Lost WiFi connectivity

Just when I though everything was working nicely, my CHIP computer became intermittent with wifi connectivity. At first, cycling the power would bring the wifi back. Now there is no SSID that I can detect at all. Librarian and setup can be accessed via a micro USB/USB cable on a Linux laptop. This allows for the blank SSID to be replaced with “Outernet” follwed by a save and restart. But upon re-boot, no wifi, and the changes to the SSID are not saved. Even after multiple attempts.

Initially, plugging the CHIP into Windows 10 machine or Linux machine would eventually allow access to set-up via 10.10.10.10. Now, hard wired access via Windows 10 has also stopped working. :frowning:

Have ordered a UART/USB cable to reflash (oh joy).

In the meantime, does anyone have a suggestion? Can the CHIP be booted from the backup image?

Thanks.

Bob

Which version of rxOS are you running and where did you find it?

Hi Syed,

Version 2.0a1 as received on the CHIP from Outernet.

Thanks,

Bob

Don’t know if this relevant, but early on (like 2 days ago) I had intermittent WiFi too, but it was the result of insufficient power to the Lantern. Problem went away when I externally powered the Lantern. Ken

Good suggestion Kenbarbie alas same problem with either Apple 5v USB wall wart or (very nice) portable rechargeable pack (5V, 2.5 amp out) sourced from Outernet. Will certainly try another supply to see what happens. Thanks.

My Chip was cutting out all the time , until I put a powered USB 3 hub to the E4000.

Now it all works great.

Thanks. Will try as soon as I get the CHIP’s wifi back absent the E4000 and LNA. At the moment, I can only access Librarian with a cable connect to Linux.

By the way, the quality of the cable is really important. We spent a month banging our heads against the wall, until we realized the problem was not in the AC charger or the CHIP, but with the USB cable.

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OK. Will look into this. BTW, the cable being used is the one which came with the RAVpower battery pack. Further efforts pending reinstall of rxOS (awaiting UART cable). Will provide update in a few days. Thanks.

You can reflash/update the image with a thumb drive. Just place this file on a FAT32-formatted thumb drive and insert into the USB port of the CHIP. I’m assuming you are not on 2.0a2?

https://archive.outernet.is/images/rxOS-CHIP/2.0a2-201608261757/rxos-chip-v2.0a2-201608261757nv%2Baad26f4-full.pkg

Should I be re-flashing my chip with this Image as well?

Yes, you can flash it with that as well, though you’ll need the zip-file.

https://archive.outernet.is/images/rxOS-CHIP/2.0a2-201608261757/

Have been unable to reflash the CHIP, so far. After more than a few hours of effort. In short I end up with a timeout. It appears due to lack of communication with the CHIP. I can see TTYUSB0, but not /dev/chip-usb (or something like that). Not on a linux box at the moment.

I did flash a Debian based CHIP OS onto the device, which works OK, using the CHIP WIndows flash utility (on top of Chrome).

Also tried flashing from a USB stick. That would be perfect but alas I cannot get it to work either.
Will standby for the next software update which hopefully will make the process easier?

Unfortunately, flashing CHIP from scratch won’t be easy any time soon. We can do firmware updates either through the web UI or through the USB port, but once there is a new OS on the CHIP, you’ll need that clunky Linux install process.

In the mean time, though, you can try our portable VM, which won’t give you the Librarian interface, but will allow you to download files to a laptop: We Moved!

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