Wifi Issues and the solutions I found for 0.14.0

[Draracos]

Hello, I have been struggling for a while with the latest version with wifi connection, and it looks like I've found a suitable solution. I'll try to go over the issue here, and then provide what exactly I changed to make it work.

If I recall correctly, there is a known issue with NetworkManager causing issues with the wifi, which made the fullpageos-wpa-supplicant.txt not work properly. In my troubleshooting I found this to be because NetworkManager is starting and controlling wlan0, but wpa_supplicant is what should be setting the SSID to connect to and such based on the info in the fullpageos-wpa-supplicant.txt fie, which is copied to a config file in systemd. wpa_supplicant then tries to start wlan0 to connect to this SSID, but NetworkManager is already managing it, and the command essentially fails. It took a bunch of modification, and a ton of hair-pulling, but I was able to finally get this to work while also gaining a better understanding of the system.

To start, just removing NetworkManager is the wrong move, it seems dhcpd is not in this system anymore, so removing NetworkManager kills all IP association and eth0 and wlan0 control...

The proper change is to remove NetworkManager's control of wlan0 with sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/unmanage-wifi.conf

[keyfile]
unmanaged-devices=interface-name:wlan0

then you modify wpa_supplicant with sudo systemctl edit wpa_supplicant to add

[Service]
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c 'for i in $(seq 1 60); do [ -d /sys/class/net/wlan0 ] && exit 0; sleep 1; done; echo "wlan0 did not appear" >&2; exit 1'
ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/rfkill unblock wifi
ExecStartPre=/sbin/ip link set wlan0 up
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/sbin/wpa_supplicant -u -s -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -D nl80211,wext -O "DIR=/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev"

be sure to "sudo systemctl daemon-reload" and "sudo systemctl restart wpa_supplicant"

then add a new system file with "sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/wpa-autoconnect.service" and insert this code:

[Unit]
Description=Wi-Fi autoconnect + DHCP (only if no Ethernet)
After=wpa_supplicant.service
Wants=wpa_supplicant.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

ExecStart=/bin/sh -c '\
if [ -f /sys/class/net/eth0/carrier ] && [ "$(cat /sys/class/net/eth0/carrier)" = "1" ]; then \
  exit 0; \
fi; \
# Wait for wpa_supplicant control socket
for i in $(seq 1 60); do [ -S /run/wpa_supplicant/wlan0 ] && break; sleep 1; done; \
[ -S /run/wpa_supplicant/wlan0 ] || exit 1; \
/sbin/wpa_cli -i wlan0 enable_network all; \
/sbin/wpa_cli -i wlan0 reassociate; \
sleep 3; \
/sbin/dhclient -v -1 wlan0 || true; \
'

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

then, again, be sure to "sudo systemctl daemon-reload" and "sudo systemctl enable wpa-autoconnect" and "sudo systemctl restart wpa-autoconnect"

mind you, this only starts and connects to the wifi if no ethernet connection is observed unless you manually force it to connect.

Multiple restarts and checks look to confirm this is robust and reliable.

On top of all of that, I also had some issues with http and https. I was able to fix THIS by modifying the script located in /home/pi/scripts/start_chromium_browser
Now, I am using these for kiosks, not intending to have user interaction and so forth, so the first block for standard behavior has not been tested much, and I can't verify that it works, but hopefully this still helps some people. It may also still not quite work as well as it could in signage mode either, but it's good enough for me atm. Also keep in mind these are running on a controlled vlan without external network access, so security was also not an issue for me.

#!/bin/bash

flags=(
   --kiosk
   --ignore-certificate-errors
   --touch-events=enabled
   --disable-pinch
   --noerrdialogs
   --disable-session-crashed-bubble
   --simulate-outdated-no-au='Tue, 31 Dec 2099 23:59:59 GMT'
   --disable-component-update
   --overscroll-history-navigation=0
   --autoplay-policy=no-user-gesture-required
   --disable-features=HttpsFirstMode,TranslateUI
   --allow-running-insecure-content
   --disable-web-security
)

# Standard behavior - runs chromium
#chromium-browser "${flags[@]}" --app=$(/home/pi/scripts/get_url)
#exit;

# Comment out the block above and below to enable signage mode
# Refreshes after a crash by watching logs
#chromium-browser --enable-logging --log-level=2 --v=0 "${flags[@]}" --app=$(/home/pi/scripts/get_url) &
#export logfile="/home/pi/.config/chromium/chrome_debug.log"
#
#tail -n 0 -F "$logfile" | while read LOGLINE &> /dev/null; do
#
#    echo "Refreshing after crash"
#    echo "Restarting at date after a reported crash. Logline: ${LOGLINE}" >> /tmp/crashlog
#
#    [[ ("${LOGLINE}" == *"ERROR"*) || ("${LOGLINE}" == *"FATAL"*) ]] && /home/pi/scripts/refresh
#
#done


# Comment out the two blocks above to enable Throttled refresh signage mode - refresh the browser whenever errors are seen in log with 30 second cooldown
# Signage Mode - refresh when errors are detected
chromium-browser --enable-logging --log-level=2 --v=0 "${flags[@]}" --app=$(/home/pi/scripts/get_url) &

# Point Log file to chromium_debug.log
export logfile="/home/pi/.config/chromium/chrome_debug.log"

# Watch the log for crash strings
tail -n 0 -F "$logfile" | while read LOGLINE; do
    # Check if the line has "FATAL"
    if [[ "$LOGLINE" == *"FATAL"* ]]; then
        echo "Refreshing after crash"
        echo "Restarting at $(date) after a reported crash. Logline: ${LOGLINE}" >> /tmp/crashlog

        /home/pi/scripts/refresh

        echo "Sleeping 30 seconds to prevent another immediate refresh" >> /tmp/crashlog
        sleep 30
    fi

done

[Draracos]

A couple notes, I needed to include "restart=on-failure" catches in wpa_supplicant and wpa-autoconnect due to timing issues, sometimes the services would run before wlan0 could be ready, and then it would fail to start, but manually starting after would work fine.

[Draracos]

I also realize now that there was already a different way to configure the wifi... ah well, I guess this is just a different way to work around it.