My uConsole just arrived, and I want to set it up as a hotspot providing data from the GSM mode. The GSM side is working fine, I can get data from it no problem. The Wifi hotspot, however, no, I can’t get that working. I’ve tried many nmcli commands and the problem seems to be that wlan0 is unavailable. wlan0 works fine when attached to a hotspot, but that doesn’t help me much.
Has anyone managed to get a hotspot running on the uConsole and got a list of commands?
nmcli d wifi hotspot con-name [connection name] ssid [hotspot name] password [hotspot password]
NetworkManager should automatically determine that you’re drawing your Internet from cellular data. If not, I’m sure there is a way to explicitly direct that.
I get this error:
Error: Failed to setup a Wi-Fi hotspot: Connection ‘hspot’ is not available on device wlan0 because device is not available
…Odd.
- You may have to disconnect from your Wi-Fi before attempting to create your own hotspot.
- Depending on your OS, try checking the status using
ip,ifconfig, oriwconfig. You may also try usingnmcli d wifi listornmtui. - Open the back of your device and ensure you connected your antenna properly. For the CM4, the antenna should be connected to the antenna port on the CM4, not the mainboard.
- Check your
/boot/config.txtfile. Under the section[cm4], make sure you have the linedtparam=ant2.
If I disconnect from wifi using the menu then I get the same error.
I think the antenna is wired correctly as I can use wifi fine.
boot.cfg doesn’t have that entry, but my wifi is working fine.
:/boot $ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:“xxxxx”
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.18 GHz Access Point: 44:31:8C:73:7B:7A
Bit Rate=24 Mb/s Tx-Power=31 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=51/70 Signal level=-59 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
nmtui lets me edit a hotspot but not activate it
Thanks for your help here.
I guess these two are how you shut off wifi from software, but you need to use the second one, then config your own and “up” that one?
sudo nmcli radio wifi off
sudo nmcli c down wifi
Two questions:
- Is there a way to power off the wifi/bluetooth hardware?
- How could one direct wifi hotspot to 4g while the uconsole uses eth (usb dongle)?
I’ll try that. I can get a 4G link quite easily, and I think that will be used for the internet connection that the hotspot presents. i don’t think that will be a problem. The 4G is rock solid, all I need is a wifi hotspot, and that should have been easier than the 4G I think…
Hmmm, it’s possible the Wi-Fi drivers aren’t updated. See if you can fix that.
You may also have to share with us the OS you’re using. Did your kit come with an SD card?
Also,…
If you’re using NetworkManager, the hotspot should do that “plumbing” automatically. At least, that’s how it worked for me. I’ve yet to try your scenario myself.
I’m using the os that came on the card in the kit, yes. I haven’t updated yet as everything seemed to work fine. I’ll see about making a new card with the latest os.
I’ve now tried the SD card OS in the kit and also both OSs on this page:
(for the CM4)
I have not managed to create a hotspot with any of them.
Has anyone out there managed to create a hotspot on the CM4 uConsole at all?
i don’t really care what OS I run as long as I can get the 4G connected as an internet source and have a hotspot to share that with other devices.
I did. And the uConsole accompanied me overseas as a hotspot, a desktop in a pinch, and a conversation piece. I’m running Arch (BTW 
), though. So I’m a little uneasy to tell you to switch to that. But so long as you install the necessary Raspberry Pi utilities, as well as the libraries for the wireless driver, you should be gold.
That’s interesting. Which version of Arch? Does it need uConsole customisation?
I don’t think I have any tools or libraries or drivers missing, it just doesn’t seem to work.
How do you enable and disable the hotspot on your uConsole?
Plain vanilla Arch. Like, just Arch Linux ARM. There isn’t anything to prepare hardware-wise. Just run an Arch instance on the desktop, then follow and download the scripts found here: GitHub - PotatoMania/uconsole-cm3: Now you can put RPi CM3/CM4S in uConsole and run ArchLinux! Support CM3, CM4(S) in uConsole.
There’s a topic dedicated to Arch in this forum. And feel free to customize your install procedure. I know I did with mine.
I used @Rex 's shell script in the Debian Bookworm topic. Make sure you install the Raspberry Pi utilities as well as ModemManager and the relevant libraries for the module.
I have managed to get everything sort of working.
I used this image:
http://dl.clockworkpi.com/uConsole_CM4_v0.1b_xfce_64bit.img.7z
which I put on a card.
The hotspots can be configured from the menu and the GSM
link comes up after using:
uconsole-4g-cm4 enable
mmcli -S
mmcli -L
then set your country in the raspberry pi config appl.
Then
sudo nmcli c add type gsm ifname ttyUSB2 con-name 4gnet apn [yourapn] gsm.username [gsmusername] gsm.password [gsmpassword]
to set a GSM connection up, I used this:
sudo nmcli c add type gsm ifname ttyUSB2 con-name 4gnet
as the user/password and apn aren’t needed. I set up a mobile connection using the application 'Advanced Network Configuration" which let me select my network.
Then bring the ppp0 device up with:
sudo nmcli c up 4gnet
The hotspot can then supply internet using the GSM.
unfortunately, at the moment only my phone can see the hotspot. It seems stable and works, but I have internet on that device. All the other devices I have that I wanted internet on do not see the hotspot, or see it briefly. I’ve tried 2.4G and 5G settings and they don’t seem to help.
So, almost working but still not useful.