Wifi connectivity

[jon]

@henning

Yes I see this, but I still want to try.

A fair excuse Actually you may help us taking out that “experimental” label in the end

@henning

For a while I could access the Dwarf as well the Internet, like the forum and wiki here, but suddenly, connection to the outer network broken, so no Wiki, and also no Browsing in the plugin store anymore, on my laptop and the dwarf - forum question/bug report/support request will follow.
I assume this comes from adding special internal IP networks to a machine over unusual protocols.

Have you tried this with only one device/OS?

@henning

Is the bluetooth way working with multiple devices, so I can easily switch e.g. from my tablet to my laptop to my desktop for accessing the dwarfs UI without having to do anything on the connection? Or will I have to do explicit switching each time?

I’m not sure if there are some sort of receivers that automatically pair with “normal” Bluetooth, so you just turn on both devices and they pair. This happens with some Bluetooth devices, even the most basic Bluetooth speakers that after the first pairing pair automatically. Not sure even if this requires anything on the MOD side or just some sort of host software or so. Really not sure, I’m just live brainstorming.

@henning

As I said, a recommendation for a working and currently available ethernet dongle would also help.

@falkTX, I actually never tested this myself in the end, do you have any documentation?

[falkTX]

@jon

@henning

As I said, a recommendation for a working and currently available ethernet dongle would also help.

@falkTX, I actually never tested this myself in the end, do you have any documentation?

We do not have any such drivers enabled in the system

[henning]

@jon

Have you tried this with only one device/OS?

yes.
It works with Windows and MacOS, I had this problem with my Ubuntu Linux system.
I can write a proper post with more details about this the next time I get to it…

And I can also try a different system with Linux to check if it happens to me on all Linux systems.

[henning]

@falkTX

We do not have any such drivers enabled in the system

Might be my fault - I think I read the proposal somewhere to use an USB ethernet dongle instead of Wifi. I dont find the location where I read or misunderstood it right now.

Could this be a more stable / less problematic option than wifi?

On the other hand, I understand, one might not generally open that box of “interesting” security issues when starting to fully network-enable the device, it becomes some entirely different work with security updates, simple default passwords and such when one has to assume that the devices will be available to whole LAN’s and WIFI networks in random cafes and such.

Nobody wants their hacked effects pedal go crazy in the middle of a show…

[henning]

@jon

I’m not sure if there are some sort of receivers that automatically pair with “normal” Bluetooth, so you just turn on both devices and they pair. This happens with some Bluetooth devices, even the most basic Bluetooth speakers that after the first pairing pair automatically. Not sure even if this requires anything on the MOD side or just some sort of host software or so. Really not sure, I’m just live brainstorming.

My experience, for example with bluetooth speakers, is, that many clients connect to them automatically, and then it gets complicated to decide who is really allowed to play sound on them.
I often need to explicitly disconnect multiple other devices to be able to listen to the sound from the one source I really want to listen.

My fear is that with Bluetooth networking it will be similar, which is exactly what I want to get rid of with the whole idea of Wifi. Otherwise it’s still clearer and easier to keep using the cable. (once I got rid of the network problems i described, but there must be some solution…)

[jon]

@henning

My experience, for example with bluetooth speakers, is, that many clients connect to them automatically, and then it gets complicated to decide who is really allowed to play sound on them.
I often need to explicitly disconnect multiple other devices to be able to listen to the sound from the one source I really want to listen.

The same here. I hate when I need to change the source the amount of work that it’s required. But I guess it’s one handicap necessary for those systems.

@henning

It works with Windows and MacOS, I had this problem with my Ubuntu Linux system.
I can write a proper post with more details about this the next time I get to it…

And I can also try a different system with Linux to check if it happens to me on all Linux systems.

I’m not a really experienced Linux guy (something that I want to get fixed!), but it really seems that the issue is with something on the OS - if it works on the other OSs. If it’s a matter of configuration or really a version issue, that I can’t really answer.

[Dymaxion]

Having a slight oddity here. I’ve got a USB ethernet adapter connected. When I ssh in over USB and bring it up with ifconfig, it works great; nice and stable and fast. When I add it to /etc/network/interfaces, it doesn’t come up:

allow-hotplug usb0 eth0

iface usb0 inet static
  address 192.168.51.1
  netmask 255.255.255.0

iface eth0 inet static
  address 192.168.1.43
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  gateway 192.168.1.1

Unplugging the ethernet card and plugging it back in doesn’t seem to be triggering hotplug properly either. Setting it to auto doesn’t work either (as expected for a USB NIC), and in fact seems to stop the network from coming up at all, even on USB. It seems like there’s some slightly custom stuff happening in the way y’all are bringing up network services — any hints? Ideally, I’d really prefer this to use DHCP, too — much easier in my environment.

[JamKid]

After some trial and error, and lots of research, I’ve managed to get wifi working.

It seems like WPA supplicant requires an adaptor with a chipset that supports cfg80211, which led me to buy a D Link DWA 131 with Realtek RTL8192EU chipset, and finally got it working after copying the required firmware as per the wiki instruction.

I used the list from https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers to find the supported the chipset, and search up the chipset http://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru to find list the adaptor and find 1 that’s available in my region.

Not 100% sure that my guess on cfg80211 support is correct, and maybe just so happened it’s a coincidence that this dongle works.
Maybe someone who is more experienced in linux system can help confirm?

[Giga]

@JamKid

… which led me to buy a D Link DWA 131 with Realtek RTL8192EU chipset, and finally got it working

Thanks a lot for the suggestion @JamKid I bought the same adapter and after some time, to understand the configuration and to install the firmware, I was able to get UI wifi access to work as well!

[ignis32]

As far as I know, D-Link (and some other companies) tend to use different hardware and chips for the different revisions of devices marketed under the same name. One device with the same model name might use Broadcom chip, and another will use Realtek, for example, and from the linux drivers perspective these are actually separate devices - one would work and another one will not.
This difference in behavior might be a problem for other users trying to repeat your success.

Therefore I can suppose that mentioning exact revision that worked for you might be helpful.

[phil]

@falkTX
is there a way possible to add wireless hotpost to dwarf config with a working wireless dongle ?
e.g. something like hotsapd with dnsmasq ?

[ignis32]

that sounds much more interesting than connecting device to the existing wifi network, as at home I use USB anyway.

[looperlative]

@phil

is there a way possible to add wireless hotpost to dwarf config with a working wireless dongle ?

You can try it, but my experience with running soft APs using those dongles is that performance is pretty low.

[phil]

I’ll try it as soon as i get my dwarf (tier 3)
Is the dwarf os equipped with a package manager ?
It,s arch i guess ?

[falkTX]

no, it is custom system, not using any kind of package management system.

[phil]

@falkTX
Regarding my question:

is there a way possible to add wireless hotpost to dwarf config with a working wireless dongle ?
e.g. something like hotsapd with dnsmasq ?

do you think it is possible ? maybe implemented ?
do i get it right, that hostsapd needs to be installed manually

thanks

[falkTX]

I never tried, so I dont know the steps required.

Are you able to do this on a regular linux system.
That is, without using GUI tools, just the CLI ones and with config files…?

[fer]

Yes indeed. For example zynthian and modep have it.

A generic instruction could be:

Raspberry Pi -> Wifi Hotspot

[phil]

i know all this stuff and did it myself on respberry pi, but my question is how to install hostsapd without package manager and so…
so the question still is how to do this on the mod system. and as i stated before i dont have a dwarf yet so i cannot try and im not that big linux guy…

GitHub - philus88/mod_pi: install script for moddevices software on Raspberry...

not my work just brought all the infos together and took all stuff from modep and so. just my way to use mod before getting the dwarf