User unable to access captive portal or hotspot

[Popolechien]

From user:

I purchased and downloaded the image which I’ve successfully burned to an sdcard which I’ve booted in my Pi.
After a few minutes, the hotspot ‘ready’ appears, which I can connect to, however, I cannot connect to any information, I have also tried connecting to 192.168.2.1 which is the gateway, dhcp & dns server on the Pi.
I have read the FAQ and also the info in the email that came with the link but I cannot gain access.
I’ve tried via a Windows laptop and an iPhone, latest OS’s on both, same result. I’ve also tried different browsers and disabling the private IP setting.
I’ve tried a Pi 4 & Pi 3.

The fact that ready appears seems to indicate that the image is working as intended, but I have no idea what could be wrong on the user side.

[rgaudin]

Please ask user to add more details here (seems tech savvy) as “I cannot connect to any information” is too vague to be useful here. What's happening? Error message?

[Popolechien]

Nothing happens apparently. No captive portal, and going to http://ready.hotspot returns nothing.

[rgaudin]

OK ; investigating

[rgaudin]

Thank you very much for reporting ; it was a regression affecting the captive-portal. This is fixed and deployed ; just tested a working image out of the service.

[Popolechien]

I am reopening this issue as the user is still unable to access the contents of the card. Adding a few screenshots he took while trying the latest image we sent them:

Any idea?

[rgaudin]

This is exactly what was happening: WiFi network is visible but the captive portal is not triggered when connecting to it…

Can you make sure User is testing with a card recreated after downloading the new Image (which was uploaded on Wed, 01 May 2024 14:49:11 GMT)

Just tested with a similar image (not the same, too large to download) ; works as expected.

[Popolechien]

Can you make sure User is testing with a card recreated after downloading the new Image (which was uploaded on Wed, 01 May 2024 14:49:11 GMT)

Yep, download link was sent on 2 May at 6:28pm.

[rgaudin]

OK, I think it would be good for you @Popolechien to download the exact same file and test it just to rule out an image issue. Please.

I see that he tested on Pi3 and Pi4 and also multiple clients which is good.

Please check Power Supply capacity. Pi3 should be at least 2.5A (12.5W) and Pi4 3A (15W)
If it complies, make sure the card was written properly: using raspberrypi imager, and letting it finish the Verify part. He can just reflash the same card with that image if unsure whether this was done.

If this leads nowhere, we'd have to get some diagnosis information either by plugging the Pi into a screen or connecting the Pi to an ethernet network and running some commands.

[Popolechien]

Yup. I've had him download another, 8GB test image just to see if that fails as well.

[Popolechien]

i sent a test image to the user and it worked (both on macOS and iPhone). I downloaded the prepper image that was sent to them and it worked as well (macOS + android).

The only thing I noticed was that the portal was a bit long to appear even after I connected to the network, but nothing outrageous (maybe a minute or so).

They are re-downloading the file and going for a retry.

[rgaudin]

Thank you ; glad you tested it.

I think we have a ticket regarding first-time and boot-time in general experience. As already explained, we startup the WiFi AP very early, when the rest if not ready and we provide no feedback when things are ready.

[kelson42]

It seems very important that the benchmark tests tests a minima the captive portal. It seems critical and I see no other place where it could be done.

[rgaudin]

@kelson42 this can not be otherwise as the traffic is not relayed until the CP adds the proper rule to the firewall.

[Popolechien]

Turns out that verification at the end of the Raspberry Pi Imager flash failed twice in a row: user bought a new card and things worked like a charm.

[rgaudin]

Ok good to know.