RaspAP Known WiFi Client Auto-connect

[Shilyjunior]

I'm using RaspAP with two WiFi networks: wlan1 for the AP and wlan0 as the client connecting to a network with access to the Internet and this works great. However, I will like to know if there is a way to set RasAP to auto connect to known wifi client on boothup in stead of having to do this manually every time.

[billz]

This is the default behavior of wpa_supplicant. That is, on startup the wpa_supplicant.service is executed by systemd (not RaspAP) and enables logging and the DBus control interface, nothing more.

/lib/systemd/system/wpa_supplicant.service

[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1
ExecStart=/sbin/wpa_supplicant -u -s -O "DIR=/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev"

The DBus interface is used to communicate with wpa_supplicant. You can have it auto connect on startup by adding the following to the root user's crontab:

$ sudo crontab -e

# m h  dom mon dow   command
@reboot /sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -Dnl80211 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0

[AlquistArj]

I realise setting a default can be done with wpa_supplicant but it would be a nice feature to have the ability to set a default, or to reconnect to the last used Wi-Fi client AP, from the web UI.

[Fontheweg]

I used this way to autoconnect ... but still got one problem.
After a few hours the connection is closed. I don't know why, but I can't reconnect. I have to reboot the RPi.

If there is a way the connection could be reconnect automatically too, it would be perfect.

I realized the autoconnect with a crontab that runs every minute and checks the interface connection. If it is not connected it makes a scan to lookup for known networks. If a known network is found it connects. But is the connection lost - no more scans are possible :(

[bananajoe86]

Would you share your crontab with us? I´m interested in it.

[Fontheweg]

It is a simple crontab that calls an python script every minute.

Actually I cant post the script because my SD Card is burned 🫣 and I didn't backup the stuff ... 😂
Testing ... damn!
If I have rewrote the script I can share it.

The simple version was:

rm /var/run/wpa_supplicant/wlan1
sudo /sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -i wlan1

[Rohan726]

See if this helps: #1817

P.S. Didnt need the "crontab -e" entry