How to Identify Wifi Network Interfaces?

How to Identify Wifi Network Interfaces?

How can I find a list of wifi interfaces that could be used by hostapd?

This doesn't work - I don't see my wifi interfaces listed:

☀  cat /etc/network/interfaces                                                                                                                                                  NewMod master
# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

This kind of works - but I can't see which are wireless (except they start with wl)

☀  ifconfig                                                                                                                                                                     NewMod master
enp2s0f1  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 80:fa:5b:47:d3:a2  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

enx803f5d0cfb18 Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 80:3f:5d:0c:fb:18  
          inet6 addr: fe80::c00b:310a:534f:34ea/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1038940 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:733216 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:1257594637 (1.2 GB)  TX bytes:78531977 (78.5 MB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:237623 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:237623 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:20683739 (20.6 MB)  TX bytes:20683739 (20.6 MB)

wlp3s0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr b0:35:9f:2d:42:27  
          inet addr:192.168.0.18  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::6b44:ffcf:8889:7f3d/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:8681955 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4304922 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:10401603438 (10.4 GB)  TX bytes:598603222 (598.6 MB)

wlxc4e984116e78 Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr c4:e9:84:11:6e:78  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

Is there a better way than assuming interfaces starting with "wl" are wifi?

Bonus points for a quick explanation of why they don't show up in /etc/network/interfaces. For these extra interfaces, do they have reliable names between reboots?

Basically I want to provide a list of interfaces so someone can choose which to hostapd with.

Thanks!

Mike

1

2 Answers

You can use iwconfig but iwconfig is depricated.

Now way is this:

iw dev | grep -Po '^\sInterface\s\K.*$'
1

Look at inet address. Only device here that might be working wireless is wlp3s0. Others do not have external ipv4 address.

Also look the hardware address . Compare with output from other system descriptors like lspci.

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