Networking tools to install for Centos8 and steps ?

[ankura]

I have a fresh install of CentOS8.

I am lookng for advice on networking tools to install for Centos8 and steps ?

Thanks

[TrevorH]

Be more specific. What network tools are you looking for? To do what job?

[ankura]

I am looking to install tools that will allow me to easily configure WIFI network interfaces and debug WIFI problems.
Any suggestions on sources/repos to install latest firmware for my networking hardware will be appreciated as well.

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$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v6/7th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 08)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 620 (rev 07)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 08)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem (rev 21)
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 21)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
00:17.0 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] (rev 21)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point LPC Controller/eSPI Controller (rev 21)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
01:00.0 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Topaz XT [Radeon R7 M260/M265 / M340/M360 / M440/M445 / 530/535 / 620/625 Mobile] (rev c1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 07)
03:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 31)

[TrevorH]

For CentOS 8 it's called NetworkManager - specifically you need NetworkManager-wifi installed - and is the only networking stack that there is. For your wireless card there is already a driver supplied by the CentOS kernel so all you need to do is configure it.

$ grep -i 168c /lib/modules/4.18.0-147.5.1.el8_1.x86_64/modules.* | grep 0042
/lib/modules/4.18.0-147.5.1.el8_1.x86_64/modules.alias:alias pci:v0000168Cd00000042sv*sd*bc*sc*i* ath10k_pci

[ankura]

Thanks.

One last thing:

[root@localhost ankur]# systemctl is-enabled NetworkManager.service
enabled
[root@localhost ankur]# systemctl is-enabled wpa_supplicant.service
disabled


Do I need wpa_supplicant.service at all on the system ?

[ankura]

For CentOS 8 it's called NetworkManager - specifically you need NetworkManager-wifi installed - and is the only networking stack that there is. For your wireless card there is already a driver supplied by the CentOS kernel so all you need to do is configure it.


How do I configure it ? Wifi is working, so I guess it is already configured.

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# lsmod | grep ath
ath10k_pci             45056  0
ath10k_core           450560  1 ath10k_pci
ath                    36864  1 ath10k_core
mac80211              884736  1 ath10k_core
cfg80211              794624  3 ath,mac80211,ath10k_core

[TrevorH]

NetworkManager does it all but requires things like wpa_supplicant as it uses them in the background. You can use nmcli, nmtui or the NetworkManager applet (on a GUI) to modify the connection but if it works then it works so why fiddle!