[SOLVED] 6.2 cant turn off AP mode and join wireless network

[blarg]

Been struggling with this for a few days.  I just upgraded to 6.2 via downloadable image and can’t get networking configured.  When ai set WiFi networking in the GUI it seems to accept my settings but I always get “AP mode active” and when I reboot it goes right back into AP mode.  If I try to delete AP mode settings I get an error message that I must enter something in the AP ssid and password fields


What am I missing?  How do I turn off AP mode and join a WiFi network?  I can’t find an option to do that.

[Tim Curtis]

AP mode starts when either of the following two conditions are true.

1. The SSID is explicitly set to "None (activateds AP mode)" in Network Config.
2. An attempt to connect to the SSID fails.

Here is the ( i ) help for Password requirements
"Length 8-63 chars. The password will be converted to a pre-shared key (PSK) after saving."

Does your SSID show up after SCAN in Network Config?

[blarg]

AP mode starts when either of the following two conditions are true.

1. The SSID is explicitly set to "None (activateds AP mode)" in Network Config.
2. An attempt to connect to the SSID fails.

Here is the ( i ) help for Password requirements
"Length 8-63 chars. The password will be converted to a pre-shared key (PSK) after saving."

Does your SSID show up after SCAN in Network Config?

Yes the SSID shows up and I selected it from the drop-down generated after doing a “scan”.  I have other devices using it as well.  I set a static IP address and password but I also tried DHCP.  When I reboot AP mode turns on.  It’s a WPA2 password.  It worked fine on the same network using Moode 5.x.  In fact,  I switched back to the SD card with Moode 5.x to verify and it connected no problem.

[Tim Curtis]

To troubleshoot try the following:

1) To verify the SSID and password can be successfully converted to a WPA pre-shared key (PSK)

Code:

wpa_passphrase SSID password

If successful the command will output a code block like below

Code:

pi@rp3:~ $ wpa_passphrase MySSID MyLongPassword
network={
        ssid="MySSID"
        #psk="MyLongPassword"
        psk=8599517995e9d9caf356e30a96e71a87df27715310bfbfbd3f0e81d283199327
}

2) Connect an Ethernet cable, reboot then examine the moode log for errors

Code:

moodeutl -l

[blarg]

That could be where I’m going wrong. My password has spaces in it and it’s WPA2.

Has something changed since the 5.x version? It used to work.

I might have to go Ethernet for now....unless I can set it from the command line manually.

[Tim Curtis]

WPA in this context includes both WPA and WPA2, and embedded spaces are allowed. When u run the command just enclose the password in double quotes.

Example

Code:

pi@rp3:~ $ wpa_passphrase MySSID "My Long Password With Spaces"
network={
       ssid="MySSID"
       #psk="My Long Password With Spaces"
       psk=5f61898ae2d4538b03b2a0a9f95100d14d756834d5a25814dafa5b71a7e2803e
}

moOde 6 converts entered WiFi passwords to PSK's and only stores the PSK. This is to improve security.

Your issue could be caused by a bug in moOde but I can only determine that if u follow the troubleshooting steps and run the command, confirm success and then post the output of moode log.

[blarg]

WPA in this context includes both WPA and WPA2, and embedded spaces are allowed. When u run the command just enclose the password in double quotes.

Example

Code:

pi@rp3:~ $ wpa_passphrase MySSID "My Long Password With Spaces"
network={
       ssid="MySSID"
       #psk="My Long Password With Spaces"
       psk=5f61898ae2d4538b03b2a0a9f95100d14d756834d5a25814dafa5b71a7e2803e
}

moOde 6 converts entered WiFi passwords to PSK's and only stores the PSK. This is to improve security.

Your issue could be caused by a bug in moOde but I can only determine that if u follow the troubleshooting steps and run the command, confirm success and then post the output of moode log.

Tim - I think I figured out the problem.  It's not my password that's the problem.  My SSID is a long random string of characters, one of which is a backtick (`) which appears to be throwing wpa_passphrase.  I think it's being seen as an escape character and ignoring the rest of the SSID.

[Tim Curtis]

Interesting. You might want to consider using a friendly name for your SSID.

When u get a moment mark your original post SOLVED, thx.

[blarg]

Interesting. You might want to consider using a friendly name for your SSID.

When u get a moment mark your original post SOLVED, thx.

I’ll just use Ethernet.  I have a switch nearby I can plug into.  Too much hassle to change SSID...I’d have to change the setup on a whole lot of other home automation devices.

[TheOldPresbyope]

I believe almost every printable character is legal in an SSID and so should be acceptable to wpa_passphrase. I’m on a road trip and have no convenient way to look at moOde sources ATM but might this instead be a shell script problem? Backtick is a special character in bash.

Regards,
Kent