Wifi setup on Portsdown 2019
Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 1:29 pm
Hi folks
I have just started to put together a(nother) Portsdown - RPi3 B+/7" touchscreen and Lime Mini...
In my excitement at the arrival of the touchscreen, I assembled the Pi to it, and popped in an SD card (version current back in mid-May) and powered on...
Everything boots fine, and I'm presented with the Porsdown Menus (which I can navigate through) but there's no wifi connection listed. I'd like to update to the latest software, so need a connection to the net... Wired isn't particularly easy to get at, So I'd prefer to do this over the wifi, if possible.
Anyway, Looking at the wiki, it appears that the wifi is turned off by default - and there are instructions on how to connect through the wired network in console mode to enable wifi and sett SSIDs etc. These instructions appear to be aimed at Windows users and require both devices to be connected to a switch/router.
So.
Q1: would it be possible to incorporate wifi configuration into the software, so it could be set up from the touchscreen, or at least from a USB keyboard plugged into the Pi?
Q2: in the mean time, is there a way for us to connect to the Pi from platforms other than 'Windows with PuTTY'? Can we just for instance use a terminal and ssh to connect to the IP address of the Pi?
Q3: is it possible to cut out the switch/router altogether and use a direct connection between your laptop (MacBook in my case) or desktop and the Pi using a network cable? If so, how?
I'm particularly interested in Mac-friendly solutions to these questions, as I don't really have a Windows setup here - I usually take stuff into work, to do things, but our IT department has been on a purge, first removing all access to external mass-storage (optical disc, USB, SD cards, etc), and now restricting the installation of software to (off-site) administrators only. I don't really want to have to buy a Windiws machine, particularly now the Minitiouner can be controlled from Portsdown with the LongMynd add-ons...
Oh, and whilst trawling through the wiki, I'm sure that I saw somewhere, something to the effect that the wifi should always be set up properly /before/ booting to the Portsdown menus - am I likely to have messed anything up and be storing trouble up for myself in the near future by having booted to Portsdown before configuring the wifi?
Thanks for any advice you can offer, folks
73
John, G8PEF
I have just started to put together a(nother) Portsdown - RPi3 B+/7" touchscreen and Lime Mini...
In my excitement at the arrival of the touchscreen, I assembled the Pi to it, and popped in an SD card (version current back in mid-May) and powered on...
Everything boots fine, and I'm presented with the Porsdown Menus (which I can navigate through) but there's no wifi connection listed. I'd like to update to the latest software, so need a connection to the net... Wired isn't particularly easy to get at, So I'd prefer to do this over the wifi, if possible.
Anyway, Looking at the wiki, it appears that the wifi is turned off by default - and there are instructions on how to connect through the wired network in console mode to enable wifi and sett SSIDs etc. These instructions appear to be aimed at Windows users and require both devices to be connected to a switch/router.
So.
Q1: would it be possible to incorporate wifi configuration into the software, so it could be set up from the touchscreen, or at least from a USB keyboard plugged into the Pi?
Q2: in the mean time, is there a way for us to connect to the Pi from platforms other than 'Windows with PuTTY'? Can we just for instance use a terminal and ssh to connect to the IP address of the Pi?
Q3: is it possible to cut out the switch/router altogether and use a direct connection between your laptop (MacBook in my case) or desktop and the Pi using a network cable? If so, how?
I'm particularly interested in Mac-friendly solutions to these questions, as I don't really have a Windows setup here - I usually take stuff into work, to do things, but our IT department has been on a purge, first removing all access to external mass-storage (optical disc, USB, SD cards, etc), and now restricting the installation of software to (off-site) administrators only. I don't really want to have to buy a Windiws machine, particularly now the Minitiouner can be controlled from Portsdown with the LongMynd add-ons...
Oh, and whilst trawling through the wiki, I'm sure that I saw somewhere, something to the effect that the wifi should always be set up properly /before/ booting to the Portsdown menus - am I likely to have messed anything up and be storing trouble up for myself in the near future by having booted to Portsdown before configuring the wifi?
Thanks for any advice you can offer, folks
73
John, G8PEF