Iwd
iwd (iNet Wireless Daemon) is an up-and-coming wireless daemon for Linux. It is written by Intel and aims to replace wpa_supplicant.
Contents
Installation
Kernel
Security Options ---> [*] Enable access key retention support [*] Diffie-Hellman operations on retained keys Cryptographic API ---> [*] Diffie-Hellman algorithm [*] DES and Triple DES EDE cipher algorithms [*] User-space interface for symmetric key cipher algorithms
USE flags
Some packages are aware of the iwd USE flag.
USE flags for net-wireless/iwd Wireless daemon for linux
Emerge
Install the net-wireless/iwd package:
root #emerge --ask net-wireless/iwdNetwork 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 bug #690808. Make sure that any symbolic links to /etc/init.d/net.lo for the wireless interfaces are removed:
root #rm -i /etc/init.d/net.wl*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:
root #rc-update add iwd default
root #rc-service iwd start
dhcpcd
Add both the dhcpcd and then iwd service to the default runlevel and start them up:
root #rc-update add dhcpcd default
root #rc-service dhcpcd start
root #rc-update add iwd default
root #rc-service iwd start
Use iwctl to make connections.
NetworkManager
NetworkManager supports iwd. Make sure to set the iwd USE flag:
root #echo "net-misc/networkmanager iwd" >> /etc/portage/package.use/zz-autounmaskroot #emerge --ask net-misc/networkmanager -Ngnome-extra/nm-applet or other NetworkManager frontends can be used as per normal to make connections.
ConnMan
ConnMan supports iwd somewhat. Make sure to set the iwd USE flag en (re-)emerge:
root #echo "net-misc/connman iwd" >> /etc/portage/package.use/zz-autounmaskroot #emerge --ask net-misc/connman -NConnMan still relies on wpa_supplicant for scanning, but connecting via iwd is possible.
Connecting to an access point with iwctl
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 iwctl station list to see what adapters you might be able to use:
user $iwctl station listDevices in Station Mode -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name State Scanning -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wlan0 disconnected
An interactive session of iwctl 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.
user $iwctl# station wlan0 show
Station: wlan0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Settable Property Value
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scanning no
State disconnected
# station wlan0 scan
# station wlan0 get-networks
Available networks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network name Security Signal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRITZ!Box 7362 SL psk ***
WLAN-105127 psk *
# station wlan0 connect "FRITZ!Box 7362 SL"
Type the network passphrase for FRITZ!Box 7362 SL psk.
Passphrase:
Configuration files
Daemon configuration
iwd keeps its main configuration file in /etc/iwd/main.conf.
iwd native network management
Native network management can be activated as follows:
/etc/iwd/main.conf[General] enable_network_config=true route_priority_offset=200 dns_resolve_method=resolvconf
Where:
- enable_network_config is required to activate the native network management
- route_priority_offset is optional and sets the route metric
- dns_resolve_method is optional and can be used to configure a DNS manager like 'resolvconf' from net-dns/openresolv or 'systemd'.
Disable periodic scan
To prevent iwd from continuous scanning while not connected:
/etc/iwd/main.conf[Scan] disable_periodic_scan=true
Configuration per connection
iwd keeps its configuration file per connection in /var/lib/iwd/.
This directory contains files with names like <station>.<networktype>, 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:
/var/lib/iwd/station.psk[Security] PreSharedKey=924179acd138039828674bb2339a4a2c95cce4a41deb934d99c00380d0be8490 Passphrase=<human readable password>
The PreSharedKey is the same as one that could have been calculated with wpa_passphrase, from package net-wireless/wpa_supplicant. 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 /var/lib/iwd/station.pwk:
/var/lib/iwd/station.psk[IPv4] ip=192.168.1.100 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.1.1 broadcast=192.168.1.255 dns=192.168.1.1
Interface management
Starting with version 0.18 iwd is actively managing network interfaces [1]. 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.
See also
- Wifi — describes the setup of a WiFi (wireless) network device.
- Wpa_supplicant — a wifi supplicant to handle network authentication.