How to Connect to Wireless Automatically? (Non-graphical)

Question

I'm trying to set up my Arch Linux so that, through non-graphical means, I can connect to a wireless network through profiles on my system.

I have tried net-auto-wireless, and it does everything I have specified, but I want it to be able to connect once it has the ability. For instance, if the first attempt was unsuccessful or if a network becomes within range after the daemon has been started.

Is there a way to do this easily? Is there something with netcfg, net-profiles or similar that I missed?

EDIT:

I read here [ https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=110253 ] that netcfg operates in this non-reconnecting way by design (it is said in post #3 that it is in the ArchLinux wiki page for netcfg, but I could not find anything saying this).

If this is the case, is there any way I can seamlessly reconnect? Perhaps through CLI means other than netcfg?

Also, I would rather not use NetworkManager, because the manual for nm-cli (NM's CLI counterpart) stated that polkit-gnome is required to query for non-existing connection credentials, and I just would like a universally-applicable solution (One that will work on an ArchLinux setup that may not have a graphical setup, or headless Linux distributions in general)

Answer 1

There is a helpful comparison of wireless management methods on the Arch Wiki.

If you are looking for a combination of automation, ie., you do not want to manually issue commands every time you connect to a network, and are looking for a lightweight solution that can be run both in X and in a TTY, then wicd-curses fulfills the criteria.

It has few dependencies and is also able to manage your wired connection.

For an even simpler approach, there is also a Bash Wifi Connector script that will provide the base functionality with no additional dependencies.¹

^{1. Read the thread on the Arch boards.}