Gateway install does not result in being able to connect to the Pi over wifi

WebThings
#1

I’m trying to get started with WebThings but struggling with the first steps from the docs. I downloaded the gateway img file and flashed to my SD card (I’ve done this several times with regular Raspbian imgs with no issue) and booted my Pi (Pi Zero W v2) and according to the docs the Pi should then create a wifi hotspot - this doesn’t seem to happen.

I’m sure I’m missing something simple, but I also see that the docs have moved and that there is some conflicting information online - am I doing this correctly? Or is there an issue with the Pi I’m trying to use for this?

Thanks!

#2

Hi @tobyl, welcome!

You’re correct that the gateway should create a Wi-Fi hotspot:

When the gateway starts up it will create a Wi-Fi hotspot called “ WebThings Gateway XXXX ” (where XXXX are four digits from your Raspberry Pi’s MAC address).

If that doesn’t happen then something may have gone wrong. As a starting point, are you able to plug the Pi into a monitor to check it is booting correctly? If so then a next step might be to log in via the command line and start looking at system logs.

What conflicting information have you found? The WebThings project has moved from iot.mozilla.org to webthings.io, so anything you read on iot.mozilla.org may be outdated (although in this case I wouldn’t expect it to be any different).

#3

Thanks for the response!

I probably should have checked with a display/kb before posting here, I guess I had made the assumption that the Pi was good (because it was running Raspbian with wifi previously) and because the image appeared to write with no issue.

With a display plugged in, the system boots and drops me at the “gateway login” prompt. I’m able to login with the default Pi user/password. Nothing in the startup output suggest a relevant problem (there is an issue with Bluetooth but that seems right for a Pi Zero).

Apologies, “conflicting information” might be hyperbolic - I was initially caught out by the issue with the images not being downloadable on the original site, so I wondered if there was another change somewhere I just hadn’t come across.

#4

Ah, sorry I didn’t notice that you’re using the second generation of the Pi Zero W. That came out after 1.0 was released so hasn’t been tested, it may not be supported by the version of Raspbian we’re using.

If you do manage to find an error message of some kind then please file an issue at https://github.com/WebThingsIO/gateway/issues

I’m afraid I don’t have a Pi Zero W 2 to test with, so I can’t reproduce the issue. I know that others have tried, but I don’t know what works and what doesn’t.

#5

That makes sense - I’ll see if there’s anything in the logs. Many thanks for replying!