iwd: improving on wpa_supplicant

[Head_on_a_Stick]

The iNet Wireless Daemon (iwd) project aims to provide a comprehensive Wi-Fi connectivity solution for Linux based devices. The core goal of the project is to optimize resource utilization: storage, runtime memory and link-time costs. This is accomplished by not depending on any external libraries and utilizes features provided by the Linux Kernel to the maximum extent possible. The result is a self-contained environment that only depends on the Linux Kernel and the runtime C library.

https://iwd.wiki.kernel.org/

The iwd package can be used as a drop-in replacement for wpa_supplicant and works well with both NetworkManager and systemd-networkd. The versions in testing/unstable have a built-in DHCP client and so can be used as a standalone wirleless networking solution.

Usage

NetworkManager

Install the iwd package then create a file at /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/wifi_backend.conf with this content:

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[device]
wifi.backend=iwd

Then reboot, iwd should be running instead of wpa_supplicant.

systemd-networkd

Disable wpa_supplicant and enable iwd instead:

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# systemctl enable iwd

To connect to the access point without NetworkManager run the interactive command line tool: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Iwd#iwctl

Standalone

To use iwd by itself (ie, without NetworkManager or systemd-networkd) edit /etc/iwd/main.conf and add this section:

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[General]
EnableNetworkConfiguration=true

Then edit the connection file at /var/lib/iwd/$ssid.psk (replace $ssid with the name of the access point) and add the IP address configuration, for example:

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[IPv4]
ip=192.168.1.51
gateway=192.168.1.254

Adjust the values according to the network in use (a 24-bit netmask is assumed), use ip r to list the current values.

I've backported the testing/unstable version to Debian buster, packages here: https://software.opensuse.org//download ... ackage=iwd

Once the newer package is installed delete the file at /usr/lib/modules-load.d/pkcs8.conf to avoid a unit failure for the module loading service on reboot.

[Deb-fan]

Thanks, always interested in networking stuff. Networkd + wpa_supplicant works great, only been using it briefly. People have tried this setup(with iwd), found noticeable benefits-improvements over wpa_supplicant? Very pleased with what I'm using and haven't gotten down how to best use it as yet. Still there's always room for improvement. Cool, will research further.

[oswaldkelso]

Cheers for putting me on to iwd hoas

This is what I did from my notes when on buster.
I can't recall if I just removed wpa_supplicant or not. Anyway it was easy and worked well though I live in the middle of nowhere so have no need of encryption. If you do there are a few extra steps (Arch wiki)

#Show network hardware available on MY laptop: (wls33)
code:

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ip link

output:
$ ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: ens34: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 90:fb:a6:87:be:0e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wls33: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
link/ether f0:7b:cb:90:bf:4f brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

#iirc lines starting with "e" are ethernet "w" wifi


#show network wifi available for connection and their names : "Swift 2 Plus" (my phone) TNCAP5B7823 (router) & Belkin_G_Plus_MIMO_C51B1F (switch)
The ">" shows the currently connected one.

code:

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iwctl station wls33 get-networks

output:
iwctl station wls33 get-networks
Available networks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network name Security Signal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TNCAP5B7823 open ****
> Belkin_G_Plus_MIMO_C51B1F open ****
Swift 2 Plus open ****

#I would make connection with one of the following:

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iwctl station wls33  connect "Swift 2 Plus" 
iwctl station wls33  connect  Belkin_G_Plus_MIMO_C51B1F
iwctl station wls33  connect  TNCAP5B7823  

#test connection,with ping. You should see something like this:

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ping -c 3 gnu.org

PING gnu.org (209.51.188.148) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from wildebeest.gnu.org (209.51.188.148): icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=101 ms
64 bytes from wildebeest.gnu.org (209.51.188.148): icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=99.4 ms
64 bytes from wildebeest.gnu.org (209.51.188.148): icmp_seq=3 ttl=52 time=100 ms

--- gnu.org ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 4ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 99.413/100.104/100.567/0.497 ms

edit: I checked my irc logs and found a conversation about it. Looks like I just removed wpa_supplicant dhcpclient and connman.

I tried iwd on a Debian stystem, eventually I was able to remove wpa_supplicant dhcpclient and connman
basically it has it's own dhcpclient built in I only needed dhcpcd and iwd to connect... assuming I did it all correctly

So just iwd and dhcpcd?

yes as far as I could tell. The only thing I did wonder was if there were some configs left from the previous wifi clients.
But I don't think so as I started it if found the wifi and eth0 I chose and it connected

Via GUI?

No terminal. There was dhcpcd-gtk . I tried it but the weight was the same as connman-get so tried iwd

[Deb-fan]

^ Has to be considered an upvote. Am sure looked this over eval'ing a replacement for Ceni though there was much ado surrounding networkd + wpa_supplicant so just went with that. Iwd seems really straight forward, wondering what quantifiable benefits are had using it vs wpaspplicant ? System overhead, speeds, connection stability, better security to an extent, the types of things users are bound to care about ? Looks easy enough to setup/config not seeing anything wpa_supp can't handle too. Will have to look for stats, aka: iwd vs wpa googling. Hoping someone with a decent degree of hands on will post something solid, one way or the other or someone already setup do some testing?

Edit: Not in a spot to test and not overly motivated to replace a config working great regardless. Still thanks, seems fairly well documented will eventually test things, cause why not.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I only needed dhcpcd and iwd to connect

You don't need dhcpcd for the version in testing/unstable, iwd now has it's own DHCP client built in:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Iw ... figuration