On Gentoo, how can one connect to the WiFi from the command-line without the NetworkManager daemon running?

Question

I am running a Gentoo system with the runit init system. I can't seem to start NetworkManager as while I've set up a service for it with a run file I copied from Void Linux and enabled it (by running ln -sf /etc/sv/networkmanager /etc/service) it doesn't seem to be running (and yes the dbus service is running). I've created a package to provide this NetworkManager service and it is here, in case this issue interests you. By doesn't seem to I mean running nmtui returns:

NetworkManager is not running.

So as a temporary workaround I'm wondering if there is any way to connect to the WiFi without needing the NetworkManager daemon running. Likewise wpa_supplicant doesn't seem to work. As I ran:

wpa_supplicant -B -i interface -c <(wpa_passphrase SSID passwd)
dhclient interface

Where, of course, SSID is replaced with my SSID and passwd with my interface's password and still ping www.google.com returns the classic:

ping: unknown host www.google.com

this last command (dhclient interface) took about a minute and a half to complete, while the wpa_supplicant command immediately finished.

I have set up the wpa_supplicant daemon to run with:

sudo ln -sf /etc/sv/wpa_supplicant /etc/service/

where my wpa_supplicant run file I got from Void too. I can confirm that wpa_supplicant was running in the background, as ps ax | grep wpa returns:

 2651 ?        Ss     0:00 runsv wpa_supplicant
 3192 ?        Ss     0:00 wpa_supplicant -B -i wlo1 -c /proc/self/fd/11
18843 ?        Ss     0:00 wpa_supplicant -B -i wlo1 -c /proc/self/fd/11
22662 ?        Ss     0:00 wpa_supplicant -B -i wlo1 -c /proc/self/fd/11

where, of course, wlo1 is my WiFi interface.

Answer 1

You can connect to Wifi on linux system through wpa_supplicant , you don't need the network-manager , the nmtui is a text user interface for network-manager.

Check if there are a wpa_supplicant already running through ps command , make sure to kill process killall wpa_supplicant before using the wpa_supplicant command.

To temporary connect without creating a configuration file:

killall wpa_supplicant
wpa_supplicant -B -i <interface> -c <(wpa_passphrase SSID password)
dhcpcd

To connect using a configuration file:

create a /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file with the following content:

/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

ctrl_interface=/run/wpa_supplicant
update_config=1

To configure some access point use:

wpa_passphrase SSID password >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Connect:

killall wpa_supplicant
wpa_supplicant -B -i <interface> -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
dhcpcd

Also you can use the wpa_cli tool to manage and connect through the cli.

Gentoo wiki : wpa_supplicant