WiFi Signal Plus

GNOME Shell extension that displays the WiFi generation (4/5/6/7) in the top bar, with detailed connection info in a popup menu.

Features

• WiFi generation in the top bar, color-coded:
  • WiFi 4 (802.11n): gray
  • WiFi 5 (802.11ac): blue
  • WiFi 6/6E (802.11ax): green
  • WiFi 7 (802.11be): purple
• Detailed popup menu:
  • Speed (link bitrate) with a logarithmic gauge
  • Channel width (20/40/80/160/320 MHz)
  • Modulation (MCS index, spatial streams)
  • Signal strength (dBm) with quality rating and history graph
  • Security (WPA/WPA2/WPA3) and BSSID
  • Nearby access points with generation and frequency band per AP

Requirements

• GNOME Shell 45–50
• NetworkManager
• iw (optional — without it the extension falls back to NetworkManager data only, and generation details are unavailable)

How it works

Data comes from two sources:

• NetworkManager (libnm): SSID, BSSID, frequency, signal strength, bitrate, security, connection state
• iw dev <interface> link / scan dump (spawned asynchronously): WiFi generation detection via the modulation scheme — HT → WiFi 4, VHT → WiFi 5, HE → WiFi 6, EHT → WiFi 7 — plus channel width, MCS index and spatial streams

Installation

From extensions.gnome.org

Install from extensions.gnome.org (search for "WiFi Signal Plus").

From source

npm install
npm run install-extension

Then reload GNOME Shell (log out/in on Wayland) and enable the extension:

gnome-extensions enable wifi-signal-plus@jalil.arfaoui.net

Development

The project is written in TypeScript, compiled to JavaScript with tsc. Development dependencies are managed with Nix + direnv (flake.nix, .envrc).

npm run build         # Compile TS + format dist + copy assets
npm test              # Run vitest tests
npm run lint          # ESLint on sources
npm run nested:safe   # Test in a nested GNOME Shell (isolated XDG_DATA_HOME)
npm run pack          # Build the zip for extensions.gnome.org submission

License

GPL-2.0