Hello Everybody,
I am facing an issue with hotspot on RPI4 in Volumio2. My aim is to have a standalone Volumio device, with a touch display, but I want also to control it from my laptop. So, hotspot on volumio is what I need.
Version is 2.917, freshly installed. I have only the “touch display plugin” installed. The rest is “as installed”.
My first attempt was with an old noname SD card. Installation was fine, but after a while, I lost the hotspot connection. Which means it worked great for a few days, and after that, impossible to connect from my laptop. But I could still play music, using the touch display.
So, I bought a pair of new Sandisk CD 16 GB cards, C10/A1, and made again a fresh installation on both.
It happens exactly the same thing on one of them: works great at the beginning, but after 2 days, impossible to connect.
When using the “faulty” SD card, freshly booted, when I try to connect from my laptop, the “Volumio” hospot appears (sometimes it takes time to appear), but the connexion cannot be established. And after that, the hotspot disappears from the list of available networks.
If I plug an ethernet cable in this state, I switch to wired connexion without any problem.
When using the “right” SD card, the hotspot appears immediately, and the connexion is quite fast.
I have some traces, searching for “hotspot” in journalctl:
Using the faulty SD card:
volumio@volumio-px:~$ journalctl | grep hotspot
Nov 29 01:22:38 volumio-px systemd[1]: Stopped hotspot.service.
Nov 29 01:22:38 volumio-px systemd[1]: Stopped hotspot.service.
Nov 29 01:22:38 volumio-px systemd[1]: Starting hotspot.service…
Nov 29 01:22:38 volumio-px systemd[1]: Started hotspot.service.
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Server 4.3.1
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: Copyright 2004-2014 Internet Systems Consortium.
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: All rights reserved.
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: For info, please visit ISC DHCP - ISC
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: Config file: /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: Database file: /var/lib/dhcp/dhcpd.leases
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: PID file: /var/run/dhcpd.pid
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: Wrote 2 leases to leases file.
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: Listening on LPF/wlan0/dc:a6:32:dc:d7:7c/192.168.211.0/24
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: Sending on LPF/wlan0/dc:a6:32:dc:d7:7c/192.168.211.0/24
Nov 29 01:22:39 volumio-px hotspot[878]: Sending on Socket/fallback/fallback-net
Nov 29 01:22:41 volumio-px hotspot[877]: Launching Hostapd 2.8
Nov 29 01:22:41 volumio-px hotspot[877]: Configuration file: /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
Nov 29 01:22:41 volumio-px hotspot[877]: wlan0: Could not connect to kernel driver
Nov 29 01:22:41 volumio-px hotspot[877]: Using interface wlan0 with hwaddr dc:a6:32:dc:d7:7c and ssid “Volumio”
Nov 29 01:22:41 volumio-px hotspot[877]: wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->ENABLED
Nov 29 01:22:41 volumio-px hotspot[877]: wlan0: AP-ENABLED
Nov 29 01:23:56 volumio-px hotspot[877]: wlan0: STA 38:de:ad:65:99:bf IEEE 802.11: associated
Nov 29 01:23:57 volumio-px hotspot[877]: wlan0: STA 38:de:ad:65:99:bf IEEE 802.11: associated
Nov 29 01:23:57 volumio-px hotspot[877]: wlan0: STA 38:de:ad:65:99:bf IEEE 802.11: associated
Nov 29 01:23:59 volumio-px hotspot[877]: wlan0: STA 38:de:ad:65:99:bf IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Now using the “working” SD card:
volumio@volumio-px:~$ journalctl | grep hotspot
Nov 18 12:09:00 volumio-px systemd[1]: Stopped hotspot.service.
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px systemd[1]: Stopped hotspot.service.
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px systemd[1]: Starting hotspot.service…
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px systemd[1]: Started hotspot.service.
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Server 4.3.1
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: Copyright 2004-2014 Internet Systems Consortium.
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: All rights reserved.
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: For info, please visit ISC DHCP - ISC
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: Config file: /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: Database file: /var/lib/dhcp/dhcpd.leases
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: PID file: /var/run/dhcpd.pid
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: Wrote 2 leases to leases file.
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: Listening on LPF/wlan0/dc:a6:32:dc:d7:7c/192.168.211.0/24
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: Sending on LPF/wlan0/dc:a6:32:dc:d7:7c/192.168.211.0/24
Nov 18 12:09:01 volumio-px hotspot[883]: Sending on Socket/fallback/fallback-net
Nov 18 12:09:03 volumio-px hotspot[882]: Launching Hostapd 2.8
Nov 18 12:09:03 volumio-px hotspot[882]: Configuration file: /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
Nov 18 12:09:03 volumio-px hotspot[882]: wlan0: Could not connect to kernel driver
Nov 18 12:09:03 volumio-px hotspot[882]: Using interface wlan0 with hwaddr dc:a6:32:dc:d7:7c and ssid “Volumio”
Nov 18 12:09:03 volumio-px hotspot[882]: wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->ENABLED
Nov 18 12:09:03 volumio-px hotspot[882]: wlan0: AP-ENABLED
Nov 18 12:09:12 volumio-px hotspot[882]: wlan0: STA 38:de:ad:65:99:bf IEEE 802.11: associated
Nov 18 12:09:12 volumio-px hotspot[882]: wlan0: AP-STA-CONNECTED 38:de:ad:65:99:bf
Nov 18 12:09:12 volumio-px hotspot[882]: wlan0: STA 38:de:ad:65:99:bf RADIUS: starting accounting session AF825594E3FF598F
Nov 18 12:09:12 volumio-px hotspot[882]: wlan0: STA 38:de:ad:65:99:bf WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
I see a difference only at the end, when the connection is established (or not…)
So my first assumption of using an old “noname” SD card seems to be wrong. Using a brand new and freshly installed SD card does not solve the issue. One is (still) working fine, but not the other one.
Any hint to help me to solve this issue?
NB: the dates on both traces are different, because it is really standalone, so no access to ntp. It’s only when I use a wired connexion that the date is updated. Could it be the cause of the problem?
Thanks for your help.
Denis