Fix NMCLI WiFi Network Not Found Issue

network-managernmcli

I'm running a headless device that I want to connect to wifi(it's currently on ethernet), so I'm using nmcli. I scan for connections with the following:

sudo nmcli dev wifi rescan
sudo nmcli dev wifi list

and the WiFi network I want is at 95% strength. So, I connect with:

sudo nmcli dev wifi connect "SSID" password "wifipassword"

and I get the following error:

Error: Connection activation failed: (53) The Wi-Fi network could not be found.

and I've tried copying and pasting from list to ensure I did not mistype the SSID, and it still does not work. It works fine from other devices that use Ubuntu and network-manager, so I know it's not the router.

How can it not find the network when I connect, but find it just fine when scanning, and how do I fix this?

Best Answer

this one fixed the issue for me - https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/519620/407616
add this

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

to /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
then run

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

then you can connect to the ssid by

sudo nmcli dev wifi connect "SSID" password "wifipassword"

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to connect to a specific BSSID

You can use Network Manager's cli interface, nmcli.

I'm sure you already have the BSSID. You can check and verify it with:
(the $ is the command prompt. The lines following the command is the output.)

$ nmcli -f in-use,ssid,bssid,signal,bars  dev wifi
*  SSID               BSSID              SIGNAL  BARS 
*  Apollo III (TWC)   XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX  98      ▂▄▆█ 
   Chromecast8481     XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX  97      ▂▄▆█ 
   --                 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX  94      ▂▄▆█ 
   Apollo III (1)     XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX  87      ▂▄▆█ 
   TWCWiFi            XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX  80      ▂▄▆_ 
   CableWiFi          XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX  80      ▂▄▆_ 
   TWCWiFi-Passpoint  XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX  80      ▂▄▆_ 
   Apollo III (1)     XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX  70      ▂▄▆_

The cli for the connection to the BSSID is:

$ nmcli d wifi connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

That command will give you a GUI prompt for the password. You could enter the password on the commanline (may be a security concern):

$ nmcli d wifi connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX password "mypassword"

The latter won't prompt for a password but will connect to the specified network by the BSSID in the command. If you were already previously connected to a different network, it will be replaced with the one specified in the command.

The command will also add the connection info to the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections location. The location is protected.

Subsequent connections can be made via the network icon in the notification area by the name created.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to connect to a specific BSSID

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