Get a Working Wi-Fi Connection in an Artix Installation

by Michael Skyba
(Initially written on 2021-04-20)

While Arch and Gentoo have had internet working mostly out-of-the-box, Artix has not. I thought it could be beneficial if I compiled a list of steps:

1. Become root: su

2. Make an initial wpa_supplicant configuration

Create /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf with the following lines:

ctrl_interface=/run/wpa_supplicant
update_config=1

3. Make sure rfkill isn’t active

rfkill unblock wifi

4. Start wpa_supplicant

wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

My device name was ‘wlan0’, but you should edit the command if yours is different.

5. Run wpa_cli

wpa_cli
scan
scan_results
add_network
set_network 0 ssid "<the name of your wifi network>"
set_network 0 psk "<the password of your wifi network>"
enable_network 0
save_config
quit

Of course, this could be significantly more complicated depending on what kind of security your network is using.

6. Start dhcpcd: dhcpcd

You should be done. I’ve done two Artix installs and both of them have succeeded with this procedure. Note that for both I have used the base-runit installation; it’s possible that using a different init system (openrc and s6 are available currently) will require different steps.

Rambling

You thought it could be beneficial? But how could that be if nobody is going to read this?

That same logic can be applied to every “article” I make, though. It makes more sense to assume that somebody is reading, even if that assumption is unfounded.