nymea-networkmanager

This daemon allows to set up the wireless network using a bluetooth LE connection. The daemon will automatically start a bluetooth low energy server if the system is currently not connected to any network. Once the system is connected, the daemon will shutdown the bluetooth server.

Configuration

nymea-networkmanager will search for a config file in the following location:

/etc/nymea/nymea-networkmanager.conf

If such a config file is found, it reads values from there. There is a example config in this repository and it will be installed to /etc/nymea-networkmanager.conf with the dpkg package.

Note: Command line parameters will have higher priority than entries in the configuration file.

• Mode: The mode specifies the default behavior of the daemon. Following modes are available:
  • offline: This mode starts the bluetooth server once the device is offline and not connected to any LAN network.
  • once: This mode starts the bluetooth server only if no network configuration exists. Once a network connection exists the server will never start again.
  • button: This mode enables the bluetooth server when the specified GPIO button has been pressed for more then 2 seconds.
  • always: This mode enables the bluetooth server as long the application is running.
  • start: This mode starts the bluetooth server for 3 minutes on start and shuts down after a connection.
  • dbus: This mode enables the bluetooth server only using the DBus methods.
• Timeout: Value is in seconds. Minimum value is 10 seconds. This value specifies how long the server will advertise if no client will connect within this period, afterwards the servicer will be stopped. This value will only be used in modes start, gpio and dbus.
• AdvertiseName: The name advertise name of bluetooth server. The length is limited to 8 characters.
• ForceFullName: Enforce the full name to be used even if it is longer than 8 characters. IMPORTANT: This will displace the Service UUID in the discovery data which implies that client applications cannot discover the wifi setup service on this device any more.
• PlatformName: The name of the platform this daemon is running on.
• ButtonGpio: The GPIO number for the button mode. Set to -1 in order to disable it.
• ButtonActiveLow: Can be used to invert the button value. Default is false.
• DBusBusType: The bus type for the dbus interface. Can be either system or session

Using DBUs interface

If you want to use the DBus interface in order to start and stop the bluetooth server, you can use following commands:

Note: assuming you are running the daemon on the system DBus

Start

dbus-send --system --dest=io.nymea.networkmanager --type=method_call --print-reply /io/nymea/networkmanager io.nymea.networkmanager.startBluetoothServer

Stop

dbus-send --system --dest=io.nymea.networkmanager --type=method_call --print-reply /io/nymea/networkmanager io.nymea.networkmanager.stopBluetoothServer

Building from source

Dependencies

Qt

A Qt verion >= 5.7.0 is required in order to work and bluez version >= 5.48.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install qt5-default qtbase5-dev qtbase5-dev-tools libqt5bluetooth5 qtconnectivity5-dev 

libnymea-networkmanager-dev

The libnymea-networkmanager-dev package can be installed from the nymea dpkg repository or built and installed from source:

Repository: deb http://repository.nymea.io <distro> main

Source: https://github.com/nymea/libnymea-networkmanager

libnymea-gpio-dev

The libnymea-gpio-dev package can be installed from the nymea dpkg repository or built and installed from source:

Repository: deb http://repository.nymea.io <distro> main

Source: https://github.com/nymea/nymea-gpio

Building manually

Clone the source code and change into the source directory

$ git clone https://github.com/guh/nymea-networkmanager.git
$ cd nymea-networkmanager

Create the build directory

$ mkdir build
$ cd build

And finally build the daemon and library

$ qmake ..
$ make -j$(nproc)

You can run the daemon directly with following command

$ sudo ./nymea-networkmanager/nymea-networkmanager

Building the debian packages

In order to build a debian package you can do following:

$ sudo apt install debhelper

$ mkdir nymea-networkmanager
$ cd nymea-networkmanager
$ git clone https://github.com/guh/nymea-networkmanager.git
$ cd nymea-networkmanager
$ dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -tc
$ cd ..

$ ls -l *.deb

Development

Bluetooth GATT profile

In order to connect to nymea-networkmanager using bluetooth low energy, once has to perform a bluetooth discovery, filter for all low energy devices and connect to the device with the name nymea. The remote address type for connecting to nymea-networkmanager is public.

Notifications

In order to enable/disable the notification for a characteristic with the notify flag, a client has to write the value 0x0100 for enabling and 0x0000 for disabling to the descriptor 0x2902 of the corresponding characteristic.

Services:

Overview

S = Service; C = Characteristic; D = Descriptor

W = Write; R = Read; N = Notify

S: Generic Access

Default service for Bluetooth LE GATT devices. More information can be found here.

S: Generic Attribute

Default service for Bluetooth LE GATT devices. More information can be found here.

S: Device Information

Default service for Bluetooth LE GATT devices. More information can be found here.

S: Wireless service e081fec0-f757-4449-b9c9-bfa83133f7fc

The Wireless Service allows a client to configure and monitor a wireless network connection. The connection can be controlled with the Wireless commander characteristic. Each command sent will generate a response on the Comander response characteristic containing the error code for the command. The Wireless connection status characteristic informs the client about the current connection status of the wireless device.

Characteristic overview

Characteristic details

• C: Wireless commander (W) e081fec1-f757-4449-b9c9-bfa83133f7fc

  • Description: Controll characteristic for the wireless manager. Each command sent to this characteristic will create a response report on the Commander response characteristic.
  • Range: [0-20] Byte, UTF-8, JSON
  • Possible values:

In following example you can find the basic structure of a command and a response. The command can be sent to this Wireless commander characteristic, the response will be notified on the Commander response characteristic. The JSON object containing the command map has to be in a compact format and must end with the '\n' character. If a data package is longer than the allowed 20 Bytes, the data must be splitted into 20 Byte packages and sent in the correct order. The end of a JSON data stream will be recognized, once the '\n' character will be found at the end of a package. The Commander response characteristic uses the same mechanism.

• Request

            {
                "c": 0,           // Integer: Command: describing the method called
                "p": { }          // The parameters of the method. If the method does not have any parameters you can skip this.
            }

• Response

            {
                "c": 0,               // Integer: Command: describing the method called
                "r": 0,               // Integer: Response error code. See list of error codes.
                "p": Object or Array  // Object or Array. This value is optional and depends on the requested command.
            }

• List of response error code:

Methods

- GetNetworks (0)

• Request

            {
                "c": 0            // Command: GetNetworks
            }

• Response

            {
                "c": 0,               // Integer: Command: describing the method called
                "r": 0                // Integer: Response error code. See list of response error codes.
                "p": [
                    {
                        "e": "My network",               // String: ESSID: the name of the wifi network
                        "m": "AA:BB:CC:DD:EE",           // String: The MAC address of the wifi access point
                        "s": 86,                         // Integer: Signal strength [0-100] %
                        "p": 0                           // Integer: Protected [0,1]; 0 - open, 1 - protected 
                    }
               ]
            }

- Connect (1)

• Request

            {
                "c": 1,                    // Command: Connect
                "p": {
                    "e": "Wifi SSID",      // The SSID of the wifi access point you want to connect to
                    "p": "Wifi password"   // The password of the access point you want to connect to
                }
            }

• Response

            {
                "c": 1,               // Integer: Command: describing the method called
                "r": 0                // Integer: Response error code. See list of response error codes.
            }

- ConnectHidden (2)

• Request

            {
                "c": 2,                    // Command: ConnectHidden
                "p": {
                    "e": "Wifi SSID",      // The SSID of the wifi access point you want to connect to
                    "p": "Wifi password"   // The password of the access point you want to connect to
  
                }
            }

• Response

            {
                "c": 2,               // Integer: Command: describing the method called
                "r": 0                // Integer: Response error code. See list of response error codes.
            }

- Disconnect (3)

• Request

            {
                "c": 3            // Command: Disconnect
            }

• Response

            {
                "c": 3,               // Integer: Command: describing the method called
                "r": 0                // Integer: Response error code. See list of response error codes.
            }

- Scan (4)

• Request

            {
                "c": 4            // Command: Scan
            }

• Response

            {
                "c": 4,               // Integer: Command: describing the method called
                "r": 0                // Integer: Response error code. See list of response error codes.
            }

- GetConnection (5)

• Request

            {
                "c": 5            // Command: GetConnection
            }

• Response

            {
                "c": 5,               // Integer: Command: describing the method called
                "r": 0                // Integer: Response error code. See list of response error codes.
                "p": {
                    "e": "My network",               // String: ESSID: the name of the current wifi network
                    "m": "AA:BB:CC:DD:EE",           // String: The MAC address of the current wifi access point
                    "s": 86,                         // Integer: Signal strength [0-100] %
                    "p": 0,                          // Integer: Protected [0,1]; 0 - open, 1 - protected 
                    "i": "192.168.0.12"              // String: The IP address of the current wifi connection
                }
            }

- StartAccessPoint (6)

• Request

            {
                "c": 6,                    // Command: StartAccessPoint
                "p": {
                    "e": "Access Point SSID",               // The SSID of the wifi access point you want to create
                    "p": "Wireless access point password"   // The password of the access point you want to create
                }
            }

• Response

            {
                "c": 6,               // Integer: Command: describing the method called
                "r": 0                // Integer: Response error code. See list of response error codes.
            }

• C: Commander response (N) e081fec2-f757-4449-b9c9-bfa83133f7fc

  • Description: Sends a JSON object in 20 Byte packages. The data stream is finished once the \n character received at the end of a package.
  • Range: [0-20] Byte, UTF-8, JSON
  • Possible values: See "methods - response" for more details

  The JSON object containing the response map has to be in compact format and must end with the '\n' character. If a data package is longer than the allowed 20 Bytes, the data must be splitted into 20 Byte packages and sent in the correct order. The end of a JSON data stream will be recognized, once the '\n' character will be found at the end of a package. The Commander characteristic uses the same mechanism.

• C: Wireless connection status (RN) e081fec3-f757-4449-b9c9-bfa83133f7fc

  • Description: This characteristic represents the current state of the wireless adapter.
  • Range: 1 Byte, Hex value
  • Possible values:

• C: Wireless mode (RN) e081fec4-f757-4449-b9c9-bfa83133f7fc

  • Description: This characteristic represents the current state of the wireless adapter.
  • Range: 1 Byte, Hex value
  • Possible values:

S: Network service ef6d6610-b8af-49e0-9eca-ab343513641c

This service allows to monitor and configure the network-manager daemon running on the system.

Characteristic overview

Characteristic details

• C: Network status (RN) ef6d6611-b8af-49e0-9eca-ab343513641c

  • Description: Represents the current network manager state.
  • Range: 1 Byte, Hex value
  • Possible values:

• C: Network commander (W) ef6d6612-b8af-49e0-9eca-ab343513641c

  • Description: Control what the network manager should do.
  • Range: 1 Byte, Hex value
  • Possible values:

• C: Commander response (N) ef6d6613-b8af-49e0-9eca-ab343513641c

  • Description: This characteristic will be used to inform about the command result (error reporting).
  • Range: 1 Byte, Hex value
  • Possible values:

• C: Networking enabled (RN) ef6d6614-b8af-49e0-9eca-ab343513641c

  • Description: This characteristic indicates if the networking in the network-manager is enabled.
  • Range: 1 Byte, Hex value

  • Possible values:

    • 0x00 : Disabled
    • 0x01 : Enabled

• C: Wireless enabled (RN) ef6d6615-b8af-49e0-9eca-ab343513641c

  • Description: This characteristic indicates if the wireless networking in the network-manager is enabled.
  • Range: 1 Byte, Hex value

  • Possible values:

    • 0x00 : Disabled
    • 0x01 : Enabled