Getting RT5370 to work

[insomnious0x01]

Hi,

I looked into getting the RT5370 to work on Jessie on Raspberry Pi B and Pi Zero. I came across a few issues, which I'm going to describe but I got there in the end. I will need you to test if this still works with your Realtek Wi-Fi dongles as I don't have those.

The issues I came across were:

• isc-dhcp-server didn't install properly when installed locally (it has isc-dhcp-common dependency)
  • when dependencies were met, the service displayed segmentation faults when you try to start it even after PiSpot installation is finished and all config files are correct)
• installation always ran locally even though I was connected to the Internet

Changes:

hostapd.conf

• removed unused commented out lines
• kept "#driver=" line which is used by start_pispot.sh script

install_pispot.sh

• removed 3 functions: checkFileExists, checkInternet and installPackage
• replaced it with apt-get command to grab all required packages and their dependencies (solves segmentation fault issues)

start_pispot.sh

• added an if statement which checks if RT5370 is present, if it is, it will add "driver=nl80211" into hostapd.conf file, otherwise "driver=" will be commented out

uninstall_pispot.sh

• added names of the additional packages that can be removed

Other

• removed local .deb files (apart from hostapd) as they aren't needed

I tried running this on 2 Raspberry Pi's and the entire installation process was successful. I was able to connect to Raspberry Pi and SSH into it from various devices that were connected to it wirelessly.

I'll be happy to make any additional changes if you feel that something is missing or discuss this further.

Cheers,
Dawid

[heeed]

Sorry I have not replied earlier...didnt realise you had opened this back in Febuary as I didnt get any alerts from github.

Have added all the rt5370 stuff and required packages.

Good spot with the checkInternet() not working properly...have changed it to work. Also tests against the archives url as well now :)

The main reason for checking locally is so that PiSpot can be installed without any existing connection. Does mean having to keep an eye on file versions etc..etc..

I've pushed the changes back up under the branch feature_Pi3_Support, which also cunningly adds support for the Pi3 wifi chipset...i'm using it now, if you want to check it out.

Michael

[insomnious0x01]

Hi Michael,

I pulled down your feature_Pi3_Support branch into my forked repository and I went ahead with testing tonight.

I tested the branch on Pi 3's built-in Wi-Fi and it worked great - it installed locally, although I was connected to the Internet, but I didn't get any errors and the hotspot was created successfully. I was able to connect to the hotspot with my phone and SSH into Pi 3.

I also tested the branch on Pi Zero with the RT5370 dongle and it worked great too. The only thing that I had to do was to install 'isc-dhcp-common' package, as 'isc-dhcp-server' depends on it. It's most likely my error from when I was working on the RT5370 patch as I could have removed that package as part of my testing.

I'm glad to see that Pi 3 and RT5370 are now both working, as well as Realtek Wi-Fi dongles. You can go ahead and merge the feature_Pi3_Support branch into master branch as I'm happy with how it works.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Dawid