Wifi problem with Tinypilot

[MarineW29]

I don't have a good grasp of network issues, but I'm a bit lost here.
After my tests yesterday, I restarted TinyPilot, so logically it must have lost what I ran on the command line? I expected not to be able to access it from the OpenPlotter AP, but I can access it with its fixed IP address 10.10.10.2
And Pypilot manages to reach OpenPlotter as well.

The route -n command shows one more line than yesterday:

Code:

tc@pypilot:/$ route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
10.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0
127.0.0.1 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 lo
192.168.14.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan1
192.168.14.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan1

So I don't really understand...
Is there things persisted between reboots, regarding networking, apart from the /.pypiot/networking.txt configuration file?

[MarineW29]

Hi Sean,

I added the following lines to /.pypilot/networking.sh:

Code:

client_netmask=255.255.255.0
client_gateway=10.10.10.1

I modified networking.sh to take these new parameters into account and saved it with filetool.sh -b
=> See attached file and look for comments "added by Marine".

The modifications made allow to define the netmask and add a default route via the gateway.
But there is still a problem that I do not understand: the route added for the gateway disappears after a very short time (of the order of a second or less). I did different tests, it seems to be a question of delay, and not a question of a command executed later in the script. As if something was running in the background and came to delete it.
I observe it by manually executing the networking.sh script. If I add the route immediately after the script (see test below), it does not hold. But if I wait 1 second after the script ends, and add the route again, then it holds.

Also the network settings web page should be modified 

Code:

tc@pypilot:/opt$ sudo ./networking.sh ; route -n ;  sudo route add default gw 10.10.10.1 ;  route -n
stop services
wlan1    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr B8:27:EB:07:79:07 
          inet addr:192.168.14.1  Bcast:192.168.14.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::ba27:ebff:fe07:7907/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:31 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:3702 (3.6 KiB)
iw is already installed!
ifconfig set client address!
Kernel IP routing table
Destination    Gateway        Genmask        Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
0.0.0.0        10.10.10.1      0.0.0.0        UG   0      0        0 wlan0
10.10.10.0      0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan0
127.0.0.1       0.0.0.0        255.255.255.255 UH  0      0        0 lo
192.168.14.0    0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan1
192.168.14.0    0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan1
start hostapd
Sun Feb 11 11:17:27 UTC 2024
hostapd is already installed!
Sun Feb 11 11:17:28 UTC 2024
start dnsmasq
dnsmasq is already installed!
route: SIOCADDRT: File exists
Kernel IP routing table
Destination    Gateway        Genmask        Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
10.10.10.0      0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan0
127.0.0.1       0.0.0.0        255.255.255.255 UH  0      0        0 lo
192.168.14.0    0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan1
192.168.14.0    0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan1
Kernel IP routing table
Destination    Gateway        Genmask        Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
0.0.0.0        10.10.10.1      0.0.0.0        UG   0      0        0 wlan0
10.10.10.0      0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan0
127.0.0.1       0.0.0.0        255.255.255.255 UH  0      0        0 lo
192.168.14.0    0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan1
192.168.14.0    0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan1
tc@pypilot:/opt$ route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination    Gateway        Genmask        Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
10.10.10.0      0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan0
127.0.0.1       0.0.0.0        255.255.255.255 UH  0      0        0 lo
192.168.14.0    0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan1
192.168.14.0    0.0.0.0        255.255.255.0  U    0      0        0 wlan1

[MarineW29]

Just with the netmask part, it already seems to work correctly for local exchanges. So maybe you could already integrate this part into your Git repository ?

The fact that the gateway is not defined prevents Pypilot from accessing the Internet via the OpenPlotter AP, for example. But it is already less common as a use!

Code:

tc@pypilot:~$ ping www.google.com
ping: bad address 'www.google.com'
tc@pypilot:~$ sudo route add default gw  10.10.10.1
tc@pypilot:~$ ping www.google.com
PING www.google.com (172.217.20.196): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 172.217.20.196: seq=0 ttl=114 time=19.377 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.20.196: seq=1 ttl=114 time=14.532 ms

[MarineW29]

One last really twisted point that I just realized:
If TinyPilot is connected as a client to the OpenPlotter AP
And if OpenPlotter is connected as a client to another AP (Internet box in my case)
And if this other AP (Internet box) is running on a Wifi channel other than 6, then OpenPlotter can connect to the AP, but Pypilot can't connect to the OpenPlotter AP !
I think that the Wifi channel used by the OpenPlotter AP aligns with the Wifi channel that is imposed on it as a client. Even though the OpenPlotter /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf file has a "channel=6" parameter

I think this is actually the problem I've been facing since the beginning, and that took me so long to understand. Hope this can help others...

[seandepagnier]

so if they are all on channel 6 it works ok?

need to make the ap+client mode set the ap channel to the same channel as the client, that would probably help right?