New MoodleBox installation not providing connectivity

RaMcLaughlin

I've just found this site and program -- it appears to be exactly what I need! I have many, many thousands of students around the world, a large portion of whom live in limited access countries. This will be perfect for them, assuming I can get it to work. :-)

I downloaded moodlebox-3.6.0.img.gz and flashed it to a new microSD card using balenaEtcher-Portable-1.5.79. I put that card in a 3B and powered it on. All the proper lights flashed, but the wifi never showed up as available, and cabling the Pi to my PC didn't give me access to http://moodlebox.home (or to 192.168.1.136 directly). I tried unzipping the .gz and reflashing the card with that image, but got the same results.

I can run this same 3B with a different LAMP stack and a Moodle 2.X setup, so I know the hardware works fine. I saw in another post that upgrading to Moodle 3.8.1 could be a problem, but since this is a clean install I'm guessing that's not it. Has MoodleBox 3.6.0 been successfully tested on a 3B? Should I try an earlier build?

Thanks for any insight you can offer!

Nicolas

Indeed, for an unknown reason, wlan seems to be blocked on a RPi 3B.

To unblock it, you'll have to get into the MoodleBox, either attaching a screen and keyboard or by connecting via SSH with ethernet cabled connexion, and type in:

sudo rfkill unblock wlan

Interestingly, this is not an issue on RPi 4B. I'll fix this bug as soon as possible. Thanks for the report 👍️

krause

Nicolas I tested the problem with a Raspberry Pi 3B+. There was no wifi when the MoodleBox was starting for the first time. Connecting via ethernet cable and typing sudo rfkill unblock wlan switches the wifi on. This hint was the easiest way.

Ratna In a new installation with the disk image for MoodleBox 3.6.0 the country code is not empty. It is set to CH (=Switzerland).

Robert In my tests I did not use the raspi-config. Also I did not change the country code. The only thing I did was typing sudo rfkill unblock wlan.

The picture shows the MoodleBox plugin .... I am connected with my iPhone.

Nicolas

After several tests, I'm suspecting that a recent update to some unknown (to me) package has blocked the wifi with rfkill.

Hopefully this won't be a problem after each apt upgrade.

Ratna

Nicolas Just now I made a fresh MB 3.6.0 SD. It worked perfectly in a Pi 4A, but in 3B and 3B+ the wireless didn't start. apt upgrade; reboot didn't help (connecting to a console). I had to run 'rfkill unblock wlan' which immediately kicked wireless. Apparently Pi 3B and 4A behave differently in this rfkill blocking. FYI.

Robert

I just fond this under Tips & Tricks. Had looked for it in Support. This is the same issue I had on my Pi3B+ that I discussed in another post. The country code is not set. Once the Country Code is set manually via Raspi-config and Pi is rebooted, he wifi / AP will start broadcasting. And yes, this was the on-board wifi that was being blocked by rfkill.

Only figured it out with help from Nicholas & Ranta !!! Love this MoodleBox System.

Ratna

Robert Do you say, whether Raspbian activates or deactivates the wireless the first time depends on whether the country code is set or not? That would be a great and unexpected discovery!

Robert

Yes ! I repeated this error only for Ver. 3.6.0 on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd boot. It was only until I Logged in and set the Country Code using Raspi-config that the wifi SSID would then start broadcasting. MoodlelBox Ver. 3.5.1 does enable wifi on 1st boot properly. (Raspberry Pi 3B +)

Ratna

krause In my last MoodleBox, 3.6.0, I had to unblock rfkill first (it has a monitor and keyboard/mouse connected). I consider it an obstacle for the beginner and interested in having rfkill unblocked out of the box. What causes the present rfkill blocked state, I don't know.

Nicolas

Ratna As already noted, this seems to be a Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS bug: see e.g. https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=275637&p=1669869

Nicolas

I'm working on a workaround for next MoodleBox image: https://github.com/moodlebox/moodlebox/issues/176.

Nicolas

Just released image version 3.7.0 workarounds (hopefully) this! 😄

krause

Hi Nicolas,
I got the wifi problem with a fresh installation of MoodleBox 3.7.0 and a Raspberry Pi 3B+.
Yes, the terminal command sudo rfkill unblock wlan started the wifi and I could connect.
Ralf

Nicolas

krause Thank you for the feedback. In MoodleBox 3.7.0, the rfkill unblock wlan command is launched at every boot, so it should normally solve the problem without having to launch it manually.

I'd be glad if you can confirm that it is the case.

Robert

I executed the sudo rfkill unblock command and rebooted. AP still does not load. It clearly stats on the boot screeen, "Set the Country in Raspi-config". I set my country and the AP starts. Maybe a login script that runs on 1st boot that runs Raspi-Config or the user can just pick the country. I know what to do. New users might not.

Nicolas

Robert Can you post a screenshot of the warning "Set the Country in Raspi-config"?

I suspect you do something wrong with your image, but can see where.

krause

Nicolas The wifi did not come up automatically at the first start of the MoodleBox. Yes, i found @reboot rfkill unblock wlan in the crontab. The wifi automatically starts after a reboot of the MoodleBox but it did not start at the first start.
Ralf

Nicolas

krause The wifi did not come up automatically at the first start of the MoodleBox.

And did you have the opportunity to start it up a second time, before to launch manually the command ?

krause

Nicolas No, I did not think that this could be a solution to the problem. I copied the microSD and started the MoodleBox. Because it had no wifi I connected it via ethernet.

iMac:~ krause$ ssh moodlebox@192.168.1.136
The authenticity of host '192.168.1.136 (192.168.1.136)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:9FB+PBoc//RTvL2swlBaENo8kzfylkUglDhTlOwing8.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.1.136' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
moodlebox@192.168.1.136's password: 
Linux moodlebox 4.19.118-v7+ #1311 SMP Mon Apr 27 14:21:24 BST 2020 armv7l

This is MoodleBox version 3.7.0, 2020-06-15.

MoodleBox is made by Nicolas Martignoni, https://github.com/martignoni/.
Please read the documentation at https://moodlebox.net/.

Last login: Sun Jun 14 23:45:00 2020 from 192.168.1.100

Wi-Fi is currently blocked by rfkill.
Use raspi-config to set the country before use.

moodlebox@moodlebox:~ $ sudo rfkill unblock wlan
moodlebox@moodlebox:~ $ sudo crontab -e

Select an editor.  To change later, run 'select-editor'.
  1. /bin/nano        <---- easiest
  2. /usr/bin/vim.tiny
  3. /bin/ed

Choose 1-3 [1]: 1
No modification made
moodlebox@moodlebox:~ $ sudo halt
Connection to 192.168.1.136 closed by remote host.
Connection to 192.168.1.136 closed.

iMac:~ krause$ ssh moodlebox@192.168.1.136
moodlebox@192.168.1.136's password: 
Linux moodlebox 4.19.118-v7+ #1311 SMP Mon Apr 27 14:21:24 BST 2020 armv7l

This is MoodleBox version 3.7.0, 2020-06-15.

MoodleBox is made by Nicolas Martignoni, https://github.com/martignoni/.
Please read the documentation at https://moodlebox.net/.

Last login: Tue Jun 16 07:05:24 2020 from 192.168.1.196
moodlebox@moodlebox:~ $