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I'm trying to connect to a new network with Ubuntu 12.04 and fluxbox, and I'm not sure how to get it working. In the fluxbox menu there aren't any wlan-tools or network-manager, and since I'm not on the network I can't install any additional programs like wlan_radar.

Is there a terminal way to do network scans and connect with a WPA2 password?

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You can do it through the CLI, but it would be much easier for you to use wicd – Call me V Oct 22 '12 at 18:36

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I'm not familiar with Ubuntu's Network Manager. You can always disable that using:

sudo service network-manager stop

Then use:

sudo iwlist wlan0 scanning | grep ESSID

To see if you can even see the network.

If so, and you're using wpa2, you'll have to do a few things. First generate the key/value pair that wpa_supplicant will use to connect:

sudo wpa_passphrase "mywireless_ssid" "secretpassphrase" >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Next, kill off any dhcp service (just in case it's running)

sudo pkill dhcpcd

Finally, try to connect:

wpa_supplicant -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf &

I would maybe not fork it to the background on the first attempt, just to see if it's going to work.

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after sudo wpa_passphrase "mywireless_ssid" "secretpassphrase" >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf i got the error message: /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf: Permission denied (i did replace the essid and passphrase with the actual one) – Lennier Oct 22 '12 at 19:20
@Lennier: Yes, you can't redirect output from sudo like this. Try wpa_passphrase "mywireless_ssid" "secretpassphrase" | sudo tee -a /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf instead. – ire_and_curses Oct 22 '12 at 20:01
great, just one last question: i have a password with an exclamation mark (like "lorem_ipsum!") i could pass it with the backslash \ but in the generated file there is the backslash submitted, too. wpa_passphrase "mywireless_ssid" "secretpassphrase\!" | sudo tee -a /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf Is there any way to submit an exclamation mark without backslash? – Lennier Oct 22 '12 at 20:21
@Lennier - Change the double quotes to single quotes. – ire_and_curses Oct 22 '12 at 22:09

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