wpa_supplicant is used to connect wireless networks. wpa_supplicant.conf  file is used to store related configuration file about the wireless network. Also wireless security policy is configured with this file.

Install wpa_supplicant Package

In most of cases the wpa_supplicant package is installed by default but we can use following commands in order to install this package.

Fedora, RHEL, CentOS

$ sudo yum install wpa_supplicant

Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Kali

$ sudo apt install wpa_supplicant

Help wpa_supplicant

More detailed help information can be show with -h option like below.

$ wpa_supplicant -h

Specify Interface and Configuration File

The most basic and used way to run wpa_supplicant is providing the interface name and the configuration file. We can use -i to specify interface and -c for configuration file like below.

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

Run Daemon In Background

The deafult behaivour of wpa_supplicant is running on foregound which will take terminal busy. This will also create the stability problems where closing terminal will kill network connection too. We can use -B  option for background connection.

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

Sample Wireless Configuration

Here is a sample configuration which has SSID name poftut and key management is specified as WPA_PSK .

network={
 ssid="poftut"
 scan_ssid=1
 key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
 psk="very se+ret passphrase"
}