PandaBoard: Setting up Wifi on the comand line (Ubuntu)

If you want to set up Wifi from the command line (it might be the only way to install a desktop for example) you will need to edit the following file:

/etc/network/interfaces 

If you don't know how to use vim or other command line text editors and just want to edit the file, try installing nano this needs an Internet connection though),with:

sudo apt-get install nano

Nano is fairly obvious as it follows normal GUI based methodologies.

Now you can use nano (or any other text editor, just substitute it for 'nano' in the below command) to edit the interfaces file:

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

To determine what entries should go into this file review the options at this page:

My interfaces file looks like the following (I am using WPA2 security):
 
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-ssid <--NAME OF AP-->
wpa-ap-scan 1
wpa-proto RSN
wpa-pairwise CCMP
wpa-group CCMP
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-psk <--INSERT KEY XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-->
 
The items in green above are placeholders for your security settings. You need to replace them with


Once you have completed the amendments to the interfaces file and want to test the setup enter the following command to restart the networking services:


sudo service networking restart

If that all goes well, check the interface is working (up) with this command:

ifconfig wlan0

Hopefully some traffic is reported to have taken place and that an IPv4 address has been allocated.

If not, check the dmesg log for error messages:

dmesg

Finally to test everything is working, try pinging a site, for example:

ping www.google.com



Comments

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting...

(pulls out laptop)
Mihir Shah said…
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"dlink"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:24:01:BA:57:0B
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=65/70 Signal level=-45 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

this is what i get wen i do iwconfig..
my interface file is same as yours using wpa2....but unable to ping google.com shows unknown host google.com
and also dmesg o/p:

[ 2642.408630] wlan0: deauthenticated from 00:24:01:ba:57:0b (Reason: 6)
[ 2642.529327] cfg80211: All devices are disconnected, going to restore regulatory settings
[ 2642.529388] cfg80211: Restoring regulatory settings
[ 2642.529449] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[ 2644.437713] wlan0: authenticate with 00:24:01:ba:57:0b (try 1)
[ 2644.440338] wlan0: authenticated
[ 2644.501159] wlan0: associate with 00:24:01:ba:57:0b (try 1)
[ 2644.504974] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:24:01:ba:57:0b (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=2)
[ 2644.505004] wlan0: associated
[ 2644.583679] wl1271: Association completed.


still internet is not working on pandaboard es...please help
IFA said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
IFA said…
I really like ubuntu but its very sad most of the i need to work via command and post like this really help me a lot.
WiFi