The Raspberry Pi is a great little single-board computer. Sometimes however when we use it as a server for web pages or home control applications, it loses WiFi connectivity. This command will install a script that will help to keep your WiFi running:
curl -L wifi.brewpiremix.com | sudo bash
You'll see something like:
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ curl -L wifi.brewpiremix.com | sudo bash
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 354 100 354 0 0 3510 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 3540
100 6514 100 6514 0 0 25714 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 25714
***Script doDaemon.sh starting.***
Installing checkWiFi.sh script to /usr/local/bin.
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 8545 100 8545 0 0 39645 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 39744
Creating unit file for wificheck.
Reloading systemd config.
Enabling wificheck daemon.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/wificheck.service → /etc/systemd/system/wificheck.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/network.target.wants/wificheck.service → /etc/systemd/system/wificheck.service.
Starting wificheck daemon.
***Script doDaemon.sh complete.***
pi@raspberrypi:~ $
I've tested this on Stretch as well as Buster, but it should work on Wheezy as well (but you should really upgrade if you are on a system that's that old.)
After the new service is running, issue the command sudo systemctl status wificheck and you should see something like:
● wificheck.service - Service for: wificheck
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/wificheck.service; enabled; vendor preset
Active: active (running) since Sat 2019-03-23 16:55:31 CDT; 6min ago
Docs: https://github.com/lbussy/rpi-wifi-checker
Main PID: 18482 (bash)
CGroup: /system.slice/wificheck.service
├─18482 /bin/bash /usr/local/bin/checkWiFi.sh -d
└─18508 sleep 600
Mar 23 16:55:31 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Service for: wificheck.
As long as you see Active: active (running), you're fine.
Those of you who have a Legacy BrewPi host that want to use this should ditch the wificheck in cron.d. If you are running BrewPi Remix you already have something similar to this so no changes are needed.
This script will log to: /var/log/wificheck.log, and log any issues to /var/log/wificheck.err. If your RPi is REALLY flaky and a reboot is the only way to fix network issues, edit /usr/local/bin/checkWiFi.sh and change line line 34 to read REBOOT=true and it will reboot your Pi if it can't resolve the issue by "normal" means. If you make that edit you will need to restart the daemon by issuing the command sudo systemctl restart wificheck.