Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi lives in the Core. There is no network menu and no settings window. Press Super+Space and type wifi (or network, or internet), or click the Wi-Fi mark at the right of the capsule. The Palette lists the networks nearby. Enter on one joins it, and if it needs a password, you type it right there.

The Wi-Fi switch and its arrow are also in Quick settings (Super+I).

The list of networks

The rows read upwards from where you type:

1. The network you are on: Connected · Enter to share.
2. Saved networks nearby, marked Saved. Enter joins without asking.
3. Every other network, strongest first, each saying what it needs: Needs a password, Open, no password or Work or school sign-in. A weak one adds “weak signal”.
4. Join a hidden network, then Turn Wi-Fi off at the top.

Each network’s icon shows its signal as three arcs, the missing ones dimmed. While the list is open, the computer looks for networks again every 20 seconds or so, and the row you moved to stays selected when the list updates.

Three letters of a network’s name find it from anywhere in the Palette: corner finds “Corner Café”.

Join a network

1. Enter on the network. Only its row stays.
2. If it needs a password, the field asks for it (“Password for Corner Café”). What you type shows as dots; Show, at the right end of the field, shows the letters.
3. Enter joins. The row says “Joining Corner Café…” while a short line moves along the field.

When it works, the Core closes and says “Connected to Corner Café”. The network is saved and joins by itself from now on.

Esc while it is joining closes the Core. Joining carries on, and a notice says how it ended.

A wrong password

A wrong password is known in about ten seconds. The field shakes, turns red and empties, the row says “That password did not work”, and it asks again. Nothing is saved until a password works.

If the network you are joining has changed its password, the saved one stops working and the Core asks for the new one.

A hidden network

A hidden network does not show its name. Choose Join a hidden network, type its name, then its password. Enter with no password joins an open one.

Share your network

Enter on the network you are on opens a card with a square code. A visitor points their phone’s camera at it and joins without typing anything. The password is on the card too, hidden until you press Enter. Esc goes back. Typing share wifi finds the same card from anywhere.

The code is drawn dark on light whatever your theme, so any phone camera can read it. It works for hidden networks too.

Sign-in pages

Hotel, café and airport networks often want you to accept terms on a web page before the internet works. Takumi notices within about ten seconds and opens that page in your browser, with a notice: “Sign in to Corner Café”. It does this once per network per hour.

Until you sign in, the Wi-Fi mark in the capsule shows in the accent colour and the network’s row says Connected · sign in to use the internet. Enter on it opens the page again. So does typing hotel and choosing Open the Wi-Fi sign-in page.

Work and school networks

Networks such as eduroam, and many offices, sign you in with a username as well as a password. Their row says Work or school sign-in. Enter asks three things, one after another:

1. Username: at a school, this is usually your email address there.
2. Password, shown as dots.
3. Server domain: the name your IT department’s Wi-Fi page gives for the network’s server or its certificate, such as radius.uni.example. If your username has one (ada@uni.example), Enter on its own uses that.

Takumi checks that the network’s server is really the one for that domain before it sends your password. That stops a network that only looks like eduroam from collecting it.

If it does not join, the row says why:

• “eduroam’s certificate is not for uni.example”: the domain was wrong, and the Core asks for it again.
• “That username or password did not work”: it asks for both again, and Enter keeps the username.
• “…is not from an authority this computer trusts: ask your IT department”: the network uses a certificate of its own making, which Takumi cannot add yet (below).

Tested in a virtual machine. Work and school sign-in has been tested in the virtual machine against a simulated network of this kind, not yet at a real school or office.

Not yet. Networks whose IT department gives you a certificate file or an eduroam installer to download, networks that sign in with a certificate of your own instead of a password, and hidden work networks. Takumi cannot join these yet.

Forget a network

Type forget (or wifi). Each saved network has a Forget row, for example Forget Old Office. It asks in place first: press Enter once to arm it and again to forget the network and its password.

Turn Wi-Fi off

Turn Wi-Fi off is the top row of the list, and the Wi-Fi switch is in Quick settings. Turn Wi-Fi on brings it back.

On the charger

While the computer is plugged in, the Wi-Fi card’s power saving is off, so a call or a game does not stutter. On battery it is on again, to save power. There is nothing to choose.

The Wi-Fi mark

When it does not connect

• “That password did not work”: check the capitals and the network’s name. Wi-Fi passwords are 8 to 63 characters.
• Not nearby, or no answer in time: the row says so in words. Move closer to the router and press Enter to try again; Esc goes back.
• “Connected, but no internet”: the network is there but the internet is not reaching it. Check whether a sign-in page wants you (type hotel), or restart the router.
• “No Wi-Fi on this computer”: the computer has no Wi-Fi card Takumi can use. Plug in a network cable or a USB Wi-Fi adapter.
• Anything else: type something is wrong in the Palette. Takumi checks Wi-Fi among other things, fixes what is safe and says what it did.

Not yet. Passwords that start or end with a space do not work. Making a hotspot for other devices, and choosing between several Wi-Fi adapters, are not built.

Tested in a virtual machine. Wi-Fi has been tested in the virtual machine on simulated radios, with home networks (WPA2 and WPA3), open, hidden and work networks and a fake sign-in page. It has not yet run on a real laptop’s Wi-Fi card.

Saved for everyone, or just for you

When an administrator of the computer joins a network, it is saved for everyone, so the computer is also online at the login screen. Anyone else’s networks are saved just for them, without a password.

Your Wi-Fi password never appears where other people on the computer could see it, and a password that did not work is never kept.

From the command line

takumi wifi list                       # nearby networks; --rescan to look again
takumi wifi join "Corner Café"         # join; asks for the password if needed
takumi wifi join eduroam               # also asks the username and server domain
takumi wifi join --hidden Studio       # a hidden network
takumi wifi forget "Old Office"        # forget a saved network
takumi wifi share                      # the password and a code a phone can scan
takumi wifi signin                     # open a hotel or café sign-in page
takumi switch wifi                     # turn Wi-Fi on or off