Networking a Model A Pi

[FTrevorGowen]

I've been working with model B Pi's until recently but, since I have only one HDMI/DVI monitor shared between said Pi's and a netbook I often need to work "headless". At the w/end I finally acquired a Model A Pi and, once I'd installed and configured the current version of Wheezy Raspbian began to try out some USB wired LAN and WiFi dongles I have. The USB-LAN dongles (3) are based upon the DM9601 chipset/driver and the WiFi dongles are RTL8188CUS based. Overall the WiFi approach worked the best (apart from a "niggle" common to all approaches - see below) and could be used via an un-powered external USB hub with a basic wired keyboard and mouse. Apart from the "niggle" the USB-LAN dongles appeared to work at first: I was able to download or ftp (from another Pi) code to get a "Slice of PI/O" driven LED bargraph display working via i2c over the GPIO port. However there had been a couple of hiccups which I'd initially associated with non-recovery of the IP address following resetting of my router (which I use to assign "static" local IP addresses via DHCP to the Pi's etc.) However I now believe that something more serious is going on but, first, the "niggle":

All three of the Model B Pi's were "renamed" via appropriate edits of /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname but that did not work for the Model A, which which moaned about an "invalid hostname" and resulted in "(none)". Unless the name "raspigrey" is somewhat "special" , I can only assume that a Model A's default setup is different in some way I haven't spotted - any ideas as to where to look?

Now for the heavy stuff - I was attempting an apt-get upgrade in basic, direct terminal mode via a USB-LAN dongle when the Pi froze with it's power LED (red) on, no green LED activity but the dongle's LED flashing intermittently. I've photographed the screen since I'd previously noticed that when the link had failed before some "shell history etc." had not been written (flushed) to the SD card.
Some sort of kernel BUG appears to have been triggered (or is it something to do with the dm9601 driver). I've no experience with such issues but welcome suggestions as to how to investigate further etc.

[FTrevorGowen]

Update upon the "hostname niggle" - problem solved - the "little grey cells" must have been "tired & emotional" that day and I'd "forgot" that /etc/hostname is not a script file (and thus # is not a comment character ). Editing it correctly ie. replacing "raspberrypi" with "raspigrey" worked as expected.

[FTrevorGowen]

Update on the USB-LAN dongle issue. It looks now the problem is a "specific hardware" issue. Two of the dongles appear to cause lock-up, but the third (Pluscom brand) seems stable. (I'm using it and the Model A Pi to browse & post to the forum "at this moment in time" ). I'm awaiting a fourth, USB-LAN + 3 USB ports device to try instead of the current (un-powered) hub + dongle next. Trev.

[simplesi]

I think that's going to be the next issue for muggles ( ) to overcome - how to get a model A up and running on a network in the easiest (and cheapest) way possible - its a real chicken and egg scenario!

Simon

[B1234]

I set my Model A up using a Model B, 256MB v1.

Mainly because I had the B on hand before the A arrived.

After much swearing and cursing, I had an Edimax EW-7811UN connecting nicely, powered down the B, removed the SD card, put the adapter and SD card in the Model A, booted up and it worked first time.

This was with Raspbian.

[PRKid]

Update upon the "hostname niggle" - problem solved - the "little grey cells" must have been "tired & emotional" that day and I'd "forgot" that /etc/hostname is not a script file (and thus # is not a comment character ). Editing it correctly ie. replacing "raspberrypi" with "raspigrey" worked as expected.

Thanks for your post! I am have an issue that is resulting in the same output, i.e. basically getting a hostname error which results in a root@(none) occurring due to the absence of a configured machine name. I had changed my hostname file from raspberrypi to rasbianwheezy_xxxxxxxxxxx

Now, I am wondering if there are some invalid hostnames or guidelines to be used. I am relatively new to this so I am digging around but have yet to find something. I came across your posts and hoping you might have some leads/recommendations. Thanks! Below is the errors I get from my Wheezy startup (which are all related to the hostname):

When I boot up I see 3 errors, as follows: (1) [FAIL] startpar: service(s) returned failure: hostname.sh ... failed!, then, (2) Starting ftp server: proftpd_none_proftpd[2233] mod_tls_memcache/0.1: port not enabled _none_proftpd[2233]: Fatal: ServerName: missing arguments on line 15 of '/etc/....failed!, and, (3) [FAIL] startpar: service(s) returned failure: proftpd...failed!

Any inputs would be appreciated! Thanks!

PRKid

[PRKid]

Good news to report! I changed my hostname and all is working fine! I basically shorten the name and did not use the underscore (_). So, wanted to post jic someone else runs into this issue. Thus, either my hostname was too long, or, it does not allow the use of the underscore.

Thanks for triggering me to think about my hostname.

PRKid

[jamesh]

I think that's going to be the next issue for muggles ( ) to overcome - how to get a model A up and running on a network in the easiest (and cheapest) way possible - its a real chicken and egg scenario!

Simon

I'm going to attract flames, but if you want networking on a Raspberry Pi - get a Model B. After all, that's the networking enabled version of the Raspberry PI. It's $10 more expensive, which is a pretty trivial amount to have networking working out of the box. You also get an extra 128MB RAM and another USB port.

That would be my recommendation. By far the cheapest option, once you take in to account the time factor.

[simplesi]

My post is 2 months old - predicating "ModelAgate"

Simon

[FTrevorGowen]

I think that's going to be the next issue for muggles ( ) to overcome - how to get a model A up and running on a network in the easiest (and cheapest) way possible - its a real chicken and egg scenario!

Simon

I'm going to attract flames, but if you want networking on a Raspberry Pi - get a Model B. After all, that's the networking enabled version of the Raspberry PI. It's $10 more expensive, which is a pretty trivial amount to have networking working out of the box. You also get an extra 128MB RAM and another USB port.

That would be my recommendation. By far the cheapest option, once you take in to account the time factor.

If networking was the only concern I'd agree with you, especially if only a few Pi's were needed. However, factor in a low power requirement and only occasional networking for one (at a time) out of a (greater) number of Pi's then the low cost of the USB LAN dongles I was/am using (about 1/3 of that for a WiFi dongle) at a ratio of 1 per 10 Pi's (say) potentially reduces costs. I'm ignoring the time factor, presuming "most" Pi users will be investing their time "freely" (ie. as part of their learning experience).
Trev.

[toxibunny]

Yeah there's going to be a lot of people need to know this stuff for initial setup, occasional upgrades/installs, etc.

[FTrevorGowen]

Update: I've now found a more reliable (so far), USB 2.0 compliant USB - LAN dongle, based upon a different chipset and driver - see this thread (http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 28&t=45718) for more info. (I'll be updating my own webpages later this week).
Trev.

[FTrevorGowen]

Update: The USB 2.0 LAN dongle has been working fine for some time. However I tried a different approach out today. A year or three ago I acquired a "USB-USB networking cable" which I've managed to get working between the Model A Pi and my netbook running Ubuntu. FWIW more info. (screenshots etc.) can be found at http://www.cpmspectrepi.webspace.virgin ... Cable.html .
Trev.