Use CLI to configure Wifi on debian for Raspberry Pi


Raspbian is a customized Debian on Raspberry Pi, and it’s almost same as Debian.

Thank god Raspberry Pi 3 builds with a wireless module, we don’t need to spend $10 on a USB wifi card.

This post talks about how to configure wifi on CLI mode.

  1. Update /etc/network/interfaces and make sure it looks like below:

     auto lo
     iface lo inet loopback
    
     allow-hotplug wlan0
     auto wlan0
    
     iface wlan0 inet manual
     wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
    
  2. Create or update /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

     update_config=1
     network={
       ssid="Your Wifi Network"
       #psk="your password"
       psk=<encryped_passphase>
     }
    

    Attention: wpa will never use plain password for connecting wifi, you need to passphase it and put it here.

    Actually there’s a simple way to generate this file, just use command below:

     wpa_passphrase <your_wifi_name> <your_wifi_password> > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
    

    After this, just put update_config=1 in the first line of that file.

  3. Restart OS and you will see your Raspberry Pi is already connected to Wifi