wpanet - a sysvinit/openrc service for setting up wireless without races.

License:
I release this code to the public domain under CC0.

What wpanet is:
wpanet is a script that starts wpa_supplicant and uses the wpa_cli
"action script" feature to configure each interface as it becomes
ready.
The main motivation is to avoid the potential race conditions that
using two services can cause:
-many boot scripts will start wpa_supplicant, then run either a
DHCP client or "ifup -a".
This may result in trying to get a DHCP lease before connecting, which
can either slow down boot or, with some drivers, panic the kernel.
Additionally, this may fail to configure an interface that becomes
ready after boot.
-the alternative of starting wpa_cli in its own service could result in a
delay long enough that the connection is already completed, with the
consequence that the interface is not configured at boot.

wpanet is not a complete network manager; you will need to configure
wpa_supplicant yourself, and may also need to configure ifup.
But if you want to use it in a more complete tool, feel free.

For configuring wpa_supplicant, there is a dialog-based script
named wpa_config. It mainly allows adding open, WEP, or WPA-PSK
networks to your config file; it does not manage the wpanet service
or start/stop wpa_supplicant.
If you create a new config file with it (or  select 
"load new config file" > "other browse for file" and load a file that way),
the resulting wpa_supplicant config file should be adequate.
Otherwise, we blindly assume that you have a working config.

Once wpanet starts properly, you should be able to use wpa_cli or wpa_gui,
which are configuration interfaces provided by wpa-supplicant.

Quick start:
I'm assuming that wpa_supplicant has a working configuration in 
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, is able to connect, and that 
you are using standard Linux wireless drivers.

Make sure that /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf has a line like this:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
Or like this:
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=network

Make sure that wlan0 or whatever else your wireless interface is called
is *NOT* configured in /etc/network/interfaces (if you need to use ifup,
move the relevant stanzas to /etc/wpa/interfaces).

Install sbin/wpa_dhcp to /sbin
Install etc/conf.d/wpanet to /etc/conf.d/
Install etc/init.d/wpanet (on OpenRC systems) or sbin/wpanet 
(on sysvinit-style systems) to /etc/init.d and enable it

At this point, wpanet should be ready to manage a wireless interface via dhcp.

Advanced configuration:
* To use multiple wpa_supplicant configuration files (for example, if you want
RADIUS over Ethernet, one wireless card connected to an open wireless network,
and a second wireless card connected to another network...), you will need to
do a little configuration:
 - mkdir /etc/wpa/
 - for each interface, create a working wpa_supplicant config file named
   /etc/wpa/<interface>.conf
   (eg, you might have /etc/wpa/eth0.conf and /etc/wpa/wlan0.conf)
 - If any of the interfaces do not get picked up by default,
   set IFACES to a list of all the interfaces you want configured.
 - Remove/comment out any lines setting DRIVER.
 - Remove/comment out any lines setting WPA_CFG.
At this point, you should be ready to test it.

* To get static IP addresses, you will need to use the ifup integration.
This means:
 - create /etc/wpa/interfaces
 - for any interface that you want ifup to configure after wpa_supplicant
   connects, configure it in /etc/wpa/interfaces as you would in
   /etc/network/interfaces
This should be enough configuration for the ifup integration.