Adventures with Wireless for NetBSD

Notes

My /etc/rc.conf file has the following:

dhcpcd=YES
dhcpcd_flags="-qM wm0 iwn0"

However, I find this from dhcpcd man page concerning the -M flag:

Multiple interfaces

If a list of interfaces are given on the command line, then dhcpcd only works with those interfaces, otherwise dhcpcd discovers available Ethernet interfaces that can be configured. When dhcpcd is not limited to one interface on the command line, it is running in Manager mode. The dhcpcd-ui project expects dhcpcd to be running this way.

If a single interface is given then dhcpcd only works for that interface and runs as a separate instance to other dhcpcd processes. The -w, –waitip option is enabled in this instance to maintain compatibility with older versions. Using a single interface, optionally further limited to an address protocol, also affects the -k, -N, -n and -x options, where the same interface and any address protocol will need to be specified, as a lack of an interface will imply Manager mode which this is not. To force starting in Manager mode with only one interface, the -M, –manager option can be used.

I will comment out dhcpcd_flags to see if that allows iwn0 to get an IP address. If that fails, I will set dhcpcd_flags with only iwn0.

Commenting out dhcpcd_flags seems to work. I unplugged my ethernet cable from wm0 and rebooted. When NetBSD fully booted, my wireless NIC had an IP address!. Before, the only way I could get an IP address was to have the ethernet cable plugged into wm0.

My Working Setup

/etc/rc.conf

sshd=YES
ntpd=YES
ntpdate=YES
hostname=netwriter.ronverbs.dev
# Network
ifconfig_iwn0="up"
wpa_supplicant=YES
wpa_supplicant_flags="-i iwn0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"
dhcpcd=YES
# dhcpcd_flags="-qM wm0 iwn0"
# ----------

/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
update_config=1
network={
        ssid="Brentwood Guest"
        psk=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
        scan_ssid=1
}
network={
        ssid="Brentwood"
        psk=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
        scan_ssid=10
}

Now, rebooting still allows me access to the web via wireless.

Another Note about wpa_supplicant:

I was getting the following when trying to connect, but once I removed the dhcpcd_flags line from /etc/rc.conf, that went away.

Starting wpa_supplicant.
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
ioctl[SIOCS80211, op=20, val=0, arg_len=7]: Invalid argument
ioctl[SIOCS80211, op=20, val=0, arg_len=7]: Invalid argument