Scan for and connect to networks from an openbox pipe menu (netcfg)

Question

So the other day when i was using wifi-select (awesome tool) to connect to a friends hot-spot, i realized "hey! this would be great as an openbox pipe menu."  i'm fairly decent in bash and i knew both netcfg and wifi-select were in bash so why not rewrite it that way?
Wifi-Pipe
A simplified version of wifi-select which will scan for networks and populate an openbox right-click menu item with available networks.  displays security type and signal strength.  click on a network to connect via netcfg the same way wifi-select does it.
zenity is used to ask for a password and notify of a bad connection.  one can optionally remove the netcfg profile if the connection fails.
What's needed
-- you have to be using netcfg to manage your wireless
-- you have to install zenity
-- you have to save the script as ~/.config/openbox/wifi-pipe and make it executable:
chmod +x ~/.config/openbox/wifi-pipe
-- you have to add a sudoers entry to allow passwordless sudo on this script and netcfg (!)
USERNAME ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/netcfg
USERNAME ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /home/USERNAME/.config/openbox/wifi-pipe
-- you have to adjust  ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml like so:
<menu id="root-menu" label="Openbox 3">
<menu id="pipe-wifi" label="Wifi" execute="sudo /home/USERNAME/.config/openbox/wifi-pipe INTERFACE" />
<menu id="term-menu"/>
<item label="Run...">
<action name="Execute">
<command>gmrun</command>
</action>
</item>
where USERNAME is you and INTERFACE is probably wlan0 or similar
openbox --reconfigure and you should be good to go.
The script
#!/bin/bash
# pbrisbin 2009
# simplified version of wifi-select designed to output as an openbox pipe menu
# required:
# netcfg
# zenity
# NOPASSWD entries for this and netcfg through visudo
# the following in menu.xml:
# <menu id="pipe-wifi" label="Wifi" execute="sudo /path/to/wifi.pipe interface"/>
# the idea is to run this script once to scan/print, then again immediately to connect.
# therefore, if you scan but don't connect, a temp file is left in /tmp. the next scan
# will overwrite it, and the next connect will remove it.
# source this just to get PROFILE_DIR
. /usr/lib/network/network
[ -z "$PROFILE_DIR" ] && PROFILE_DIR='/etc/network.d/'
# awk code for parsing iwlist output
# putting it here removes the wifi-select dependency
# and allows for my own tweaking
# prints a list "essid=security=quality_as_percentage"
PARSER='
BEGIN { FS=":"; OFS="="; }
/\<Cell/ { if (essid) print essid, security, quality[2]/quality[3]*100; security="none" }
/\<ESSID:/ { essid=substr($2, 2, length($2) - 2) } # discard quotes
/\<Quality=/ { split($1, quality, "[=/]") }
/\<Encryption key:on/ { security="wep" }
/\<IE:.*WPA.*/ { security="wpa" }
END { if (essid) print essid, security, quality[2]/quality[3]*100 }
errorout() {
echo "<openbox_pipe_menu>"
echo "<item label=\"$1\" />"
echo "</openbox_pipe_menu>"
exit 1
create_profile() {
ESSID="$1"; INTERFACE="$2"; SECURITY="$3"; KEY="$4"
PROFILE_FILE="$PROFILE_DIR$ESSID"
cat > "$PROFILE_FILE" << END_OF_PROFILE
CONNECTION="wireless"
ESSID="$ESSID"
INTERFACE="$INTERFACE"
DESCRIPTION="Automatically generated profile"
SCAN="yes"
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT="10"
SECURITY="$SECURITY"
END_OF_PROFILE
# i think wifi-select should adopt these perms too...
if [ -n "$KEY" ]; then
echo "KEY=\"$KEY\"" >> "$PROFILE_FILE"
chmod 600 "$PROFILE_FILE"
else
chmod 644 "$PROFILE_FILE"
fi
print_menu() {
# scan for networks
iwlist $INTERFACE scan 2>/dev/null | awk "$PARSER" | sort -t= -nrk3 > /tmp/networks.tmp
# exit if none found
if [ ! -s /tmp/networks.tmp ]; then
rm /tmp/networks.tmp
errorout "no networks found."
fi
# otherwise print the menu
local IFS='='
echo "<openbox_pipe_menu>"
while read ESSID SECURITY QUALITY; do
echo "<item label=\"$ESSID ($SECURITY) ${QUALITY/.*/}%\">" # trim decimals
echo " <action name=\"Execute\">"
echo " <command>sudo $0 $INTERFACE connect \"$ESSID\"</command>"
echo " </action>"
echo "</item>"
done < /tmp/networks.tmp
echo "</openbox_pipe_menu>"
connect() {
# check for an existing profile
PROFILE_FILE="$(grep -REl "ESSID=[\"']?$ESSID[\"']?" "$PROFILE_DIR" | grep -v '~$' | head -n1)"
# if found use it, else create a new profile
if [ -n "$PROFILE_FILE" ]; then
PROFILE=$(basename "$PROFILE_FILE")
else
PROFILE="$ESSID"
SECURITY="$(awk -F '=' "/$ESSID/"'{print $2}' /tmp/networks.tmp | head -n1)"
# ask for the security key if needed
if [ "$SECURITY" != "none" ]; then
KEY="$(zenity --entry --title="Authentication" --text="Please enter $SECURITY key for $ESSID" --hide-text)"
fi
# create the new profile
create_profile "$ESSID" "$INTERFACE" "$SECURITY" "$KEY"
fi
# connect
netcfg2 "$PROFILE" >/tmp/output.tmp
# if failed, ask about removal of created profile
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
zenity --question \
--title="Connection failed" \
--text="$(grep -Eo "[\-\>]\ .*$" /tmp/output.tmp) \n Remove $PROFILE_FILE?" \
--ok-label="Remove profile"
[ $? -eq 0 ] && rm $PROFILE_FILE
fi
rm /tmp/output.tmp
rm /tmp/networks.tmp
[ $(id -u) -ne 0 ] && errorout "root access required."
[ -z "$1" ] && errorout "usage: $0 [interface]"
INTERFACE="$1"; shift
# i added a sleep if we need to explicitly bring it up
# b/c youll get "no networks found" when you scan right away
# this only happens if we aren't up already
if ! ifconfig | grep -q $INTERFACE; then
ifconfig $INTERFACE up &>/dev/null || errorout "$INTERFACE not up"
while ! ifconfig | grep -q $INTERFACE; do sleep 1; done
fi
if [ "$1" = "connect" ]; then
ESSID="$2"
connect
else
print_menu
fi
Screenshots
removed -- Hi-res shots available on my site
NOTE - i have not tested this extensively but it was working for me in most cases.  any updates/fixes will be edited right into this original post.  enjoy!
UPDATE - 10/24/2009: i moved the awk statement from wifi-select directly into the script.  this did two things: wifi-select is no longer needed on the system, and i could tweak the awk statement to be more accurate.  it now prints a true percentange.  iwlist prints something like Quality=17/70 and the original awk statement would just output 17 as the quality.  i changed to print (17/70)*100 then bash trims the decimals so you get a true percentage.
Last edited by brisbin33 (2010-05-09 01:28:20)

Answer 1

froli wrote:
I think the script's not working ... When I type
sh wifi-pipe
in a term it returns nothing
well, just to be sure you're doing it right...
he above is only an adjustment to the OB script's print_menu() function, it's not an entire script to itself.  so, if the original OB script shows output for you with
sh ./wifi-pipe
then using the above pint_menu() function (with all the other supporting code) should also show output, (only really only changes the echo's so they print the info in the pekwm format).
oh, and if neither version shows output when you rut it in a term, then you've got other issues... ;P
here's an entire [untested] pekwm script:
#!/bin/bash
# pbrisbin 2009
# simplified version of wifi-select designed to output as an pekwm pipe menu
# required:
# netcfg
# zenity
# NOPASSWD entries for this and netcfg through visudo
# the following in pekwm config file:
# SubMenu = "WiFi" {
# Entry = { Actions = "Dynamic /path/to/wifi-pipe" }
# the idea is to run this script once to scan/print, then again immediately to connect.
# therefore, if you scan but don't connect, a temp file is left in /tmp. the next scan
# will overwrite it, and the next connect will remove it.
# source this to get PROFILE_DIR and SUBR_DIR
. /usr/lib/network/network
errorout() {
echo "Dynamic {"
echo " Entry = \"$1\""
echo "}"
exit 1
create_profile() {
ESSID="$1"; INTERFACE="$2"; SECURITY="$3"; KEY="$4"
PROFILE_FILE="$PROFILE_DIR$ESSID"
cat > "$PROFILE_FILE" << END_OF_PROFILE
CONNECTION="wireless"
ESSID="$ESSID"
INTERFACE="$INTERFACE"
DESCRIPTION="Automatically generated profile"
SCAN="yes"
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT="10"
SECURITY="$SECURITY"
END_OF_PROFILE
# i think wifi-select should adopt these perms too...
if [ -n "$KEY" ]; then
echo "KEY=\"$KEY\"" >> "$PROFILE_FILE"
chmod 600 "$PROFILE_FILE"
else
chmod 644 "$PROFILE_FILE"
fi
print_menu() {
# scan for networks
iwlist $INTERFACE scan 2>/dev/null | awk -f $SUBR_DIR/parse-iwlist.awk | sort -t= -nrk3 > /tmp/networks.tmp
# exit if none found
if [ ! -s /tmp/networks.tmp ]; then
rm /tmp/networks.tmp
errorout "no networks found."
fi
# otherwise print the menu
echo "Dynamic {"
IFS='='
cat /tmp/networks.tmp | while read ESSID SECURITY QUALITY; do
echo "Entry = \"$ESSID ($SECURITY) $QUALITY%\" {"
echo " Actions = \"Exec sudo $0 $INTERFACE connect \\\"$ESSID\\\"\"</command>"
echo "}"
done
unset IFS
echo "}"
connect() {
# check for an existing profile
PROFILE_FILE="$(grep -REl "ESSID=[\"']?$ESSID[\"']?" "$PROFILE_DIR" | grep -v '~$' | head -n1)"
# if found use it, else create a new profile
if [ -n "$PROFILE_FILE" ]; then
PROFILE=$(basename "$PROFILE_FILE")
else
PROFILE="$ESSID"
SECURITY="$(awk -F '=' "/$ESSID/"'{print $2}' /tmp/networks.tmp | head -n1)"
# ask for the security key if needed
if [ "$SECURITY" != "none" ]; then
KEY="$(zenity --entry --title="Authentication" --text="Please enter $SECURITY key for $ESSID" --hide-text)"
fi
# create the new profile
create_profile "$ESSID" "$INTERFACE" "$SECURITY" "$KEY"
fi
# connect
netcfg2 "$PROFILE" >/tmp/output.tmp
# if failed, ask about removal of created profile
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
zenity --question \
--title="Connection failed" \
--text="$(grep -Eo "[\-\>]\ .*$" /tmp/output.tmp) \n Remove $PROFILE_FILE?" \
--ok-label="Remove profile"
[ $? -eq 0 ] && rm $PROFILE_FILE
fi
rm /tmp/output.tmp
rm /tmp/networks.tmp
[ $(id -u) -ne 0 ] && errorout "root access required."
[ -z "$1" ] && errorout "usage: $0 [interface]"
INTERFACE="$1"; shift
# i added a sleep if we need to explicitly bring it up
# b/c youll get "no networks found" when you scan right away
# this only happens if we aren't up already
if ! ifconfig | grep -q $INTERFACE; then
ifconfig $INTERFACE up &>/dev/null || errorout "$INTERFACE not up"
sleep 3
fi
if [ "$1" = "connect" ]; then
ESSID="$2"
connect
else
print_menu
fi
exit 0