Portable-Hotspot on Simon Waite

So far...

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 09:54:43 +0000

Post date: Jun 30, 2013 9:54:43 AM

Okay, I’ve picked this project up again - yay!

Working so far:

Raspberry PI (Model B, Mark I) running raspbian Wheezy
Mopidy + Spotify (So I can play tunes locally)
MiniDNLA (So I can serve non-spotify media to DLNA/uPNP devices)
USB3 Toshiba Hard Disk (2Tb, runs from a powered usb hub)
TPLink Wireless dongles (with detachable antennas)
HostAP – to be a wireless access point
Netatalk – so my Mac can connect to it.
SSH – so I can use scp/sftp to put files on the hard disk

What’s not working:

Huawei E355 USB MIFI Dongle

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 11:50:47 +0000

Post date: Sep 29, 2012 11:50:47 AM

So, we have already determined we need usb-modeswitch (and usb-modeswitch-data) to kick the dongle out of its silly install mode (12d1:14fe) and to present the actual network interface it provides (12d1:1c1e).

It seems that when it did work in a VM it worked with CDC_NCM, and a 2.6.x kernel … newer 3.x kernels seem to be a little stroppier about unrecognised CDCs. More research is required. sigh

Setting up automounting on the Raspberry PI

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:06:04 +0000

Post date: Sep 27, 2012 12:06:04 PM

So the non-optimised debian setup hasn’t been working for me, so I’m using the raspbian distro now.

So I’ll be using the udisks-glue package.

Just add a line with udisks-glue into /etc/rc.local just before the “exit 0” line.

Then edit /etc/udisks-glue.conf to look (something like) this:

--- Start File ---
filter disks {
    optical = false
    partition_table = false
    usage = filesystem
}
match disks {
    automount = true
    automount_options = { sync, noatime, "dmask=0", "fmask=0" }
}
filter optical {
   optical = true
   usage = filesystem
}
match optical {
   automount = true
   automount_options = { ro, "mode=0444", "dmode=0555"  }
}
--- End File ---

Notes:

Plan 3.14159... (Raspberry Pi)

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 08:56:22 +0000

Post date: Sep 07, 2012 8:56:22 AM

Yes, the next bit of kit to try is the Raspberry PI.

I’m trying the “Softfloat” version of the Raspberry PI-based Debian installation. Currently, I’ve installed usbmount (to mount the SD card when it appears on the usb bus) and usb-switcher to punt it into 3G mode.

So, it currently mounts, but that’s about it. I can’t seem to find the “cdc_ncm” but it according to /proc/config.gz as it’s compiled in statically … More voodoo than what currently know about at the moment. The last linux kernel I compiled was a 2.4.xx ages ago.

Plan B: MK802

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 08:32:34 +0000

Post date: Sep 07, 2012 8:32:34 AM

So I tried plan b earlier in the week.

If you follow the movements of tiny computing hardware, an embedded linux aficionado, or are just an Android fanboy, you’ll have heard of the “Android Powered Mini CPU for just $ 65” - the Rikomagic MK 802. Well, apparently it can run Linux, and there are a number of Ubuntu-based distributions for them. However, it’s all a bit rubbish – the Mali X drivers corrupt the displays on mine, and they seem to rapidly overheat.

OpenWRT (failed) recipe

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 18:42:17 +0000

Post date: Sep 03, 2012 6:42:17 PM

Here’s the recipe for the (failed) Open WRT project. Here for posterity.

start

(turn wifi off, set ip address to 192.168.1.2) telnet to 192.168.1.1

uci set network.lan.ipaddr=192.168.128.1
uci commit
reboot

(swap ip address to 192.168.128.2, enable proxy on 8888) telnet to 192.168.128.1

echo 'option http_proxy http://192.168.128.2:8888/' >> /etc/opkg.conf 
opkg update
opkg install kmod-usb-storage block-mount usb-modeswitch-data kmod-scsi-generic kmod-fs-ext4

edit /etc/config/fstab (file contents)

config global automount
        option from_fstab 1
        option anon_mount 1

config global autoswap
        option from_fstab 1
        option anon_swap 0

config swap
         option device   /dev/sda1
         option enabled  1

config mount
         option target   /mnt/sda2
         option device   /dev/sda2
         option fstype   ext4
         option options  rw,sync
         option enabled  1
         option enabled_fsck 0

config mount
         option target   /mnt/sda3
         option device   /dev/sda3
         option fstype   ext4
         option options  rw,sync
         option enabled  1
         option enabled_fsck 0

(end file contents)

Step Two: Configure Router

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:02:35 +0000

Post date: Sep 03, 2012 4:02:35 PM

So why do we want to duplicate the functionality of the E355?

Well, it seems to be limited to five devices, as I mentioned in an earlier post that I have massive problems with that, I don’t want to have to juggle tech to some arbitrary limit. Also, I’d like to support more services at some point (media streaming perhaps)

Like all the 3G dongles I’ve seen recently, they initially show up as CD-Roms. Then the “drivers” switch them over to being the actual device. In this case a Micro SD Card reader and a USB CDC device, in this case a USB ethernet port.

Portable Hotspot

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:34:37 +0000

A long time ago, I was asked by a consultant friend of mine to have a think about being able to drop portable wireless internet repeaters. The brief was that first responders could drop a bunch of wireless mesh routers over the area so that computers could be used and contact base.

At the time the emergency department decided that it would be a luxury and unnecessary so I didn’t get to build a prototype.

Step One: Gather the Equipment

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:34:37 +0000

Post date: Sep 03, 2012 10:34:37 AM

First up, the battery pack.

The A10HZ from Maplin, a 5Ah 12v battery pack. This has 2x6v batteries internally, and a 200 W inverter, two accessory sockets, and two 12v terminal posts. It has a usb power socket and a light too, but the usb socket is tied to the inverter being on and the light is incredibly weedy, so we’re ignoring them for now.