Wifi

Three wifi setup methods

piCorePlayer has 3 wifi setup methods:

1. Using the piCorePlayer web GUI.
2. Adding wpa_supplicant.conf to the boot partition.
3. Using piCorePlayer setup CLI.

1 - piCorePlayer web GUI - the preferred method

To initially access piCorePlayer’s [Wifi Settings] web page you will need wired ethernet access.

As the majority of Raspberry Pi’s have a wired ethernet option, using Option 1 - Using the piCorePlayer web GUI is the preferred method—see Setup Wifi.

After inputting your wifi information into the [Wifi Settings] web page and clicking [Save], piCorePlayer will generate a nicely formatted wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file for you.

Basic format of wpa_supplicant.conf

# Maintained by piCorePlayer
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=staff
country=CC
update_config=1

network={
        #enc_ssid="yourssid"
        ssid="yourssid"
        psk=6554d2e9bbf47ce37dd95fffc7a6d25d9ef54e477dbd04ed1aa7f724b7e6747f
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        auth_alg=OPEN
}

2 - Adding wpa_supplicant.conf to the boot partition

It was decided rather than rely on the user to provide a 100% correctly formatted wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file, piCorePlayer would extract some of the settings from the existing wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file and generate a new, correctly formatted wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file.

The basic process:

1. Look for wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file on the boot partition.
2. If found, extract the ssid and psk.
3. Create a new /usr/local/etc/pcp/wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file.
4. Rename original wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file on boot partition to used_wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file.

Basic format of wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file

Next, after you boot piCorePlayer your minimal wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file will be converted to a working wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file formatted like the example below:

# Maintained by piCorePlayer
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=staff
update_config=1

network={
        #enc_ssid="yourssid"
        ssid="yourssid"
        psk="yourpassword"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        auth_alg=OPEN
}

Note there are two issues with this wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file:

• It still has the password in clear text.
• The country code is missing.

Minimal wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file

You can create a minimal wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file with just two lines, one line containing your ssid and the other your password. For example:

ssid="yourssid"
psk="yourpassword"

GUI formatted wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file

It is advisable to use the [Wifi Settings] web page to complete the process of creating a wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file with a passphrase and a country code. The final format looks like this:

# Maintained by piCorePlayer
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=staff
country=AU
update_config=1

network={
        #enc_ssid="yourssid"
        ssid="yourssid"
        psk=bd9abb43d0e2dd30bd92049f926debe09fc87c8eb18f1bdabe8e17453020bfa6
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        auth_alg=OPEN
}

3 - Using piCorePlayer setup CLI

Requires a keyboard and monitor—see Using setup with keyboard and monitor.

Force piCorePlayer to ignore wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file

This wifi setup method is used for complex wifi network setups that:

• have an unusual ssid.
• have an unusual password.
• have multiple networks.
• are corporate networks.

By simply adding # Maintained by user to the first line of the wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file (it must be exactly # Maintained by user including spaces and capitalisation) the wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file will be copied from the boot partition to /usr/local/etc/pcp/ without piCorePlayer checking for, and correcting, errors.

This method requires the user to create the wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file 100% correctly otherwise wifi will not connect to the network.

The piCorePlayer GUI will not work with your custom wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file. piCorePlayer setup tools will completely ignore your custom wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file.

See Setup Wifi without ethernet - Maintained by user,

Wifi AP

We have decided not to activate a Wifi Access Point (WAP) by default.

More information

• Setup Wifi
• Setup Wifi without ethernet
• Wifi does not work
• Example wpa_supplicant configuration file
• WPA Supplicant
• The Short List - Superstar USB WiFi Adapters for Linux
• Utility for compiling out of tree kernel modules for pCP Kernels