Setting up WiFi / WLAN

The following describes how to setup a WiFi connection on the default pikvm builds based on Arch Linux. The process might vary for other Linux distros. I'd recommend to do this while having a display and keyboard connected directly to the Raspberry Pi as you will loose network connectivity once you connect to a WiFi. Alternatively you can connect to the pikvm via ssh. The build-in Terminal (available through the browser) should also work.

Note: I'm ommiting any sudo prefix for commands as the default installation runs as root anyway. If your installation does not run as root you'll have to add sudo in front of each command.

Make filesystem writeable

By default the pikvm filesystem is read-only. In order to make changes you'll need to switch to read-write mode. Do this by typing rw in the console.

rw

Enable WiFi auto roaming mode

If you want your Raspberry Pi to automatically connect to any configured and available WiFi network you have to set the following option. On Raspberry Pis wlan0 is the default name of the wlan device.

systemctl enable netctl-auto@wlan0.service

Create WiFi profiles

via GUI

You can create WiFi profiles either manually or by using wifi-menu - GUI. This requires the WiFi you want to connect to in signal range.

wifi-menu -o

The -o makes sure that the WiFi passphrase is stored encrypted. Otherwise it will be stored in cleartext in the profile file. wifi-menu will scan for all available WiFi networks and provide you a list:

Select the WiFi you want to connect to and give the profile file a name. The default name is wlan0-wifiname:

Enter the WPA-Passphrase:

Afterwards wifi-menu will try to connect to the WiFi. If you're connected via ssh or the Web Terminal you'll loose connection to the Raspberry Pi. Most DHCP server will give the Raspberry Pi a new (and usually different) IP address for each interface (LAN / WLAN).

If everything worked out you should be connected to your WiFi now. wifi-menu created a new profile file for you in /etc/netctl.

manually

If you want to store the WiFi passphrase encrypted you have to generate it via wpa_passphrase:

wpa_passphrase wifiname this_is_my_great_and_secure_key_1234567890

Copy the second hexadecimal string without psk=. In this example 814c45d0f88f60636532b034c463639a506670f8ba3c7965e62cdbc1989f6d66. Create a new file with the editor of your choice:

nano /etc/netctl/wlan0-wifiname

vi /etc/netctl/wlan0-wifiname

Copy the following template into the file and modify it with your parameters. Attention: Please note the \" after Key= is required for encrypted passphrases. If you want to put your WiFi passphrase in cleartext the \" is not required. See this for the quoting rules and more WiFi profile configuration options.

Description='My great WiFi'
Interface=wlan0
Connection=wireless
Security=wpa
ESSID=wifiname
IP=dhcp
Key=\"814c45d0f88f60636532b034c463639a506670f8ba3c7965e62cdbc1989f6d66

Save the file and you're good to go. You can manually connect to the profile you've just created with:

netctl-auto switch-to wlan0-wifiname

Make filesystem read-only again

Do this by typing ro in the console

ro

Additional resources Arch Linux Wiki for netctl

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