diff --git a/usr/bin/archboot-network.sh b/usr/bin/archboot-network.sh
index 6e7380bb3..7066c04f8 100755
--- a/usr/bin/archboot-network.sh
+++ b/usr/bin/archboot-network.sh
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@ _essid_list() {
     # only show lines with signal '*'
     # kill spaces from the end and replace spaces with + between
     # '+' character is one of 6 forbidden characters in SSID standard
-    for dev in $(iwctl station "${_INTERFACE}" get-networks | rg -o ' {6}(.{34}).*\*' -r '$1' | sd ' *$' ''); do
+    _ESSID+="$(iwctl station "${_INTERFACE}" get-networks | rg -o ' {6}(.{34}).*\*' -r '"$1' | sd ' *\n$' '"')"
+    for dev in ${_ESSID[@]}; do
         echo "\"${dev}\""
         [[ "${1}" ]] && echo "${1}"
     done