⌨️Terminal
WLAN Pi / Linux terminal commands and a few concepts thrown in for good measure
You do not need to learn these commands, nor do you need to become a wizard with the command line to make good use your WLAN Pi, but we do want you to become familiar and comfortable with executing commands from the terminal.
Basic Cursor Navigation
Use the following shortcuts to quickly move the cursor around the current line while typing a command.
Ctrl+A or Home: Go to the beginning of the line
Ctrl+E or End: Go to the end of the line
Ctrl+xx: Move between the beginning of the line and the current position of the cursor. This allows you to press Ctrl+xx to return to the start of the line, change something, and then press Ctrl+xx to go back to your original cursor position.
To use this shortcut, hold the Ctrl key and tap the X key twice.
Windows:
Ctrl+ <-: Go left (back) one word
Ctrl+ ->: Go right (forward) one word
macOS:
Esc+B / Esc+ <- / Alt+ <- : Go left (back) one word
Esc+F / Esc+ -> / Alt+ -> : Go right (forward) one word
Check operating system version
Check the WLAN Pi OS version:
Show me the version of Linux you are running:
What Linux kernel are we using:
View Interface IP Addresses
View all your interfaces and IP addresses
View IP address for a specific interface
View IP neighbor table (ARP cache)
View IP routing table
View wireless devices
View wireless device capabilities
You'll get a lot of info printed to the terminal. View it page by page with less:
Exit by pressing q key
Command history
View a list of your previously executed commands with:
Re-execute a command from the history, use exclamation mark followed by x, which represents the desired command list number:
Sudo bang bang
When you enter a command that requires sudo (like reboot), but you forgot! No need to retype the command. Just do this instead:
Tab complete
Complete commands and file paths by starting to type them out, then using the tab key to auto-complete:
Which becomes:
When there are multiple possibilities, double tapping the tab key will list all the possibilities. Try this to see all the wlanpi custom commands:
pwd
Print working directory, ever feel lost as to where you are?
Enumeration commands
wifichannel
You can quickly:
Convert between channel number <--> centre frequency
List all Wi-Fi channels in a specific band
passwd
You can change your password from the terminal (but only if you want to):
This is how you can change your password at a later date.
Linux Cheat Sheet
Useful Linux commands, if you have time / want to go deeper.
Last updated
