WiFi after initial install
Hello the list!
I have a Mini-ITX PC, a few months old, running KDE on Stretch.
When I installed it, I used a Stretch netinst image burned to a USB
stick and had the wired ethernet plugged in, for speed during the
installation. (and also because I didn't know what fun and games I'd end
up having with firmware if I tried to install with WiFi).
After the duly-installed machine was located in its final home, well out
of reach of ethernet cables, I set up the WiFi using native KDE network
tool thingy (bottom right corner of the screen).
This works but has the, to me significant, disadvantage that if a user
has not logged into the machine, it is not connected to the network. So
I can't fire up the machine and then log into it remotely from my other
computers to do remote maintenance etc.
It also seems to lose the network when the machine locks, but I am not
sure about this, as the machine is right on the edge of the WiFi
router's range, so it could be just getting lost when it goes quiet. I
have purchased a WiFi extension and will be setting it up once I have
networking more comfortably installed on this box.
So, what I'd like to do, is set up WiFi networking on this box the
"right", up to date, "Debian" way, so it becomes available on boot and
doesn't require someone to have logged into KDE before the machine can
be accessed remotely.
I'm somewhat aware of systemd-networkd, and I know that it is super-easy
to set up a DHCP-based wired ethernet connection that way, and I also
know it is possible to do so with a WiFi connection too -- but I
strongly suspect that is not the "Debian way".
The WiFi connection is secured with a password, and my access point is
also a DHCP server. I'm expecting to use DHCP to get an IP address as I
do with all other machines on my network.
All my past Debian experience of setting up WiFi is pre-systemd /
pre-stretch, and a long time in my past so I have forgotten more than I
ever knew :) Outside Debian, I've done it on LFS using systemd-networkd
-- I know that can be made to work but it doesn't seem very Debianesque
to me.
Any suggestions on what I should do to set this up?
TIA
Mark
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