Iwd

iwd (iNet Wireless Daemon) is Article description::an up-and-coming wireless daemon for Linux. It is written by Intel and aims to replace wpa_supplicant.

Potential benefits of iwd include:
 * simplification of network management
 * faster network discovery
 * fast and reliable roaming
 * using less system resources
 * using features offered by the linux kernel
 * support for enterprise security methods like EAP
 * support for kernel asymetric key rings and trusted platform modules (TPM)
 * support for multiple clients

Kernel
Iwd requires the linux kernel to have quite some options to be enabled. For systems running on a AMD64 architecture, or CPUs that support SSSE3 or X86_AES instructions some hardware acceleration can be achieved. cpuid2cpuflags can be used to check for support.

USE flags
Some packages are aware of the USE flag.

Emerge
Install the package:

Network management
Gentoo is all about choice, so there should be various methods available for network management. But iwd is new, and not all the methods support iwd fully. Be sure to heed the warning in the network management article about mixing and matching the different methods for network management.

netifrc
netifrc is Gentoo's default method of managing networks, but unfortunately it does not support iwd as backend yet, see. Make sure that any symbolic links to for the wireless interfaces are removed:

Select another, working, method for network management.

iwd native
As of version 0.19 iwd contains a DHCP client and can manage routes and DNS resolving. See here how to configure it.

Start iwd and add it to the default run level:

dhcpcd
Add both the dhcpcd and then iwd service to the default runlevel and start them up:

Use iwctl to make connections.

NetworkManager
NetworkManager supports iwd. Make sure to set the  USE flag:

or other [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetworkManager#Graphical_front-ends_and_command_line_interfaces NetworkManager frontends] can be used as per normal to make connections.

ConnMan
ConnMan supports iwd somewhat. Make sure to set the  USE flag en (re-)emerge:

ConnMan still relies on wpa_supplicant for scanning, but connecting via iwd is possible.

Connecting to an access point with iwctl
is iwd's tool to control iwd. It supports both a command line interface and an interactive mode. A complete command line would be to see what adapters you might be able to use:

An interactive session of commands can be used to connect to a WiFi network access point. First check the status of the WiFi network interface, set it in scanning mode if needed, and then obtain the list of WiFi access points. Finally connect to the access point.

Note that it is not possible to assign a priority to a network, instead iwd will prioritize networks based on:
 * signal strength level
 * security features
 * maximum rate
 * channel utilization
 * time since the last connect.

Daemon configuration
iwd keeps its main configuration file in.

iwd native network management
Native network management can be activated as follows:

Where:
 * EnableNetworkConfiguration is required to activate the native network management
 * RoutePriorityOffset is optional and sets the route metric
 * NameResolvingService is optional and can be used to configure a DNS manager like 'resolvconf' from or 'systemd'.

Disable periodic scan
To prevent iwd from continuous scanning while not connected:

Configuration per connection
iwd keeps its configuration file per connection in.

This directory contains files with names like ''. '', where:


 * station is the name of the network
 * networkwork type can be
 * psk for pre-shared key, like WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK
 * 8021x for WPA-Enterprise, like EAP-PWD or EAP-PEAP.

Security
For WPA authentication the contents of the file looks like this:

The PreSharedKey is the same as one that could have been calculated with wpa_passphrase, from package. iwd does not provide a passphrase calculator yet.

Static network configuration
iwd defaults to DHCP, either natively or using an external DHCP-client. For static IPV4 configuration add something like this to :

Interface management
Starting with version 0.18 iwd is actively managing network interfaces [//iwd.wiki.kernel.org/interface_lifecycle]. On startup it may destroy an existing network interface and create a new one. The newly created interface will be configured optimally for iwd's use. Note that currently interface renaming is not supported. This means that an interface that was detected by udev, and renamed to say 'wlp2s0' will be destroyed and a new one named for example 'wlan0' might be created. When iwd terminates it destroys the wireless interface it created.

It is possible to suppress this behaviour by passing commandline options -p (+the the name of the phy) and -i (+ the name of the interface) to the iwd daemon.

External resources

 * [//lwn.net/Articles/770991 Iwd: simplifying WiFi management]
 * [//wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Iwd Arch linux iwd wiki ]
 * iwd without dbus - This is a complete rewrite of the original eiwd with the new focus being to modify as little as possible from upstream.