Connect to password protected wifi network using adb shell

Question

I have an Android phone, and the goal is to connect the phone to a password protected wifi network.

Steps I know so far:

adb root
adb shell svc wifi enable

Ok sweet, wifi is turned on. Now I need to connect the phone a certain wireless network that requires a password. I am hoping I can connect using an adb shell command.

Any help?

I would rather not download programs onto the device

Answer 1

This is possible to achieve using wpa_cli, command line interface of wpa_supplicant:

# Get to the shell
adb root
adb shell

# Get to wpa_cli prompt
wpa_cli -p /data/misc/wifi/sockets/ -i wlan0

# Add new WiFi network
add_network
set_network 0 auth_alg OPEN
set_network 0 key_mgmt WPA-PSK
set_network 0 ssid "network_name"
set_network 0 proto RSN
set_network 0 mode 0
set_network 0 psk "password"

# Connect to it
select_network 0
enable_network 0
reassociate

# Check the status
status

In the above list of commands, add_network command will output the index of the new network, which should be used for the subsequent commands. In this example, this index is 0.

Answer 2

Use this procedure [more details included :) ]

1- Make sure wpa_supplicant is running. Look for its pid using this command:

pidof wpa_supplicant

This command should return the pid of wpa_supplicant process. If nothing returned, wpa_supplicant is not running. Use svc command to turn off wifi and then turned it on again:

svc wifi disable
svc wifi enable

2- Read control interface directory from wpa_supplicant.conf file. This file usually exists in /data/misc/wifi/. Open this file using cat command:

cat /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf

update_config=1
ctrl_interface=/data/misc/wpa_supplicant
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

Note: to find wpa_supplicant.conf file you can search using find command in root directory. Goto root directory using cd / command and use find command to find wpa_supplicant.conf:

find . -name wpa_supplicant.conf

Go to control interface directory specified by ctrl_interafce. First file in this directory is the interface name.

cd /data/misc/wpa_supplicant
ls
wlan0

You are going to need "control interface" and "interface name" for executing wpa_cli command.

Note: if you incorrectly input these 2 parameters for wpa_cli command, the wpa_cli could not connect to wpa_supplicant and returns this message:

Interactive mode

Could not connect to wpa_supplicant: plan - re-trying

Or it may connect to wpa_supplicant but return UNKNOW COMMAND for its interactive commands like this:

> scan
UNKNOWN COMMAND
>add_network
UNKNOWN COMMAND

3- Execute wpa_cli command using above mentioned parameters:

wpa_cli -p [control directory path] -i [interface name]
wpa_cli -p /data/misc/wpa_supplicant -i wlan0

This commands then enter to interactive mode where you can scan and find networks, attach to them and ...

# Add new WiFi network
add_network
set_network 0 auth_alg OPEN
set_network 0 key_mgmt WPA-PSK
set_network 0 ssid "network_name"
set_network 0 proto RSN
set_network 0 mode 0
set_network 0 psk "password"

# Connect to it
select_network 0
enable_network 0
reassociate

# Check the status
status

save_config

Using save_config you can store these settings back into the wpa_supplicant.conf file for future use. You can recall these setting next time by enable_network command. Next time you want to enable wifi use these commands:

wpa_cli -p /data/misc/wpa_supplicant -i wlan0

enable network 0

0 is network id. You can use list_networks to find other stored configurations. For further information regarding wpa_cli refer to this document: Also full interactive commands of wpa_cli is documented in this page.

http://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/plain/wpa_supplicant/README

I used this procedure for configuring wifi on Android on Orange Pi 2G IOT.