Some days ago I have been searching for a more verbose or debug method while using WLAN on a linux host. At first my thoughts were a debug flag has not been enabled while buidling the package, or a additional configuration entry is missing in the wpa_supplicant configuration file. I have been wrong, the solution is much much more easier than I thought. wpa_supplicant supports a debug-verbose mode just with one simple command like below:

wpa_supplicant -D nl80211 -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

The -D entry defines the driver, the -i entry defines the interface and -c point to the wpa_supplicant configuration file.

Additionally there is also a wpa_gui (if build with qt5 support) that comes with wpa_supplicant. This is also a application I have not been aware of since I prefer the CLI no matter what.

2 lessons learnt:

• A solution to a certain problem is sometimes easier than you think
• A graphical interface might prove a useful tool to support a debugging session (even if you do not like it)