Stuff/addWifiHeadless.md

With a bit of prep work, this can be achieved relatively simply

First, create a file, addwlan.sh, in the boot partition - contents at the end of the answer

in cmdline.txt on the boot sector you'll want to add (it's a single line by the way)

systemd.run=/boot/firmware/addwlan.sh systemd.run_success_action=reboot systemd.unit=kernel-command-line.target

To the end of the line in cmdline.txt

It should end up looking like

console=tty1 root=PARTUUID=****** rootfstype=ext4 fsck.repair=yes rootwait cfg80211.ieee80211_regdom=** systemd.run=/boot/firmware/addwlan.sh systemd.run_success_action=reboot systemd.unit=kernel-command-line.target

The *** will be something unique to your situation, DO NOT CHANGE

This is the contents of addwlan.sh in the boot partition:

Note:

• NAME: this will be the name of the .nmconnection file created and its ID - note that UUID is generated
• SSID: the SSID you want to connect to
• PRIORITY: use negative for higher priority - FYI: default for wifi connections is zero
• HIDDEN: set to true if it is hidden
• PASS: leave blank for open AP
• PLAIN: set to 1 if you add the password in plain text, the code will convert it to a passphrase using wpa_passphrase otherwise use PLAIN=0

---

#!/bin/bash

# ---- configure connection - change as appropriate
NAME=<connectionName>
SSID=<SSID>
PRIORITY=0
HIDDEN=[true|false]
PASS=<password>
PLAIN=1
# ---- end configure connection

CONNFILE=/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/${NAME}.nmconnection
UUID=$(uuid -v4)

if [ ! -z "${PASS}"]; then
    if [ $PLAIN -eq 1 ]; then
        PSK="$(wpa_passphrase ${SSID} ${PASS} | grep -T "psk" | grep -v '"' | cut -d= -f 2)"
    else
        PSK="${PASS}"
    fi
fi

cat <<- EOF >${CONNFILE}
[connection]
id=${NAME}
uuid=${UUID}
type=wifi
autoconnect-priority=${PRIORITY}
[wifi]
mode=infrastructure
ssid=${SSID}
hidden=${HIDDEN}
[ipv4]
dns-priority=100
method=auto
[ipv6]
dns-priority=50
addr-gen-mode=default
method=auto
[proxy]
EOF
if [ ! -z "${PASS}" ]; then
    cat <<- EOF >>${CONNFILE}
[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=${PSK}
EOF
fi
chmod 600 ${CONNFILE}
sed -i 's| systemd.run=/boot/firmware/addwlan.sh.*||g' /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt
exit 0

Put the SD card back in the pi and reboot. Note, there will be a second reboot once the config is written, so be patient.

Tested to work on Pi 4 running latest Raspberry Pi Bookworm - should work if you installed 64bit bookworm or trixie - no guarantees if you went for 32 bit