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I just installed Ubuntu minimal with i3wm, but I can't figure out, how to connect it to the wireless network.

I already have installed network-manager package. Also I added exec --no-startup-id nm-applet to my ~/.config/i3 but apt-get cannot find network-manager-applet to install.

Im stuck here, what can I do?

peterh
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Vorsek
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5 Answers5

29

I use (and would recommend) nmtui, a curses based TUI that will allow you to edit and activate connections.

It should already be installed on your system, but if not, you can get it by running sudo apt install network-manager.

Santiago Soto
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16

You can use Network Manager's command line tool called nmcli.

1. Use nmcli dev wifi to locate the access point(AP) name.
2. Use nmcli device wifi connect APname password password

weakish
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Sandeep Neupane
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6

Use dmenu ($mod+d by default) and type gnome-control-center then Network → Wireless.

On some older Ubuntu versions you'll need to do unity-control-center instead.

Boris Verkhovskiy
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3

If you don't have NetworkManager, install it:

$: sudo apt -y install network-manager-gnome

Set up your connection:

$: nm-connection-editor

This way your connection will be persistent on restart.

luis_js
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0

I think the applet should be in the network-manager-gnome package. If you don't have it run:

sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome

Also make sure the network manager service is running. You can check with:

systemctl list-units NetworkManager.service

If it's not loaded you should either start it with:

sudo systemctl start NetworkManager.service

or enable so it will also be there after restarting with:

sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager.service
Vincent.
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  • Thanks for the answer, i did have the network-manager-gnome installed, but the i3 status bar doesnt show any icon, also im having the same problem with dropbox. Any other suggestion? Thanks. – Vorsek Mar 23 '17 at 20:55
  • Can you try running nm-applet from a terminal to see if gives any errors? – Vincent. Mar 23 '17 at 21:15
  • nm-applet doesnt give any error or message when i run it from the console, what can it be? – Vorsek Mar 23 '17 at 23:00
  • To be honest I don't really know either at this point. You could try connecting to a network through the command line to see if the problem lies with NetworkManager or the applet. Check out instructions here [link](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager#Command_line). Or maybe the problem is with the i3 tray, check out the user guide for it here [link](https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#_tray_output) – Vincent. Mar 24 '17 at 09:28
  • I connected to the network via the command line, i cant fix the tray problem with i3, no idea what can it be. Thanks a lot for your help. – Vorsek Mar 24 '17 at 10:39