Improve logic for WiFi setup connection check: fails too fast

[zehnm]

Expected behavior

The WiFi setup process checks for successful WiFi connection after entering the credentials and clicking connect. If after a certain time the connection cannot be established, display an error message to retry again. Invalid credentials should lead to a specific error message. The user is informed about the connection progress "connecting, waiting, connection rejected, connection established".

Current behavior

• If after 6 seconds the connection hasn't been established yet, the "Not connected ... try again" error message is displayed.
• There's no specific error message if the user entered invalid credentials.
• If the remote takes longer than 6 seconds to connect, the error message remains even though the remote is already connected to the network. On my Ubiquiti UniFi AP AC-LR the initial connection takes sometimes over 10 seconds and I get stuck in the setup wizard!

Possible implementation

The WiFi setup needs a major rework. Everything is in wifiSetup.qml, no separation from UI and controller. Shell scripts are directly called from the UI event handler. Connection check is hard coded to 6000 ms.

TODO:

• MVC implementation
• Abstraction of WiFi device, preferably in library
• Define a better feedback mechanism from the low level connection scripts, especially for credential errors

We should also look into how to directly communicate with the _wpasupplicant API instead of calling shell scripts and parsing console output. Advantages:

• Significantly improve reliability
• More and better options of status feedback
• Support for different OS (e.g. Android)

wpa_supplicant developer documentation:

• https://w1.fi/wpa_supplicant/devel/
• https://w1.fi/wpa_supplicant/devel/ctrl_iface_page.html

Example implementations:

• A graphical wpa_supplicant front end written in Qt: https://github.com/loh-tar/wpa-cute
• Internet radio, podcast player and alarmclock using wpa-ctrl: https://github.com/truschival/DigitalRoosterGui

Further examples:

• Wifi Scanner App for Linux, using Q, but without wpa_supplicantt: https://github.com/nlharri/WifiScannerLinux
• Maybe use QNetworkConfigurationManager?

See related issue: https://github.com/YIO-Remote/remote-os/issues/13

[zehnm]

Started with rewriting the WiFi integration and designing a general WiFi control API for using different implementations. Starting with:

1. Mock implementation for testing
2. Wrapping current shell scripts
3. wpa_supplicant control API

[zehnm]

Successful proof of concept: wpa_supplicant control API integration works!

DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant void WifiWpaSupplicant::connectWpaControlSocket() "/var/run/wpa_supplicant/wlan0" (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/152)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant virtual void WifiWpaSupplicant::startNetworkScan() (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/128)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant void WifiWpaSupplicant::requestWrapper(const QString&) "SCAN" (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/212)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant void WifiWpaSupplicant::controlEvent(int) (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/199)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant [monitor] CTRL: "<3>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED " : 27 (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/205)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant void WifiWpaSupplicant::parseEvent(const QString&) (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/165)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant scan started! (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/176)
DEBUG: WifiControl void WifiControl::setScanStatus(WifiControl::ScanStatus) (../sources/hardware/wifi_control.cpp/91)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant [monitor] CTRL: "<3>CTRL-EVENT-BSS-ADDED 4 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" : 43 (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/205)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant void WifiWpaSupplicant::parseEvent(const QString&) (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/165)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant [monitor] CTRL: "<3>CTRL-EVENT-BSS-ADDED 5 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" : 43 (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/205)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant void WifiWpaSupplicant::parseEvent(const QString&) (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/165)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant [monitor] CTRL: "<3>CTRL-EVENT-BSS-ADDED 6 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" : 43 (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/205)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant void WifiWpaSupplicant::parseEvent(const QString&) (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/165)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant [monitor] CTRL: "<3>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS " : 27 (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/205)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant void WifiWpaSupplicant::parseEvent(const QString&) (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/165)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant  scan_results available! (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/170)
DEBUG: WifiControl void WifiControl::setScanStatus(WifiControl::ScanStatus) (../sources/hardware/wifi_control.cpp/91)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant void WifiWpaSupplicant::readScanResults() (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/224)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant void WifiWpaSupplicant::requestWrapper(const QString&) "SCAN_RESULTS" (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/212)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant WifiNetwork WifiWpaSupplicant::lineToNetwork(const QStringRef&) (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/237)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant network: "A Net" "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" -60 (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/244)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant WifiNetwork WifiWpaSupplicant::lineToNetwork(const QStringRef&) (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/237)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant network: "B Net" "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" -63 (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/244)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant WifiNetwork WifiWpaSupplicant::lineToNetwork(const QStringRef&) (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/237)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant network: "DVJMNET" "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" -86 (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/244)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant WifiNetwork WifiWpaSupplicant::lineToNetwork(const QStringRef&) (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/237)
DEBUG: WifiWpaSupplicant network: "Guest Network" "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" -61 (../sources/hardware/wifi_wpasupplicant.cpp/244)

[zehnm]

Important: the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf configuration file needs the update_config=1 option set to be able to overwrite the configuration with cli_ctrl. See: https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/plain/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

# Whether to allow wpa_supplicant to update (overwrite) configuration
#
# This option can be used to allow wpa_supplicant to overwrite configuration
# file whenever configuration is changed (e.g., new network block is added with
# wpa_cli or wpa_gui, or a password is changed). This is required for
# wpa_cli/wpa_gui to be able to store the configuration changes permanently.
# Please note that overwriting configuration file will remove the comments from
# it.
#update_config=1

[zehnm]

Information about the hostap control interface:

• Control interface: http://w1.fi/wpa_supplicant/devel/hostapd_ctrl_iface_page.html This looks rather minimal with just a PING command!?
• Configuration file reference: https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/plain/hostapd/hostapd.conf
• CLI interface: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man1/hostapd_cli.1.html