This post is older than a year. Consider some information might not be accurate anymore.
This post explains how to setup a WiFi (WPA prototcol) connection on Raspbian. You will need an USB WiFi dongle attached to the Raspberry Pi.
Check if the dongle is recognized with lsusb
root@pelion:~# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0409:005a NEC Corp. HighSpeed Hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 7392:7811 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd EW-7811Un 802.11n Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8188CUS]
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 18a5:0408 Verbatim, Ltd
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 1845:0104
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 1058:0705 Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
You should find something similar like above entry with wireless.
Check if wlan adapter is available with ifconfig or iwconfig.
root@pelion:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
inet addr:192.168.1.122 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:5743385 errors:0 dropped:461 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:6026159 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:2793859426 (2.6 GiB) TX bytes:3795578538 (3.5 GiB)
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:14036 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:14036 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:4439608 (4.2 MiB) TX bytes:4439608 (4.2 MiB)
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Output of iwconfig
root@pelion:/etc/wpa_supplicant# iwconfig
wlan0 unassociated Nickname:"<wifi @REALTEK>"
Mode:Managed Frequency=2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Sensitivity:0/0
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
Add WLAN details (name, type and authentication data) in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Add network data
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
ssid="my_wlan_name"
# wlan key
psk="gggg-0000-uuuu-nnnn_replace_with_your_key"
# Protocol type can be: RSN (for WP2) and WPA (for WPA1)
proto=RSN
# Key management type can be: WPA-PSK or WPA-EAP (Pre-Shared or Enterprise)
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
# Pairwise can be CCMP or TKIP (for WPA2 or WPA1)
pairwise=TKIP
}
If your WLAN SSID is not hidden, you can scan accessible WLANs with iwlist scan. Replace above SSID and WLAN key.
With the next reboot the wlan adapter should be connected to your WLAN. Next section test the WLAN connection manually.
Bringing up the interface
ifconfig wlan0 up
Connect to WLAN with SSID office
iwconfig wlan0 essid office
Check iwconfig
root@pelion:~# iwconfig
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"office" Nickname:"<wifi @REALTEK>"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Sensitivity:0/0
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:****-****-****-****-****-****-****-**** Security mode:open
Power Management:off
Link Quality=100/100 Signal level=95/100 Noise level=0/100
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
Acquire IP address via DHCP from your router
root@pelion:~# dhclient -v wlan0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.2.2
Copyright 2004-2011 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/wlan0/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Sending on LPF/wlan0/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.1
DHCPACK from 192.168.1.1
Reloading /etc/samba/smb.conf: smbd only.
bound to 192.168.1.124 -- renewal in 37014 seconds.
