How To Install wpa_supplicant on CentOS 8

wpa_supplicant is WPA/WPA2/IEEE 802.1X Supplicant

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install wpa_supplicant on CentOS 8.

What is wpa_supplicant

wpa_supplicant is a WPA Supplicant for Linux, BSD and Windows with support for WPA and WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i / RSN). Supplicant is the IEEE 802.1X/WPA component that is used in the client stations. It implements key negotiation with a WPA Authenticator and it controls the roaming and IEEE 802.11 authentication/association of the wlan driver.

We can use yum or dnf to install wpa_supplicant on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install wpa_supplicant.

Install wpa_supplicant on CentOS 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install wpa_supplicant using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install wpa_supplicant

Install wpa_supplicant on CentOS 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install wpa_supplicant using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install wpa_supplicant

How To Uninstall wpa_supplicant on CentOS 8

To uninstall only the wpa_supplicant package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove wpa_supplicant

wpa_supplicant Package Contents on CentOS 8

/etc/dbus-1/system.d/wpa_supplicant.conf
/etc/logrotate.d/wpa_supplicant
/etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant
/etc/wpa_supplicant
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/42
/usr/lib/.build-id/42/f4a8a0913d9bb9a8d10d46899f1aceae26175e
/usr/lib/.build-id/59
/usr/lib/.build-id/59/cbb00c66082e01bc69767d14d4c7d1f52d915c
/usr/lib/.build-id/6e
/usr/lib/.build-id/6e/2924510e41989edfb1e46b426f7b89128bc613
/usr/lib/.build-id/b5
/usr/lib/.build-id/b5/f3b19362092628499b05ab37354c0a65360073
/usr/lib/systemd/system/wpa_supplicant.service
/usr/sbin/eapol_test
/usr/sbin/wpa_cli
/usr/sbin/wpa_passphrase
/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant
/usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1.service
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/ChangeLog
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/README
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/eap_testing.txt
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/60_wpa_supplicant
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/dbus-listen-preq.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/dpp-qrcode.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/ieee8021x.conf
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/openCryptoki.conf
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p-action-udhcp.sh
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p-action.sh
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p-nfc.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p/p2p_connect.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p/p2p_disconnect.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p/p2p_find.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p/p2p_flush.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p/p2p_group_add.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p/p2p_invite.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p/p2p_listen.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/p2p/p2p_stop_find.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/plaintext.conf
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/udhcpd-p2p.conf
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/wep.conf
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/wpa-psk-tkip.conf
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/wpa2-eap-ccmp.conf
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/wpas-dbus-new-getall.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/wpas-dbus-new-signals.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/wpas-dbus-new-wps.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/wpas-dbus-new.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/wps-ap-cli
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/examples/wps-nfc.py
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/todo.txt
/usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
/usr/share/licenses/wpa_supplicant
/usr/share/licenses/wpa_supplicant/COPYING
/usr/share/man/man5/wpa_supplicant.conf.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/eapol_test.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/wpa_background.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/wpa_cli.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/wpa_passphrase.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/wpa_supplicant.8.gz

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install wpa_supplicant on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.