Forums

nicoo
nicoo
Offline
Resolved
0 votes
Hi,
I installed clearOS today. After the reboot, I'm unable to figure how to connect my clearOS to my wifi. I can't use a ethernet, in this case the box is far of my computer and I was expecting to propose to deploy a computer with clearOS at my job, here again I can't plug ethernet, it's a big open space...

I'm using linux everyday. Not afraid of the console line or whatsoever. ClearOS is not a typical linux, so tell me the options I have.

Thx!
Saturday, October 06 2018, 01:25 AM
Share this post:
Responses (14)
  • Accepted Answer

    Todd
    Todd
    Offline
    Tuesday, August 13 2019, 04:56 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    I actually use libqmi to control my LTE modems. I have it working on clearos with network manager. I only have network manager managing the /dev/cd-wdmX device. I setup the connection through a dispatcher script. It works pretty well
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Tuesday, August 13 2019, 03:36 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    Yes, you are spot on about NetworkManager being the ultimate way forward. There is some difficulty with the 7 roadmap which makes things quite unstable if NM is enabled. That being said, NM isn't required for wireless LAN but it is pretty much required for WWAN since the mbim libraries are highly developed for working with NetworkManager. In ClearOS 8 we must embrace Network Manager.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Todd
    Todd
    Offline
    Monday, August 12 2019, 04:24 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    redhat kind of dump init.d ifg files infavor of Network Manager. Its nice, but you have to be familiar with dbus.

    You could have network manager handle the wifi connection
    https://docs.ubuntu.com/core/en/stacks/network/network-manager/docs/configure-wifi-connections

    Then hand off the ip / networking setup to init.d
    http://www.szakmeister.net/blog/2017/jun/1/static-ip-nmcli/

    set the ipv4.method to manual , then use a dispatcher script to set the ip address.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Monday, August 12 2019, 03:58 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    Wireless access was unbolted from the app-network stack because it only supported WEP and the maintainer at the time didn't have cycles to integrate the WPA and better auth. It would probably work there best as a new model/library so that configuration can be done in one-stop.

    This would also ultimately allow for wireless NICs to share the same bridge as physical NICs. I've worked on a project before which used ClearOS as an AP where the AP was just bridged to a bank of NICs. What this gave as a situation similar to many off the shelf routers which bridge the wireless to the bank of 4 NICs.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Monday, August 12 2019, 03:56 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    It used to be possible to configure a wireless client through the ifcfg files. The way it was done in ClearOS was limited to WEP security and the old code can be found in gitlab before it got removed. I don't know if it can be dusted off and re-implemented with better security but I seem to remember it was relatively far reaching. I wonder if it is possible to research Redhat's implementation if the ifcfg file.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Monday, August 12 2019, 11:05 AM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    Unfortunately your merge request https://gitlab.com/clearos/clearfoundation/app-network/merge_requests/9 is still outstanding and waiting on Dave to find the time. I'll ask again as I really also need the app unblocked for changes (it has most of your commits but not all so I can't work on it) so I can do some changes.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Todd
    Todd
    Offline
    Monday, August 12 2019, 05:29 AM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    I have a new wireless AP I've been working on for clearos.

    https://gitlab.com/gs_clearos/app-wireless-ap

    I also want to build a wireless ap client.
    Right now you can configure the wireless ap client by hand. I have a couple scripts that can help.

    Install wpa_supplicant

    yum install wpa_supplicant


    Create credentials for the network you want to connect to

    wpa_passphrase "YOUR-SSID" YOUR-PASSWD >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf


    WPA Client start script

    cat >> /sbin/ifup-pre-local <<'EOL'
    ifcfg-wl*)
    echo $1
    interface="$(echo $1 | sed 's/ifcfg-//g')"
    echo $interface
    if grep -q $interface /etc/hostapd/*; then
    echo $interface already in user by hostapd
    else
    echo $interface is free, trying wpa_supplicant
    /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -i $interface -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
    fi
    ;;
    EOL

    chmod 755 /sbin/ifup-pre-local


    WPA Client shutdown script

    cat >> /sbin/ifdown-local << 'EOL'
    #!/bin/sh

    #ifcfg_file="ifcfg-wlp6s0"
    ifcfg_file=$1
    echo $ifcfg_file

    interface="$(echo $ifcfg_file | sed 's/ifcfg-//g')"
    echo $interface

    case "$interface" in
    wl*)
    if grep -q $interface /etc/hostapd/*; then
    echo $interface already in user by hostapd
    else
    echo $interface stopping wpa supplicant
    /usr/sbin/wpa_cli -p /var/run/wpa_supplicant -i $interface disconnect
    /usr/sbin/wpa_cli -p /var/run/wpa_supplicant -i $interface terminate
    fi
    ;;
    esac
    exit 0
    EOL

    chmod 755 /sbin/ifdown-local


    Now go to the network manager and add the wifi as an internal or external interface.
    This script also checks to see if the interface is configured in hostapd, it will stop it it its configured as an AP.
    You'll need the latest network app to configure the wifi

    I added some patches to the Network app to make bridging easier. Mainly because wifi connections are almost always bridged.
    https://gitlab.com/clearos/clearfoundation/app-network

    I think most of my patches have already been merged into the main branch. I have to check

    References:
    https://linux.die.net/man/8/wpa_cli
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=571188
    https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/370318/how-to-connect-to-wifi-in-centos-7clino-gui
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=318539
    https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-wireless-networking-41/how-do-i-kill-wpa_supplicant-498521/



    Note:
    It would be better to let network manager handle wpa clients.I could see Network Manager replacing syswatch. I like that network manager can check connectivity on multiple interfaces in parallel.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Sunday, May 19 2019, 04:51 AM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    That is true, you have to configure things by hand. The wpa-supplicant method is how you can get this working:

    https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Laptops/WpaSupplicant
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Friday, May 17 2019, 09:32 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    HI Dave, that will work for AP mode but you have to configure IP settings by hand as that was removed from the webconfig. In the case of the OP here, I think he wanted to use the WiFi as his WAN connection. This was also covered by the IP Settings screen, but only gave you 802.11g with WEP, so not too fast and not very secure
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Friday, May 17 2019, 08:19 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    It was not my decision to remove the app-wireless from the marketplace. It was a collaborative project to which I contributed the backend spec and others completed the front end UI bits. If you are interested, I can help you get it going and perhaps we can resurrect the front-end from the dead now that I have some resources to redo frontends.

    The code is still there and you can download the elements from command line with:

    yum install app-wireless

    Now, if your wireless card supports master mode then you will need to use the hostapd functions but the wpa-supplicant is sufficient for client-side access. There are some things that we might be able to do as well with another experimental app that I'm releasing soon.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Friday, May 17 2019, 05:53 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    nicoo wrote:

    Hi Wayland Sothcott
    I was not expecting an answer anymore...
    I've put clearOS in a virtual machine. Then I was able to bind the vm ethernet interface to the wifi host interface. Anyway, I gave up clearOS for now, but I will certainly being back with a docker made by the guys from WikiSuite project.


    Hello Nicoo, I was doing my bit for the community and answering questions where I could. ClearOS definitely makes getting a server going a lot easier leaving you with a server that's easy to manage. Better stil one my clients can manage. However to get tricky things done we do have to drop into the shell prompt and tinker there.

    This was one of those jobs that can be done all from Web UI both on ClearOS and Linksys and WiFi booster. In fact those boosters are so easy to use now you've just got to press the WPS buttons on router and booster and it does the rest.

    It's a shame they took WiFi control out of ClearOS but really it's not the place for it.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Friday, May 17 2019, 04:26 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    It is a pity, but ClearOS used to support a Wireless WAN, albeit only with a (very) insecure WEP configuration. You can, of course, still do it all manually, but a cheap WiFi extender with an Ethernet NIC is much easier ...... or powerline.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    nicoo
    nicoo
    Offline
    Friday, May 17 2019, 03:50 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    Hi Wayland Sothcott
    I was not expecting an answer anymore...
    I've put clearOS in a virtual machine. Then I was able to bind the vm ethernet interface to the wifi host interface. Anyway, I gave up clearOS for now, but I will certainly being back with a docker made by the guys from WikiSuite project.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
  • Accepted Answer

    Friday, May 17 2019, 03:15 PM - #Permalink
    Resolved
    0 votes
    You've got it backwards.
    The server can basically be put anywhere that your network can be made to reach. It's just a headless PC with no screen, keyboard or mouse.
    If there is already WiFi access to the network you could just put ClearOS near an Ethernet socket and plug the Ethernet wire in. You take ClearOS to where your Ethernet socket is, that's why I say you have it backwards.

    However if there is no possibility of plugging the Ethernet into the ClearOS then you can do WiFi in the following way. You will need what is sold as a WiFi booster. You WiFi this into your Wireless network as per it's instructions. You then run the Ethernet wire from ClearOS into the booster.

    Here is one;
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WiFi-Blast-Wireless-Repeater-Wi-Fi-Range-Extender-300Mbps-WifiBlast-Amplifier-UK/273818260523?hash=item3fc0d7142b:g:uicAAOSwGrVcoy-B

    Notice it has an Ethernet port, this is essential. It's not the type which sends signals over the mains, it's just a WiFi device.
    The reply is currently minimized Show
Your Reply