Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo + wifi

[Philip Webb]

210321 Matt Connell (Gmail) wrote:
> On Sun, 2021-03-21 at 21:25 -0400, Philip Webb wrote:
>> my question is, if I use the Wifi services,
>> is whether I would need to add hardware to my machine
> It depends on if your motherboard has an integrated Wifi chip or not.
> If it does not have an external connector for an antenna,
> it probably doesn't have the hardware.  However, USB wifi adapters
> are quite affordable and sufficient for your use case, in my opinion.

I built the machine in 2015 & it doesn't have an integrated Wifi chip.
I plan to built a new machine in Autumn 2021, so it looks
as if I wb best simply transfering my present set-up to my new place
& exploring the possibilities of Wifi after I've got organised there.

>> & whether I would need to add any packages to my Gentoo system.
> Yes, you will.  You'll need to find out what chipset is used
> by the adapter you want to add.  Once you have that,
> you can enable the appropriate kernel drivers and rebuild,
> then you'll need to install 'net-wireless/wpa_supplicant'
> to make the actual connection.  'wpa_supplicant' can be cumbersome
> to set up by hand, but the Arch wiki has a very comprehensive page[1]
> on how to configure it.  Alternatively, there are GUI tools
> for managing the configuration the aptly named 'wpa_gui' is usually enough;
> to get this, you need to enable the 'qt5' USE flag for 'wpa_supplicant',
> but if you're connecting to 1 network and never changing the configuration,
> that mb overkill.  [1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wpa_supplicant

Thanks for your very clear, prompt & comprehensive explanation (big smile).

-- 
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT     ___________//___,   Philip Webb
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|   Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'   purslowatchassdotutorontodotca