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Setting up Wi-Fi

Tip

  • There is nothing more reliable than wired Ethernet, so it's better to use it. Wi-Fi with the steel case (on PiKVM V3 and V4) results in poor performance. But who are we to stop you... :)
  • Devices based on Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W does not support 5GHz Wi-Fi.

The following describes how to setup a Wi-Fi connection. We recommend to do this while having a display and keyboard or a serial console connected directly to the Raspberry Pi as you will loose network connectivity once you connect to a Wi-Fi. Alternatively you can connect to the PiKVM via SSH. The built-in Web Terminal (available through the browser) should also work.

Take a look at the easiest way

This guide describes how to manually set up a Wi-Fi. An easier way is to use On-boot config. It is also mandatory for Zero 2 W board.

Setting up Wi-Fi manually

  1. Make filesystem writable using rw command.

  2. Create Wi-Fi settings file /etc/systemd/network/wlan0.network with following content:

    [Match]
Name=wlan0

[Network]
DHCP=yes
DNSSEC=no

[DHCP]
ClientIdentifier=mac
RouteMetric=50

  3. Set network ESSID and password:

    [root@pikvm ~]# wpa_passphrase 'MyNetwork' 'P@assw0rd' > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf
[root@pikvm ~]# chmod 640 /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf

    WPA2 and WPA3 support

    Add options key_mgmt=WPA-PSK-SHA256 WPA-PSK and ieee80211w=1 to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf

    Using Wi-Fi with hidden ESSID

    Add option scan_ssid=1 to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf

    Using 5GHz Wi-Fi in the USA

    Add option country=US to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf

    Block 2ghz or 5ghz

    Add option bssid=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf within the network={ block

  4. Enable WPA-supplicant service:

[root@pikvm ~]# systemctl enable wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service
  1. Make filesystem read-only again using ro command

Multiple Wi-Fi networks

You can configure PiKVM to connect to one of several known Wi-Fi networks. To do this, just simply add the configuration of these networks. Pay attention to the symbol >>, it is used to append at the end of configuration, while a single > will overwrite the entire configuration.

  1. Make the filesystem writeble with rw command.

  2. Add some new networks:

    [root@pikvm ~]# wpa_passphrase 'Wifi1' 'P@assw0rd' >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf
[root@pikvm ~]# wpa_passphrase 'Wifi2' 'P@assw0rd' >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf
[root@pikvm ~]# wpa_passphrase 'Wifi3' 'P@assw0rd' >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf

  3. Restart the service: systemctl restart wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service.

  4. Make the filesystem read-only again using ro command

Useful console commands

  • iwconfig - Manipulate the basic wireless parameters.
  • iwlist - Allow's you to initiate scanning and list frequencies, bit-rates, encryption keys, etc.
  • iwspy - Displays per node link quality.
  • iwpriv - Allow's you to manipulate the Wireless Extensions specific to a driver (private).
Some examples 

[root@pikvm ~]# iw dev wlan0 scan | egrep "signal:|SSID:" | sed -e "s/\tsignal: //" -e "s/\tSSID: //" | awk '{ORS = (NR % 2 == 0)? "\n" : " "; print}' | sort

[root@pikvm ~]# iwlist wlan0 scan | egrep "Cell|ESSID|Signal|Rates"

[root@pikvm ~]# iwlist wlan0 scan

[root@pikvm ~]# iw wlan0 info

Additional resources