Detect, record if wifi can be AP and suppress installing supporting files #3070

jvonau · 2021-12-17T10:21:43Z

Fixes bug:

hostapd restart error noted in #3057 (comment)

Untested

holta · 2021-12-17T18:33:33Z

@jvonau are the 1+6 mentions of "AP" in bold below extraneous — not offering any hope at all to enable AP mode? (as an example, apparently from a Kingdel PC)

Paste below from file /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Wi-Fi connection 1.nmconnection :

[wifi]
band=bg
channel=9
mac-address=00:1E:65:41:55:61
mac-address-blacklist=
mode=ap
ssid=SmartBox

Output below from command /usr/sbin/iw list :

Supported interface modes:
* IBSS
* managed
* monitor
Band 1:

...

Supported commands:
* new_interface
* set_interface
* new_key
* start_ap
* new_station

...

Supported TX frame types:
* IBSS: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
* managed: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
* AP: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
* AP/VLAN: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0

...

Supported RX frame types:
* IBSS: 0x40 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
* managed: 0x40 0xd0
* AP: 0x00 0x20 0x40 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
* AP/VLAN: 0x00 0x20 0x40 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0

...

Driver supports full state transitions for AP/GO clients

(Above excerpts are from iiab-diagnostics http://sprunge.us/NMOYJl?en)

jvonau · 2021-12-17T22:58:49Z

Now what has been presented is a user configured WiFi network, given I shown you how to use NetworkManager's connection sharing on an XO-4 what in 2014-2015, running iiab-network would cause a clash over control of the wifi device causing the crash noted at Restart hostapd when WiFi is present in the pastebin. Easiest course of action would be to set "hostapd_enable False" in local_vars.yml as a start and look at #3014 for those experts that know how to configure a network properly and don't need hand holding.

jvonau · 2021-12-17T23:31:12Z

1677 	software interface modes (can always be added):
1678 		 * monitor
1679 	interface combinations are not supported

#3057 (comment) won't support ap0, I'd would try with wifi_up_down: False.
sudo iiab-hotspot-off
edit local_vars
cd /opt/iiab/iiab
sudo ./iiab-network
sudo iib-hotspot-on
Or
Just use the GUI to manage the network but the trouble is admin-console will run the network role anyway, is_guest would need to be added to iiab-from-console.yml also.

1098 -IIAB--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1099 -rw------- 1 root root 343 Dec 11 10:39 /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Wi-Fi connection 1.nmconnection
1100                         ...ITS LAST 100 LINES FOLLOW...
1101 
1102 [connection]
1103 id=Wi-Fi connection 1
1104 uuid=aee7d61d-bfbf-4e4a-840d-5daab2601e6d
1105 type=wifi
1106 interface-name=wlp3s0
1107 permissions=
1108 
1109 [wifi]
1110 band=bg
1111 channel=9
1112 mac-address=00:1E:65:41:55:61
1113 mac-address-blacklist=
1114 mode=ap
1115 ssid=SmartBox
1116 
1117 [ipv4]
1118 dns-search=
1119 method=shared
1120 
1121 [ipv6]
1122 addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
1123 dns-search=
1124 ip6-privacy=0
1125 method=shared

Did this connection actually become active and working? That would be useful information to know.

jvonau · 2021-12-18T01:24:36Z

@jvonau are the 1+6 mentions of "AP" in bold below extraneous — not offering any hope at all to enable AP mode? (as an example, apparently from a Kingdel PC)

I would think none.

Driver supports full state transitions for AP/GO clients

(Above excerpts are from iiab-diagnostics http://sprunge.us/NMOYJl?en)

see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Hostapd & https://gist.github.com/Semant1ka/ee087c2bd1fbf6b0287c3307b8d4f291

…files

holta · 2022-04-13T19:21:45Z

roles/network/tasks/detected_network.yml

@@ -101,6 +101,16 @@
  set_fact:
    num_wifi_interfaces: "{{ count_wifi_interfaces.stdout|int }}"

+- name: Check for Access Point capablility with 'iw list'
+  command: iw list | grep -v AP: | grep AP | wc -l


Sometimes AP appears in comments like the following — e.g. on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.1 in this case:

root@box:~# iw list | grep -vn AP: | grep AP 21: * AP 164: * #{ managed } <= 1, #{ AP } <= 1, #{ P2P-client } <= 1, #{ P2P-device } <= 1, 188: * [ 4WAY_HANDSHAKE_AP_PSK ]: AP mode PSK offload support

Should we... perhaps instead... grep for any string(s) * AP that appear at the end of any lines?

(If the existence of at least one of these... is indeed the decider/clincher?)

Suggested change

command: iw list | grep -v AP: | grep AP | wc -l

command: iw list | grep '* AP$' | wc -l

Lines 164 188 will not exist without line 21 and the test below is against an integer, what return value is provided without wc -l?

Lines 164 188 will not exist without line 21

For sure, I agree.

I was just suggesting a failsafe — e.g. in case the string 'AP' mysteriously appears in comments arising from diverse/wonky WiFi cards in future?

Towards possibly making things even more resilient?

what return value is provided without wc -l?

I restored the wc -l into the suggestion above a few minutes ago.

bash can do the counting, if counting's required, that works too.

Whereas another option is to avoid bash and have Ansible do the counting — e.g. using code like REGISTER_VAR.stdout_lines | length > 0 here:

iiab/roles/1-prep/tasks/hardware.yml

Lines 23 to 33 in db1531e

- name: "Look for any WiFi devices present: ls -la /sys/class/net/*/phy80211 | cut -d/ -f5"

shell: ls -la /sys/class/net/*/phy80211 | cut -d/ -f5

register: wifi_devices

ignore_errors: True

changed_when: False

- name: "Set has_wifi_device: True, if output (from above) shows device(s) here: {{ wifi_devices.stdout_lines }}"

set_fact:

has_wifi_device: True

when: wifi_devices is defined and wifi_devices.stdout_lines | length > 0

# when: wifi_devices is defined and wifi_devices.stdout | trim != ""

holta · 2022-04-20T14:07:50Z

Every year, lots of people make clear they want/need this!
(Of course with a clean UX + clean documentation, that might come later if the stars align...)

What test cases / HW / OS should be prioritized to smoke-test this PR?

holta · 2022-05-09T15:32:11Z

Can this PR be considered prior to...?

PR Allow for network role to be fully optional #3173
PR set 'host_country_code' to value found in wpa_supplicant.conf [on Raspberry Pi OS only, deferring Ubuntu/Debian upstream issues] #3179 related to Should host_country_code in local_vars.yml update wpa_supplicant.conf not just hostapd.conf ? #3097

jvonau · 2022-05-09T17:24:29Z

Untested

missing quotes corrected in 3216
didn't like command corrected in 3216

jvonau · 2022-05-09T17:29:50Z

Can this PR be considered prior to...?

* PR [Wifi net2 #3173](https://github.com/iiab/iiab/pull/3173)

* PR [set 'host_country_code' to value found in wpa_supplicant.conf [on Raspberry Pi OS only, deferring Ubuntu/Debian upstream issues] #3179](https://github.com/iiab/iiab/pull/3179) related to [Should host_country_code in local_vars.yml update wpa_supplicant.conf not just hostapd.conf ? #3097](https://github.com/iiab/iiab/issues/3097)

Shouldn't the PR number tell you the age?

jvonau · 2022-05-09T17:59:52Z

Found this while running ./iiab-network

TASK [firmware : Symlink /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.bin.iiab -> brcmfmac43455-sdio.bin_2021-11-30_minimal (as rpi3bplus_rpi4_wifi_firmware is "19")] ***
[WARNING]: Cannot set fs attributes on a non-existent symlink target. follow should be set to False to avoid this.
ok: [127.0.0.1]

holta · 2022-05-09T19:23:47Z

brcmfmac43455-sdio.bin_2021-11-30_minimal

Can you tell if there might have been some kind of a network glitch during firmware/tasks/download.yml — when it was trying to download http://d.iiab.io/packages/brcmfmac43455-sdio.bin_2021-11-30_minimal to /lib/firmware/brcm/ ?

(Did several of those 7 files possibly fail to download, if you can tell what happened?)

holta added the enhancement label Dec 17, 2021

holta added this to the 7.2 milestone Dec 17, 2021

holta changed the title ~~Detect, recored if wifi can be AP and suppress installing supporting files~~ Detect, record if wifi can be AP and suppress installing supporting files Dec 17, 2021

holta modified the milestones: 7.2, 8.0 Jan 1, 2022

jvonau added 2 commits March 28, 2022 20:40

Detect, recored if wifi can be AP and suppress installing supporting …

7113f87

…files

tweak regexp for entries in Supported TX RX - forgot stdout

438cdf5

jvonau force-pushed the check4AP branch from 9eeb098 to 438cdf5 Compare March 29, 2022 01:41

holta mentioned this pull request Apr 6, 2022

Raspberry Pi WiFi hotspot firmware reliability fix, incl new/better choices for 3B+ & 4 (WIP, this is PR #3101 rebased) #3103

Merged

holta reviewed Apr 13, 2022

View reviewed changes

jvonau mentioned this pull request May 9, 2022

Net test may9 #3216

Closed

This was referenced May 10, 2022

Admin Console should offer iiab-hotspot-on|off functionality [and explain command-line alternatives, which are often necessary!] #1520

Open

IIAB installer should make hotspot & networking choices far more understandable #1536

Open

holta mentioned this pull request May 19, 2022

Check hardware for AP and if so record 'can_be_ap = True' to /etc/iiab/iiab.ini #3222

Merged

holta merged commit fb1e5a3 into iiab:master May 19, 2022

This was referenced Jul 28, 2022

network/tasks/detected_network.yml: can_be_ap grep failed on absence of regex #3323

Merged

Explain iiab-network alert: "WiFi chipset/firmware NOT CAPABLE of AP Mode (details above)" #3331

Merged

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Detect, record if wifi can be AP and suppress installing supporting files #3070

Detect, record if wifi can be AP and suppress installing supporting files #3070

jvonau commented Dec 17, 2021 •

edited

holta commented Dec 17, 2021

jvonau commented Dec 17, 2021

jvonau commented Dec 17, 2021

jvonau commented Dec 18, 2021 •

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holta Apr 13, 2022 •

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jvonau Apr 13, 2022

holta Apr 13, 2022

holta commented Apr 20, 2022 •

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holta commented May 9, 2022

jvonau commented May 9, 2022 •

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jvonau commented May 9, 2022

jvonau commented May 9, 2022

holta commented May 9, 2022

	command: iw list \| grep -v AP: \| grep AP \| wc -l
	command: iw list \| grep '* AP$' \| wc -l

	- name: "Look for any WiFi devices present: ls -la /sys/class/net/*/phy80211 \| cut -d/ -f5"
	shell: ls -la /sys/class/net/*/phy80211 \| cut -d/ -f5
	register: wifi_devices
	ignore_errors: True
	changed_when: False

	- name: "Set has_wifi_device: True, if output (from above) shows device(s) here: {{ wifi_devices.stdout_lines }}"
	set_fact:
	has_wifi_device: True
	when: wifi_devices is defined and wifi_devices.stdout_lines \| length > 0
	# when: wifi_devices is defined and wifi_devices.stdout \| trim != ""

Detect, record if wifi can be AP and suppress installing supporting files #3070

Detect, record if wifi can be AP and suppress installing supporting files #3070

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jvonau commented Dec 17, 2021 • edited

Fixes bug:

holta commented Dec 17, 2021

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