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Change WiFi Credentials

Set up WiFi after your printer has moved or your WiFi credentials have changed.

Requirements

Make sure you have a proper text editor installed:

Incompatible Editors

Do not use Windows Notepad or WordPad! They can corrupt the file with incorrect line endings or encoding.

If you use TextEdit on macOS, make sure to enable plain text format and disable smart quotes in TextEdit > Preferences, otherwise it will insert incompatible characters.

MainsailOS >= v2.0.0 (NetworkManager)

MainsailOS v2.0.0 and newer uses NetworkManager for network configuration. WiFi credentials are set via a simple configuration file on the boot partition of the SD card.

To change your WiFi credentials, follow these steps:

  1. Remove the SD card from your SBC and insert it into your computer's SD card reader.
  2. Open the boot partition. This is the partition readable on Windows and macOS, formatted as FAT32.
  3. Copy the file headless_nm.txt.template and rename the copy to headless_nm.txt.

  4. Open headless_nm.txt with your text editor and fill in your WiFi credentials:

    # Enter the SSID (network name) of the WiFi network.
SSID="<mySSID>"

# Enter the password for the WiFi network.
PASSWORD="<mySecretPassword>"

# Set to "true" if the network is hidden, otherwise "false".
HIDDEN="false"

# Country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2) for WiFi regulatory domain.
REGDOMAIN="GB"

  5. Replace <mySSID> with your WiFi network name and <mySecretPassword> with your WiFi password.

  6. Set REGDOMAIN to your country code (e.g., DE for Germany, US for United States, FR for France). For a complete list, visit ISO 3166-1 alpha-2.
  7. If your WiFi network is hidden, change HIDDEN to "true".
  8. Save the file and safely eject the SD card.
  9. Insert the SD card back into your SBC and power it on.

Finding Your Device

After booting, you can find your device by navigating to http://mainsailos.local in your browser, or check your router's admin page for the assigned IP address.

Note

The headless_nm.txt file is automatically deleted after the configuration has been applied.

MainsailOS < v2.0.0 (wpa_supplicant)

Older versions of MainsailOS use wpa_supplicant for WiFi configuration.

Note

This method only applies to MainsailOS versions before v2.0.0. If you are using v2.0.0 or newer, use the NetworkManager method above.

To change your WiFi credentials, follow these steps:

  1. Remove the SD card from your SBC and insert it into your computer's SD card reader.
  2. Open the boot partition — this is the partition readable on Windows and macOS, formatted as FAT32.
  3. Open your text editor and create a new file called wpa_supplicant.conf.

  4. Copy the following content into the file:

    ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
country=<Insert 2 letter ISO 3166-1 country code here>
update_config=1

network={
    ssid="<Name of your wireless LAN>"
    psk="<Password for your wireless LAN>"
}

  5. Replace the placeholder values with your country code, WiFi SSID, and password.

  6. Save the file with LF line endings (not CRLF).
  7. Copy the wpa_supplicant.conf file to the boot partition of the SD card.
  8. Safely eject the SD card, insert it back into your SBC, and power it on.

Multiple Networks

To configure more than one network, add additional network={} blocks to the file. You may also want to add ap_scan=1 before the first network block and scan_ssid=1 inside each block for hidden networks.

Country Codes

Common country codes: DE (Germany), US (United States), GB (United Kingdom), FR (France), SE (Sweden). For a complete list, visit ISO 3166-1 alpha-2.

MainsailOS Armbian-Based < v2.0.0

Armbian-based MainsailOS versions before v2.0.0 use a different configuration file (network_config.txt) to set up WiFi. This method is based on the Armbian first-run configuration.

To change your WiFi credentials, follow these steps:

  1. Remove the SD card from your SBC and insert it into your computer's SD card reader.
  2. Open the boot partition. This is the partition readable on Windows and macOS, formatted as FAT32.
  3. Copy the file network_config.txt.template and rename the copy to network_config.txt.

  4. Open network_config.txt with your text editor and adjust the following settings:

    # Set to 1 to apply any network related settings below
NC_net_change_defaults=1

# Enable WiFi and disable Ethernet
NC_net_ethernet_enabled=0
NC_net_wifi_enabled=1

# Enter your WiFi credentials
NC_net_wifi_ssid='MySSID'
NC_net_wifi_key='MyWiFiKEY'

# Country code for WiFi regulatory domain
NC_net_wifi_countrycode='GB'

  5. Set NC_net_change_defaults to 1 to enable network configuration.

  6. Set NC_net_wifi_enabled to 1 and NC_net_ethernet_enabled to 0 to use WiFi.
  7. Replace MySSID with your WiFi network name and MyWiFiKEY with your WiFi password.
  8. Set NC_net_wifi_countrycode to your country code (e.g., DE, US, FR). For a complete list, visit ISO 3166-1 alpha-2.
  9. Save the file, safely eject the SD card, insert it back into your SBC, and power it on.