Wifi-Connect - etc/init.d/interface and /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf?

Product support
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1

Hi, I have a question:
I’m not allowed to use a network manager for my project. Can I modify wifi-connect so that it creates or uses /etc/init.d/interface and /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf?
Bye,
Fabian

2

Hi Fabian,

Just trying to understand your use-case…

Do you know the credentials of your WiFi network you’re going to deploy to in advance? Or do you require the ability for a customer to connect your device to a WiFi network /after/ shipping your device?

3

Hi Samuel,

Our devices are not pre-configured with WiFi credentials before shipping. Customers can easily connect the device to their preferred WiFi network after delivery. This setup is handled through WiFi Connect.

Greetings,
Fabian

4

Hi Fabian,

So wifi-connect (link) uses our rust crate network-manager (link), which interfaces with the HostOS’s NetworkManager over dbus.

Creating a fork of wifi-connectsuch that it doesn’t use the HostOS’s NetworkManager would not be a small fork… it would be a significant project.

You’ll probably need a combination of the following:

  1. hostapd: Creates an access point for your wifi chip.
  2. dnsmasq: Handles DHCP and DNS (redirection of traffic to the capture portal to configure wifi credentials)
  3. wpa_supplicant: The client that eventually connects to the target Wi-Fi.
  4. A custom web server application (Rust/Python/Node/Go) to serve the page where the user enters passwords.

This would be a drastically different approach than the current wifi-connect block that we provide. This would be a cool open source project to see though, if you’re interested in building it as a new Balena Block!