Wifi beta for Pi and other Broadcom-based SDIO devices ====================================================== This folder contains downloads to enable wifi and other functionality on many Pi boards and other devices with Broadcom SDIO-based wifi. Most users can ignore the file ending "Inet6Sources" - this is the source code to the TCP/IP stack (inc wifi). It is included for completeness, and in case anyone is interested. It is NOT required to install/use wifi, and will likely confuse anyone not familiar with it. IMPORTANT --------- If you previously downloaded or used !NetManager (Wifi) prior to 1st July 2024, please locate it (eg. in Apps or Network or Wifi) and delete it. NetManager is now part of !OBSD, and will appear in Apps from the iconbar (aka Resources:Apps) once installed. Getting started (Pi) -------------------- This beta should work with nightly beta Pi ROMs from mid 2023 onwards, but for best performance, please download one from the ROOL site dated 24th March 2024 or later. For your convenience, a suitable ROM is provided in this folder, but a newer one may be available. ** We recommend RISC OS 5.30 in preference to this ROM. However, that requires other system updates which you may not be comfortable with. In that case, this 5.29 build is functionally very similar, but a little easier to install. ** IMPORTANT - if you use a 3rd party customised ROM (eg. one supplied by RISC OS Bits with their SATA adapter for Pi) then please contact your supplier for an updated ROM. Once you have downloaded a recent ROM, you'll also want to download the latest "OBSD" zip (the TCP/IP stack) and the latest "NM" (Network Manager). Once you have downloaded these items, follow the steps below: 1) If you use !PiTools or !4teTools please run that software and click on the picture for the network section. You will see various network-related options. Please *untick* the option to automatically load network auto-detect at startup. At present, that only knows about wired ethernet, not wifi. (Step 1 should no longer be necessary as Network Manager is now aware of the auto-networking software and handles it) 2) Open the latest ROM zip. Shift double click on !Boot on your main drive and then open the Loader partition. Rename the existing RISCOS/IMG file to RISCOS/OLD then copy the riscos/img from the zip in its place. Close the Loader partition. Shutdown and Reboot after installing. (Step 2 is not necessary if you have updated your ROM recently) 3) Open the latest OBSD zip, and run the installer. It will install the TCP/IP stack with wifi. The computer will restart several times during installation - this is quite normal. 4) Contrary to earler releases, the OBSD stack now includes NetManager as part of itself, so installing the latest OBSD will also install the latest NetManager for Wifi. 5) We recommend double clicking on !Boot and going to Network configuration and enabling the use of NetManager to manage your network configuration going forwards. NetManager will then be started when your computer boots, and will handle your wired and wireless network interfaces. 6) We recommend also downloading CaCerts.zip from this site to make sure you have up to date SSL/TLS certificates. We encountered problems with hotel wifi (Premier Inn) until we updated the SSL certificates on our Pinebook Pro. Installation instructions are included in the zip. NetManager Notes ---------------- Network Manager provides an iconbar-based wifi UI. You can either set up the profile to auto-connect to wifi, or manually connect via the iconbar icon. Wifi may take a moment to start/connect so just let things happen. The iconbar icons should make it clear what is happening. You may run into trouble if you try to do things before it is ready. Hotel Wifi ---------- Many hotels and other public wifi services require a web-based login before giving you unfettered internet access. Whilst one could complain about obvious data harvesting, this has become a fact of life! As of July 2024, NetManager understand about login-based wifi and will attempt to automate this for you, launching a web browser upon connection to applicable wifi networks. This should only happen if the network requires web logon. Several different methods of logon redirect are supported. Iris (or related browsers) are strongly recommended for this as most logon pages need JavaScript. We have found it necessary to ensure that your SSL certificates are up to date otherwise login problems may occur. You'll find the latest ones on this download site - CaCerts.zip Note that many wifi re-direct services don't work with https URLs favoured by most companies these days until login is completed. NetManager knows this and will handle this automatically, so we STRONGLY recommend waiting for the automated login to launch to ensure smooth login. (This applies to any platform, not just RISC OS). Performance ----------- Performance is currently slow. This is the first time that the SDIO bus/code has been used on RISC OS, so there is almost certainly a fair bit of optimising to do. It is a classic case that until you have something to utilise something, you won't know if it works, and how to get the best out of it. By way of example, a dirt track is fine until you put a car onto it, at which point you learn the advantages of tarmac! If running on a Raspberry Pi system, please ensure your ROM is a a nightly beta (or 5.30, we assume) dated 24th March or later, as earlier versions ran the SDIO wifi adapter at a much lower clock speed. Known Issue(s) -------------- Although we have tried to ensure it is always correct, early versions of NetManager had an issue whereby the "Set DNS servers automatically" option was inverted (ie. did the opposite of the tickbox in the user interface). It now works as intended, and profiles *should* be updated, but occasionally this doesn't happen and users report being unable to resolve (or connect to) sites in Netsurf and Iris. If you encounter this, please click on the NetManager icon on the iconbar to edit your profile, and make sure that option is ticked in the DNS settings section. Performance on Pi systems will be poor unless a ROM of March 24th 2024 or more recent is used.