Yesterday, the 11th, was the day I tied all my little WiFi scripts together into the wifi-wrap.py wrapper.

• I made wifi-chek.py to check if the WiFi is connected.

In the wifi-wrap.py file, the wifi-chek.py script runs immediately after wifi-pw.py sends the P4wnP1_cli command to Connect to WiFi.

• I also wrote a 1-line script to reset the WiFi to the Startup settings.  This script is wifi-reset.py.

P4wnP1 OLED Connect-to-WiFi List of Scripts (JoyFi?)

Here is the current list of scripts included in the OLED P4wnP1 Connect-to-WiFi script package (in order of where they're placed in the wrapper .py file):

• wifi-wrap.py
  • Runs all the scripts
• wifi-scan.py
  • Scans for WiFi networks
• wifi-disp.py
  • Displays the scanned WiFi networks
• wifi-pw.py
  • Asks the user for WiFi password (using OLED screen for output and Joystick / buttons for input).  Also runs a Python3 subprocess to launch the P4wnP1_cli connect-to-WiFi command.
• wifi-chek.py
  • Checks the WiFi status, pings google.com, and offers options.
• wifi-reset.py
  • Resets the WiFi to its Startup condition.

How does wifi-chek.py work?

Wifi-chek.py runs the classic linux command iwconfig to fetch internet wireless configuration data from the Raspberry Pi (or any Linux computer).

Why use iwconfig to check WiFi status instead of a more Python-native code block such as the one at shown at this kite.com page?

I wanted to use a "raw" Linux command.  I also wanted Signal Strength and the other info that comes with the output of iwconfig.

Note:  There's also this way to check active connections in Python.

Step 1:  Run the iwconfig Command

First, wifi-chek runs "iwconfig" Linux command in a Python3 subprocess.

I use the Python "try" command to attempt running iwconfig and simultaneously handling errors how I want it to.

Step 2:  Get the Data

Then it parses the output of iwconfig using the Python3 ".strip" method.

Step 3:  Do the WiFi Network Check

After that, it looks for "SSID:" in the parsed output.

TIP:  To look for text in a string using Python, check out this simple method on Stackexchange.

Why?  If the device is connected to a WiFi network, then the text "SSID:" will appear in the output of iwconfig.

Therefore, if the string "SSID:" is found, then wifi-chek.py determines that the WiFi is connected to a network.

If "SSID" is not found, then wifi-chek.py _____________.

Step 4:  Run the Ping Check Command

After the SSID is checked, wifi-chek.py pings google.com.

Wifi-chek runs a Python3 subprocess to "ping -c3 google.com".

If google.com returns data to us, then wifi-chek.py determines that P4wnP1 is now connected to the Internet (DNS is good!).

If google.com does NOT return data to us, then wifi-chek.py ______________.

Step 5:  Offer Options

• Turn off WiFi
• Reset WiFi
• Speed Test
• Check Internet / Ping

To Do:

• If wifi-scan.py detects 0 APs, then sleep 3 seconds and scan again X times until a network is found.  Otherwise exit.
  • Why?  If the system isn't ready to scan, the scan could fail, resulting in a false negative "0 APs detected".
• Add OLED display screens for every stage of the process
  • Scanning
  • Please wait
  • Connecting
  • Connected
  • Checking
  • Testing

Untested alternative to iwlist:

iw dev wlan0 scan

Switch to WiFi "Managed" mode:

Another name for this is Client mode.

Make a script that runs these commands:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

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