BeagleBoard.org Latest Firmware Images - suggest pointing to 8.3 image rather than 8.4

[Jeff Albrecht]

On the BeagleBoard.Org site in the "BeagleBoard.org Latest Firmware Images" section the "Debian 8.4 2016-05-13 4GB SD LXQT" image is listed as the recommended image. I propose that the 8.3 image be listed there instead because the wifi configuration by way of the suggested configuration method using connmanctl does not work for 8.4 and 8.5.

In my thread "jessie moved my WiFi cheese" I document that 8.4 and 8.5 images don't work for wifi setup via connmanctl and that 8.3 does.

After testing from the sd card I flashed the 8.3 image to eMMC. It works. I can connect to my wifi. And it survives a reboot.

I also apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. connmanctl still working.

[Robert Nelson]

Hi Jeff,

By default, connmanctl has wifi tether on in the newer images, disable this and it'll work just fine like 8.3..

This allows users to access the board over wifi:

ssid: BeagleBone-WXYZ

pass: BeagleBone

Regards,

--

Robert Nelson
https://rcn-ee.com/

[Jeff Albrecht]

Could you elaborate a wee bit on that syntax? By the way after booting an 8.4 image I 'tether wifi off' per your suggestion in another thread and did a connect entering my passphrase when prompted. It worked. I had tried this once before but didn't understand that scan wifi doesn't show the SSIDs, the scan wifi does. So I hadn't tried 'services' again.

I'm not understanding the default? is that to make the BBB an access point? If so why would I want to do that in normal operation? Don't I just want to ssh to my BBB after connecting to it via wifi? Or does this default configuration in newer images of 'tether on' allow you to connect to the BBB via wifi without first making configuration changes?

 - ja

[Robert Nelson]

On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 5:24 PM, Jeff Albrecht <jeffrey.h...@gmail.com> wrote:

Could you elaborate a wee bit on that syntax? By the way after booting an 8.4 image I 'tether wifi off' per your suggestion in another thread and did a connect entering my passphrase when prompted. It worked. I had tried this once before but didn't understand that scan wifi doesn't show the SSIDs, the scan wifi does. So I hadn't tried 'services' again.

I'm not understanding the default? is that to make the BBB an access point? If so why would I want to do that in normal operation? Don't I just want to ssh to my BBB after connecting to it via wifi? Or does this default configuration in newer images of 'tether on' allow you to connect to the BBB via wifi without first making configuration changes?

So with boards, like the BeagleBone Green Wireless, we don't have an Ethernet connection by default. So what we've done, if there is a wifi interface found on bootup, we will use that as one of the default access methods.

So out of the box, you can ssh via:

eth0 (if plugged in)

usb0 (if plugged in to usb)

wlan0 (if bbgw, or you have a usb wifi adapter installed)

the default seeed bbgw image, has a captivate portal* so you can configure wifi thru a web gui..

Where as the generic beaglebone image, you just need to ssh in over wifi/eth/usb, then disable the wifi tether thru connmanctl and setup your final wifi connection.

*The captivate portal used is a little overkill, i'd like to see something simple and tied to the bone101 web gui..

Regards,

[Stephane Charette]

On Wednesday, July 13, 2016 at 8:21:47 AM UTC-7, Jeff Albrecht wrote:

...

In my thread "jessie moved my WiFi cheese" I document that 8.4 and 8.5 images don't work for wifi setup via connmanctl and that 8.3 does.

I have a page I wrote up where I document how I got everything working with the Debian 8.5 image.  I'm not sure this is what you're asking about, but in case it is useful:  https://www.ccoderun.ca/programming/2016-06-29_BBGW/index.html

Stéphane