Setup Wifi without ethernet

Situations like the following:

• You have a Raspberry Pi without built-in wired ethernet so wifi is the only option.
• You want to use Raspberry Pi’s built-in Wifi.
• You don’t have wired ethernet available.

See what networking options are available on the various models of the Raspberry Pi—see Raspberry Pi.

Below is the standard format of a wpa_supplicant.conf file that is generated by piCorePlayer.

# Maintained by piCorePlayer
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=staff
# Two Character Country Code
country=US
update_config=1

network={
	ssid="yourssid"
	psk="password"
	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
	auth_alg=OPEN
}

Under most circumstances it is probably better to let piCorePlayer maintain your wpa_supplicant.conf file—see Maintained by piCorePlayer.

But if you really have a more complex wifi setup and know how to generate the appropriate wpa_supplicant.conf properly, then the # Maintained by user method can be used—see Maintained by user.

Maintained by piCorePlayer

Step 1

Burn image to a SD card—see Burn piCorePlayer onto a SD card.

Step 2

Create a new file, or download a sample wpa_supplicant.conf and modify.

• Used for quick setup at boot.
• Can be later maintained via pCP web interface.
• Do not use special characters.

Type or copy one of the following using your text editor (ie. Notepad++).

Maintained by piCorePlayer

# Maintained by piCorePlayer
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=staff
# Two Character Country Code
country=US
update_config=1

network={
	ssid="yourssid"
	psk="password"
	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
	auth_alg=OPEN
}

Bare minimum

ssid="yourssid"
psk="password"

Step 3

[Save As] the file “DRIVE:\wpa_supplicant.conf” to the boot partition.

On a Windows PC, DRIVE will be the drive letter for your SD card. (ie. F:)

Step 4

Eject SD card.

Step 5

Insert SD card into piCorePlayer.

Step 6

Apply power.

Example of wpa_supplicant.conf processing

Step 1 - User created wpa_supplicant.conf

ssid="yourssid"
psk="yourpassword"

Step 2 - piCorePlayer created wpa_supplicant.conf

# 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
}

Step 3 - piCorePlayer GUI created wpa_supplicant.conf

# 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
}

Maintained by user

For advanced users.

Step 1

Burn image to a SD card—see Burn piCorePlayer onto a SD card.

Step 2

• User maintains by placing this on the boot disk to update.
• pCP will not modify in any way.
• Special Characters are allowed.

# Maintained by user
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=staff
# Two Character Country Code
country=US
update_config=1

network={
	ssid="Your SSID"
	psk="[email protected]"
	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
	auth_alg=OPEN
}

Step 3

[Save As] the file “DRIVE:\wpa_supplicant.conf” to the boot partition.

On a Windows PC, DRIVE will be the drive letter for your SD card. (ie. F:)

Step 4

Eject SD card.

Step 5

Insert SD card into piCorePlayer.

Step 6

Apply power.

Using setup with keyboard and monitor

Step 1 - Create SD card

Burn image to a SD card—see Burn piCorePlayer onto a SD card.

Step 2 - Boot piCorePlayer

• Insert SD card
• Plug in keyboard and monitor
• Apply power

Step 3 - Login

• Login into your piCorePlayer:
  • login as: tc
  • password: piCore (default)
• Type setup.

Step 4 - Read message

• Click [OK].

Step 5 - Select Wifi

• Select [Wifi].
• Click [Select].

Step 6 - Wifi already on

Step 7 - Enter SSID and password

• Enter your SSID.
• Enter your Password.
• Click [Save].

Step 8 - Reboot

• Click [Yes].

Step 9 - Final

piCorePlayer will reboot with wifi active.

More information

• Setup Wifi
• 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