Tried three different wifi dongles and cannot establish a connection. Can connect to my network with ethernet and ssh into the pi2. My wireless access point is open, so no password. The reason I mention this is I wonder if it could be the problem. With this new piaware image I don’t know where to look as it is not using the normal wifi setup. I know this is kind of vague, but maybe someone can help me figure it out.
Try the 3.0.4 image: piaware.flightcdn.com/piaware-sd … .4.img.zip
When configuring wireless in piaware-config.txt, set wireless-network to yes, set wireless-ssid to your wifi SSID (network name), comment out wireless-password entirely (put a # at the start of that line)
Today morning I burned my microSD card with Piaware 3.0.4 img.
I plugged in a $2 unbranded wifi dongle RTL8188CUS from eBay/China, and it works very good.
I made the wifi settings (enable yes, ssid, password) in the file /boot/piaware-config.txt.
Commented out the password line and still no connection. Tried all three wifi radios again. Here is a copy of my config file. Maybe someone can spot a blunder in it. I’m using 3.03 image.
This file configures the Piaware sdcard image
configuration. Whenever the system boots, this
file is read and its contents are used to
configure the system.
Lines beginning with a ‘#’ are comment lines
and are ignored. Blank lines are also ignored.
All other lines specify configuration settings.
WIRED NETWORK CONFIGURATION
Should piaware use the wired ethernet port
for network access?
wired-network no
Wired network configuration:
Most networks will use DHCP
wired-type dhcp
Alternatively, a static address configuration
can be provided; set “wired-type” to static to use this.
wired-address 192.168.1.10
wired-netmask 255.255.255.0
wired-broadcast 192.168.1.255
wired-gateway 192.168.1.254
wired-nameservers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
WIRELESS NETWORK CONFIGURATION
Should piaware use a wifi adaptor
for network access? You will need to attach
a supported USB wifi adaptor for this to work.
change this to “yes” to enable wifi
wireless-network yes
Wifi SSID and password.
This should be changed to match your wireless
network SSID and, for networks that require
a passphrase, the passphrase.
wireless-ssid dd-wrt
#wireless-password
Wifi network configuration:
Most networks will use DHCP
wireless-type dhcp
Alternatively, a static address configuration
can be provided; set “wireless-type” to static to use this.
wireless-address 192.168.1.10
wireless-netmask 255.255.255.0
wireless-broadcast 192.168.1.255
wireless-gateway 192.168.1.254
wireless-nameservers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
RECEIVER CONFIGURATION
Type of ADS-B receiver to use with piaware.
This is used when configuring dump1090-fa and piaware.
Supported types are:
rtlsdr: a USB-connected RTL2832U DVB-T dongle using librtlsdr/dump1090.
beast: a USB-connected Mode-S Beast.
radarcape: a network-connected Radarcape.
other: a network-connected receiver that produces Beast binary output.
relay: like “other”, but will use a local relay so that only one
connection to the receiver is needed, and also forwards output
to the local dump1090 for map display.
receiver-type beast
For a receiver type of ‘rtlsdr’, these control dongle settings
rtlsdr-device-index 0
rtlsdr-gain -10
rtlsdr-ppm 0
For a receiver type of ‘radarcape’, radarcape-host should be set to
the IP or hostname of the Radarcape
radarcape-host your-radarcape-hostname
For a receiver type of ‘other’ or ‘relay’, receiver-host and receiver-port
should set to the IP/hostname and port to connect to for data.
receiver-host your-receiver-hostname
receiver-port 30005
OTHER CONFIGURATION
Should automatic system updates (initiated by FlightAware) be allowed?
allow-auto-updates yes
Should manual system updates (initiated by you from the website control
panel) be allowed?
allow-manual-updates yes
Should rfkill (“airplane mode”) be set on all wireless/bluetooth
devices on boot? This can reduce interference if you are using a Pi 3
but not using wireless and the receiver is in close proximity to the Pi.
For obvious reasons, this won’t work if you are using a wireless network
configuration.
rfkill no
I’d comment out the wireless settings and give that a go, since you’ve gone with dhcp and not static.
So it should look like this. I’ve done it with my Pi since it is using dhcp and not static, no issues.
# Alternatively, a static address configuration
# can be provided; set "wireless-type" to static to use this.
#wireless-address 192.168.1.10
#wireless-netmask 255.255.255.0
#wireless-broadcast 192.168.1.255
#wireless-gateway 192.168.1.254
#wireless-nameservers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
Also you’re using Beast as the receiver so comment out the other stuff.
# For a receiver type of 'radarcape', radarcape-host should be set to
# the IP or hostname of the Radarcape
#radarcape-host your-radarcape-hostname
# For a receiver type of 'other' or 'relay', receiver-host and receiver-port
# should set to the IP/hostname and port to connect to for data.
#receiver-host your-receiver-hostname
#receiver-port 30005
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commented out the other stuff and still not connecting. Downloading 3.0.4 image now.
Yeah, give 3.0.4 ago. It may fix it. Also is your SSID all in lower case on the router? I ask this since I’ve copied like for like (ie: my bridged router’s SSID is Kooringal and has been entered in the same way [capital K and not lower case], though my network isn’t open).
My SSID is all lower case as it should be. Loaded 3.0.4 and same thing. No wifi with any of my three dongles. It seems odd, because one of the wifi radios is an alfa and it has a comm. led which is flickering as if it is trying to connect. Inserted the 2.1.5 sd card and wifi still works with it. I hope someone has some more ideas, because I am running out of things to try. Considering going back to 2.1.5 and trying to configure it to work with the Beast radio.
How old is that router? Maybe try a different router.
Maybe try a different router wifi modes.
Router isn’t very old. Linksys E1200. Since it works with the old image, it points to a driver problem or something in the piaware 3.0.4 image. If someone could give me some ssh commands to look at the wifi settings/status might be helpful. For that I can plug an ethernet cable into the router.
sudo ifconfig wlan0
See if you have one
sudo iwlist scan
See if you can see your wireless router
Compare ESSID to what your using. If no ESSID, maybe install one in the router and PI and reboot both after editing the piaware config file.
Check the contents printed by: sudo iwconfig
This looks about right to me. Of course there is a lot there that I know nothing about too. Here are the results:
WAIT. something doesn’t look right in the scan, it shows essid of “dd-wrt” and on same channel down farther it shows an essid
of “dd-wrt_vap” which is a repeater bridge I have setup in a different building. Not sure if it should be listed?
Never mind. It’s just showing available access points in the scan results.
pi@piaware:~$ sudo ifconfig wlan0
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:e0:4c:81:98:69
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
pi@piaware:~$ sudo lsusb
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 148f:5370 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT5370 Wireless Adapte r
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT 232 USB-Serial (UART) IC
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
pi@piaware:~$ sudo iwlist scan
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:18:39:D1:1E:AD
Channel:11
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality=15/70 Signal level=-95 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:“dd-wrt_vap”
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000004557b6be59
Extra: Last beacon: 40ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000A64642D7772745F766170
IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
IE: Unknown: 03010B
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 2F0100
IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
IE: Unknown: DD090010180202F0000000
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101800003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
Cell 02 - Address: C8:B3:73:2C:89:62
Channel:11
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality=67/70 Signal level=-43 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:“dd-wrt”
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000001bf89e1b31
Extra: Last beacon: 40ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000664642D777274
IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
IE: Unknown: 03010B
IE: Unknown: 2A0104
IE: Unknown: 2F0104
IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
IE: Unknown: 2D1A7E181BFFFF000001000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 3D160B0F1600000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 4A0E14000A002C01C800140005001900
IE: Unknown: 7F0101
IE: Unknown: DD760050F204104A0001101044000102103B000103104700106CF9C9A4F3E9C410C7155A7B2B4526E0102100074C696E6B7379731023000545313230301024000776322E302E30361042000234321054000800060050F2040001101100054531323030100800022688103C0001011049000600372A000120
IE: Unknown: DD090010180206F02C0000
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101800003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
lo Interface doesn’t support scanning.
eth0 Interface doesn’t support scanning.
pi@piaware:~$
…and you don’t have any MAC filters in the router, or any other reason DHCP would be denied?
No mac filters in router. DHCP has always worked on this router setup. Here is the result from /etc/network/interfaces
Generated automatically by fa_config_generator
This file will be overwritten on reboot.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
metric 1
auto wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wireless-power off
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa-roam.conf
iface wireless inet dhcp
metric 2
Curious what your
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa-roam.conf
file looks like, since you have no security enabled. Mine shows:
# Generated automatically by fa_config_generator
# This file will be overwritten on reboot.
network={
ssid="Helipad"
id_str="wireless"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="secretstring"
}
Here is what that looks like:
Generated automatically by fa_config_generator
This file will be overwritten on reboot.
network={
ssid=“dd-wrt”
id_str=“wireless”
scan_ssid=1
}
I wonder if it needs key_mgmt=NONE. I don’t have an open AP to test against so you may have to mess with the generated config to get it working and let me know what is needed so I can roll it into the config generator for next time. Kinda amazed that open APs are still a thing for anything other than public hotspots, I guess next someone will be asking for WEP support 
Obj,
Well, we live out in the “sticks” far enough that our wifi can’t be picked up from the road or the neighbors so we have always operated open.
Changed that file as you suggested then hotplugged the wifi dongle and don’t see it on the network. If I reboot, it will overwrite my change, right?
That’s a good idea, I just read the note:
“If not set, this defaults to: WPA-PSK WPA-EAP”
So, it looks like if no PSK, then the config file generator should use NONE.
AH! yes that works. "key_mgmt=none
So, how can I get that to stay that way upon reboot?
The way I got it to work was to change the file /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa-roam.conf
then hotplug the wifi dongle.