Add hotspot if no network connected

[toddejohnson]

If the RPi can't connect to the network it should put out a hotspot so you can connect and send mail.

The new CustomPiOS has auto-hotspot and https://github.com/guysoft/HostSpotOS which would do this.

[dsrawding]

This is a great idea! Maybe set the hotspot to the callsign?

[dsrawding]

Any work on this? Going to be doing a demo for ARES group and would like to show this feature. Going to try to install HotSpotOS and see if I can get it running.

[toddejohnson]

I ran out of time for testing but there is a start in the 5-hotspot branch. Haven't had time to make a build and test yet.

[toddejohnson]

@dsrawding I'm running a test build tonight of the 5-hotspot branch and hopefully will merge it soon. Really want #7 in the next release as that will simplify my setup for my XYL. What is your time table? I might be able to share my test build.

[dsrawding]

My presentation is exactly 2 weeks from today. I'd be happy to try it out. Last night I was playing with scripts that detect if there is local recognized wifi and if not set up as a access point. I have to test to see if it works but would also be happy to test your solution.

[toddejohnson]

Well in my testing tonight it works ok in hotspot mode. Obviously it doesn't allow you to gateway anything as you don't have Internet working. There are issues with the hosts file and dnsmasq as it uses:

127.0.0.1      rmspi

So when dnsmasq kicks in and you try to visit http://rmspi:8080 it doesn't open as it is responding with 127.0.0.1.

Then the autohotspotN script needs some fixing as it doesn't properly parse wpa_supplicant.conf. It also has issues while trying to connect to my existing network. I'm not totally sure what to do to resolve this. I've started a fork but haven't had time to really find my root cause issue...