Connect to a wifi by scanning a QR code in Linux

There is a project in github, that contain a script to easily accomplish this task. The project is called wifi-qr by kokoye2007. It can be cloned here.

To use the script, we need to clone the project from github.

$ git clone https://github.com/kokoye2007/wifi-qr

Once cloned, go into the project directory.

$ cd wifi-qr

To scan a QR code, and connect to the wifi information contained in the code 

$ ./wifi-qr s

A camera interface will be displayed. Show our wifi QR code to the computer's webcam, and the script will read the QR code and automatically connect to the wifi using the information in the QR code.

Apart from scanning QR code and connecting to the wifi, this script has a lot more functions. You can read about all the functions here. Thank you to kokoye2007 for this excellent tool.

 

Scanning QR Code in Ubuntu Linux

To get the information from a qr code, first and foremost, we need to save the qr code as a file. One of the way is to use a webcam, and an app called cheese to take picture using the webcam. Then we need to install zbar-tools to extract information from the qr code file. 

Install cheese

$ sudo apt update; sudo apt install cheese -y

Install zbar-tools

$ sudo apt install zbar-tools -y

Then, take a picture of the qr code using cheese via our webcam.

Once we have the qr code saved in a file, use zbarimg to extract the information from the qr code

$ zbarimg Downloads/frame.png 

QR-Code:https://www.linuxwave.info

scanned 1 barcode symbols from 1 images in 0.04 seconds

You can see that in the above output, that the qr code contain a url to this website.

 

 

Create QR code for wifi in linux

To easily share wifi credentials, a QR code can be used. A QR code can contain the information of the wifi, and can be scanned easily using any qr code reader in mobile phones. To make the QR code, we need a tool called qrencode.

First, prepare the wifi information using below format:

WIFI:S:{SSID name of your network};T:{security type - WPA or WEP};P:{the network password};;

For example, my wifi SSID is mysecurewifi, it is using WPA, and the password is mysecurewifipassword. 

 WIFI:S:mysecurewifi;T:WPA;P:mysecurewifipassword;;

Install qrencode

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install qrencode

Provide the above information against qrencode command to generate a qr code image file called mywifi.png

$ qrencode -o mywifi.png '

WIFI:S:mysecurewifi;T:WPA;P:mysecurewifipassword;;'

 

If the generated image is too small, you can increase the size of the dot pixel using '-s' option

$ qrencode -o mywifi.png -s 10 'WIFI:S:mysecurewifi;T:WPA;P:mysecurewifipassword;;'

Share the file to anyone, or print it for the people who would like to use your wifi. 

Cheers!