using wpa_supplicant without a configuration file

[Cristian Ionescu-Idbohrn]

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005, Jouni Malinen wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 20, 2005 at 06:27:48PM +0300, Bar, Eitan wrote:
>
> > I would like to start wpa_supplicant without an existing configuration
> > file (commands for connection will follow later using wpa_cli).
> >
> > Is that possible?
>
> It's almost possible and could be made to work with minor change.

[snip]

> You should be able to start the current development release (0.4.4 and
> newer) with an empty configuration file. The file itself is still
> needed, but it does not need to include any network blocks. If no
> network blocks are included, wpa_supplicant starts without trying to
> associate with any networks.

I tried this with the daily cvs snapshot flavour. Yes, wpa_supplicant
starts, but you can't talk to it using wpa_cli. wpa_cli will output
various error messages, like:

  Failed to connect to wpa_supplicant - wpa_ctrl_open: No such file or directory
  Failed to connect to wpa_supplicant - wpa_ctrl_open: Connection refused
  Failed to connect to wpa_supplicant - wpa_ctrl_open: Success

depending on if option '-P' is used on the command line.

I also noticed, while experimenting with this, that wpa_supplicant removes
the /var/run/wpa_supplicant directory on exit (when it also removes the
socket /var/run/wpa_supplicant/ethX), regardless of whether it created
that directory itself or it was already existing. Is this the intended
behaviour?


Cheers,
Cristian