's working extremely well these days.

nixpulvis• 7 years ago

I use `wifi-menu` to connect to new networks. It creates the profile for me (generally just works) and everything. Otherwise, `wavemon` for general scanning.

pnutjam• 7 years ago

One of the nice things about OpenSUSE is that you can use Yast from the gui or the console and it works identically. It's very nice. You can hand off configuration to Network Manager, or just configure everything in Yast's Network module.

PappaPatat• 7 years ago

Oddly nobody here mentions horst. Quit a nice CLI package for exactly this (and a little more).

From their github:

horst is a small, lightweight IEEE802.11 WLAN analyzer with a text interface. Its basic function is similar to tcpdump, Wireshark or Kismet, but it's much smaller and shows different, aggregated information which is not easily available from other tools. It is made for debugging wireless LANs with a focus on getting a quick overview instead of deep packet inspection and has special features for Ad-hoc (IBSS) mode and mesh networks. It can be useful to get a quick overview of what's going on all wireless LAN channels and to identify problems.

https://github.com/br101/horst

How to Show Available WiFi Networks on Linux from the Command Line

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