New MoodleBox installation not providing connectivity

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.

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:~ $

Nicolas

Thank you Ralf for your feedback. I've investigated in depth, and think I've found the problem 😄. This will be really fixed soon.

Edit: If you're interested in the explanation, have a look here: https://github.com/moodlebox/moodlebox/issues/176#issuecomment-644990379

Ratna

Nicolas Can confirm, MB 3.7.0 comes up without Wi-Fi. Either 'rfkill unblock wlan' or setting the country activates Wi-Fi. But after a reboot it comes up again without Wi-Fi.

I have a monitor connected. Every time it shows three failed boot messages:

Failed to start Advanced IEEE 802.11 AP .. WPA/WPA2/EAP authenticator
Failed to start dnsmasq ..
Failed to start Advanced IEEE 802.11 AP .. WPA/WPA2/EAP authenticator

Robert

Ratna I can confirm that setting country code and timezone via Raspi-config and then sudo reboot now, does come back up with Wifi and No AP ... WPA/WPA2/EAP errors. I agree with @Nicolas that the dnsmasq error is normal. I get it on all my builds.

Nicolas

Ratna Please @Ratna, confirm that this is only occurring on Raspberry 3B.

Nicolas

Robert You don't need all of this. Until the problem is definitely fixed in a next image, just type sudo rfkill unblock wlan and reboot. That's all. And only on RPi 3B.

See this message at the beginning of this thread.

Ratna

Nicolas Oh, yes. It is on a 3B+. I could check 3A and 3B if needed. Sorry no 4B around.

Robert

Nicolas Okay. Thanks. I did not include the "wlan" in command; my mistake.

Ratna

Correction! To my dismay I found that I am still in MB 3.6. For some reason rewriting this 3.6 SD card with 3.7 did nothing. Even a retry went without any error messages, but still MB 3.6. I'm sorry. 😅

Took a spare card and now I have a true MB 3.7.0.

The corrected version: On this 3B+ a freshly made MB 3.7.0 comes up without Wi-Fi. After 'sudo rfkill unblock wlan' it starts - and remains functional after a reboot.

Nicolas

This is now completely solved in MoodleBox 3.8.0 and later.

Enjoy!