Not working with Raspberry Pi 3 (on-board WiFi)

[tlangmo]

Everything installs fine and the Access Point "ResinAP" shows up on other devices. But once you try to connect to it, it never succeeds and the capture portal never appears. I tested with Pi2 and USB dongle and it worked fine.

The internet suggests that the on-board wifi chip supports SoftAP, e.g. https://frillip.com/using-your-raspberry-pi-3-as-a-wifi-access-point-with-hostapd/

[pcarranzav]

Thanks for reporting @tlangmo - we hadn't yet tested on an RPi 3.

Might be that we have to use hostapd like we did on the edison branch.
Or it could also work with connman if we manually add wlan0 to the bridge using brctl (I've seen sometimes connman fails to add the interface to the bridge, which causes that behaviour where the AP appears but you can't connect to it).
In any case, I'll have to do some tinkering to figure it out. (And you're more than welcome to give it a try if you want ;)

[pcarranzav]

@tlangmo I've prepared a branch that uses hostapd basing from the edison branch with a few changes.
Haven't tested it, but wanna give it a try?
It's rpi3-hostapd

[tlangmo]

@pcarranzav I've tested it successfully on Rpi3 with your hostapd version. The AP comes up and I can connect to it.

I have noticed a few things though:
*Sometimes, a hotspot gets opened although the network can be joined and the credentials are correct. I have not really figured out how to replicate this. Can I set a timeout somewhere?

*Unfortunately, systemd (ENV INITSYSTEM on) does not work with resin-wifi-connect. This is a bummer since systemd is quite important. Whenever it is active, I get this error message:

Unhandled rejection Error: No WiFi networks found
    at /usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified/lib/WiFi.js:509:17
    at mgr.GetServices.finish (/usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified/node_modules/connman-api/lib/connman.js:160:5)
    at /usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified/node_modules/connman-api/node_modules/dbus/lib/interface.js:49:10

Not sure yet whether this is Rpi3 related or generally a problem with the wifi-connect app

[pcarranzav]

@tlangmo the systemd thing is a known issue, that has a workaround that was implemented on the master branch but not the rpi3 version. It requires changing this line to:

DBUS_SYSTEM_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/host_run/dbus/system_bus_socket npm start &> wifi.log

As for the other issue, there might be a bug in how we save the credentials after a container restart (also fixed in master but not on this branch). I'll clean up and fix as soon as possible.

[tlangmo]

@pcarranzav I think there are several issues at play which cause problems with resin-wifi-connect on Rpi3. Here is what I noticed so far in my tests:

• Hotspot via connman tethering with on-board broadcom chip does not work. However hostapd works
• Even with correct credentials, connman-simplified-resin cannot join a WPA network. This causes the hotspot to be opened on every reboot
  Unhandled rejection Error: Joining network failed (wrong password?) at onChange (/usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplifiedresin/lib/WiFi.js:256:23) at emit (events.js:98:17) at null.<anonymous> (/usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified-resin/node_modules/connman-api-resin/lib/service.js:87:12) at emit (events.js:117:20) at null.<anonymous> (/usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified-resin/node_modules/connman-api-resin/node_modules/dbus/lib/bus.js:43:22) at emit (events.js:106:17)at /usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified-resin/node_modules/connman-api-resin/node_modules/dbus/lib/dbus.js:70:42
• Standalone connmanctl using the same SSID/password works fine though! Maybe some agent problem?
• Systemd and connman have some issues on Rpi3 which I have not noticed on Rp2. For example, if connman service is running with INITSYSTEM on, the SSH web terminal does not work anymore.

[pcarranzav]

@tlangmo about the systemd problem, yes, it's because this branch doesn't have this fix:
ce4da53
(basically the systemctl disable connman on the Dockerfile avoids a connman daemon starting on the container and conflicting with the host connman)
Also the connman-simplified-resin version is outdated (master has 0.1.5), so probably the join error is fixed there (I recall seeing that in the past).

I'll PR fixes for this as soon as I can.

[pcarranzav]

@tlangmo think could you try the branch rpi3-rebased to see if it fixes those issues?

I interactively rebased from master so that the newest fixes are applied, but haven't been able to test it yet.

[tlangmo]

@pcarranzav I did more testing with rpi3-rebased and found s.th. interesting. The good news, it works in principle, but not right away.
After the AP is up, and you enter the credentials the first time, it will enter the AP mode again on next boot. If you then enter the same credentials a second time, it will work from there on.

Looking closer and /data/connections.json, you can see that the second entry got appended to the list. While the first network join fails, subsequent will work. Here is a print out the /data/connections.json file and the corresponding node error msgs. I added a non existing entry manually for testing.

[{"ssid":"Motesque 2.4Ghz","passphrase":"P@ssw0rd"},{"ssid": "noexist", "passphrase" : "whoknows"}, {"ssid":"Motesque 2.4Ghz","passphrase":"P@ssw0rd"}]

Trying to join previously known networks

Trying to join Motesque 2.4Ghz pwd:P@ssw0rd
Error joining network { [Error: Joining network failed (wrong password?)]
  cause: [Error: Joining network failed (wrong password?)],
  isOperational: true } Error: Joining network failed (wrong password?)
    at onChange (/usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified-resin/lib/WiFi.js:256:23)
    at emit (events.js:98:17)
    at null.<anonymous> (/usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified-resin/node_modules/connman-api-resin/lib/service.js:87:12)
    at emit (events.js:117:20)
    at null.<anonymous> (/usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified-resin/node_modules/connman-api-resin/node_modules/dbus/lib/bus.js:43:22)
    at emit (events.js:106:17)
    at /usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified-resin/node_modules/connman-api-resin/node_modules/dbus/lib/dbus.js:70:42
No success Error: Joining network failed (wrong password?)

Trying to join noexist pwd:whoknows
Error joining network { [Error: Service not found] cause: [Error: Service not found], isOperational: true } Error: Service not found
    at /usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified-resin/node_modules/connman-api-resin/lib/connman.js:228:23
    at mgr.GetServices.finish (/usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified-resin/node_modules/connman-api-resin/lib/connman.js:160:5)
    at /usr/src/app/node_modules/connman-simplified-resin/node_modules/connman-api-resin/node_modules/dbus/lib/interface.js:49:10
No success Error: Service not found

Trying to join Motesque 2.4Ghz pwd:P@ssw0rd
Joined! Exiting.

[tlangmo]

@pcarranzav Actually, I had instances now where also the second time it did not work with the same No success Error: Joining network failed (wrong password?) error message. So bottom line, something works but not reliable.

[pcarranzav]

@tlangmo maybe you've thought of this, but is it possible that the signal is just not so strong? Could you try moving closing to the router and seeing if it works more consistently?
It might be worth just adding a few retries to the join...

[tlangmo]

@pcarranzav I tried a lot already... Signal is not the issue, I tried two different location (home & office), also very close to router. I also cross checked with Rpi2, everything works fine on that device...

[pcarranzav]

@tlangmo sorry for the delay. I'll be working on debugging this throughout next week - I'll keep you updated!

[tlangmo]

@pcarranzav I checked the wifi connection mechanism using the python test scripts of connman (https://sources.debian.net/src/connman/1.21-1.2/test/) itself. That worked without problem meaning on every start up, the wifi is joined with known credentials using dbus messages. I ran the agent in a separate process.

So my guess is the problem lies somewhere in one of the node.js abstractions.

[pcarranzav]

@tlangmo thanks for digging in. I've pushed a version that adds some retries - doesn't solve the core issue but might get you going while I keep on researching.

[dovy]

@pcarranzav tried it out. The SSID's never populate. Any hints as to where the issue may be?

[danielbh]

+1 did not work for me either.

Edit: To be more specific I deployed the app to a resin project as a stand alone app. Then I tried to connect with the resulting un-provisioned access point 'Resin AP'. It wouldn't even connect.

[curcuz]

this is stuck until #42 is fixed

[danielbh]

rpi3-rebased branch works for me after recent changes. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

[petrosagg]

RaspberryPi 3 support is now merged to master