wpa_supplicant

A daemon that handles Wi-Fi security

Main configuration file

Typical locations:

/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Example config:

ctrl_interface=/run/wpa_supplicant
update_config=1
country=JO

network={
    ssid="MyWiFi"
    psk="mypassword"
}

Runtime control socket

When wpa_supplicant runs, it creates:

/run/wpa_supplicant/

Inside:

/run/wpa_supplicant/wlan0

This is NOT a file you edit.

It is a live communication socket between wpa_cli and wpa_supplicant

wpa_supplicant (daemon)

Run:

wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

• -B runs in background (daemon mode) keeps Wi-Fi connection active
• -i interface
• -c config file

wpa_cli (control tool)

Run:

wpa_cli

It connects to /run/wpa_supplicant/wlan0

Useful commands:

status
scan
scan_results
reconnect

Manual network setup (no config file needed):

add_network
set_network 0 ssid "MyWiFi"
set_network 0 psk "mypassword"
enable_network 0
save_config

wpa_passphrase (helper tool)

generates a 256-bit Pre-Shared Key (PSK) from an ASCII passphrase and a network SSID

wpa_passphrase MyWiFi mypassword

Output a ready-to-paste config block