Whyfi
A minimalist wireless connection manager
September 2016
Most network managers for Linux seem to malfunction frequently, yet wpa_supplicant is somewhat more stable. Whyfi is a minimalist network manager that can connect to networks, save changes and restart the interface. It's also less crashy, so far. The user interface is an interactive menu in the terminal. Whyfi is written in Python and communicates with wpa_supplicant over the wpa_cli interface.
How do I use it?
- Configure your wireless interface to use
wpa_supplicant
for control and to run a DHCP client automatically make config
; Set up your wireless interface andwpa_supplicant
parametersmake install
; Installwhyfi
somewhere in your pathwhyfi
; Run the program when you want to connect to a wireless network
Features
- Shows current network info and lists available wireless networks
- Prompts for credentials
- Supports
WPA-PSK
andWPA-EAP
(WPA Personal and Enterprise, respectively) as well asNONE
(open wireless networks) - Can connect immediately, or save wireless networks in a configuration file.
- Only 300-ish lines of Python.
- Might not crash.
- Absurdly well-documented.
Bugs
- Seems to be too lazy to reassociate to a wireless network after the laptop wakes up from sleep, or one is roaming. - This is really the
wpa_supplicant
's responsibility, but I would like working wifi so I should fix this some time. - Creates
wpa_cli
'network' configurations ad nauseum.- There is a limit, and configurations should be reused eventually.