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