Pi Zero - some thoughts (WFfi AP, USB Gadget mode)

thielj · August 14, 2016 at 2:47 PM

Hi, after having used XBMC for 8 years or so, I was quite delighted to see it running from the Zero. However, setting up the WiFi dongle was quite a pain as I couldn't get any of 3 USB hubs to work. Some thoughts:

(1) If wireless was detected, but not connected (and given that the device or driver is whitelisted to support this), how about spinning up a wireless AP and dedicated dhcp server? This would allow taking the device somewhere, plugging it into a screen and connecting to it from a mobile phone.

(2) USB gadget mode support with the ethernet driver would be handy. I could plug the device into my laptop and ssh into it, or copy files into the storage area, etc. This would also allow a simple config tool to setup basic system settings. With a FAT formatted storage area, it would also be possible to present the device as USB storage - probably the easiest way to fill a library from a laptop.

Cheers!

trogggy · August 14, 2016 at 3:05 PM

(1)You can set that up now. That's what I do in my car - apart from the screen bit.
(2) USB gadget mode's never worked AFAIK. But you can connect to a laptop over ethernet and move files to /storage via smb or ssh.
I vaguely recall trying FAT /storage years ago and it worked - mostly - until it corrupted - fairly quickly.

thielj · August 14, 2016 at 4:03 PM

Hi troggy

any pointers for setting up (1)? I would know how to do create the AP the classic way, but I'm not familiar with connmand.
Is it possible to only switch to AP mode when there is no configured wireless network? It would make a great OOBE on the Zero.

I had no issue connecting or moving files once I was connected to a USB ethernet adapter or wireless dongle.

Re: USB gadget mode, it's working, but not on the LibreELEC distribution, at least not for me.
Still new to the Pi so no clue yet how to start debugging this if the only USB port is in use as a USB client device.

trogggy · August 14, 2016 at 4:22 PM

The only time I ever use wifi for a pi is in the car - I just connect to a screen in the house, set up the AP, add my files / libraries and other stuff then unplug. So I've never looked at either / or. IIRC openelec / libreelec doesn't connect to a wifi network automatically unless that network's previously been enabled.