Debian Pogoplug V4 Dropping WIFI

Hi

I am running some lights in my house using a Pogoplug V4 running Debian connected to an arduino via the arduino-mk package. This has been very cool and handy so far, except after a few hours the Pogoplug drops the wireless signal and doesn't reconnect.

I don't know how to begin fixing/troubleshooting this problem.
Would you be willing to help?
Let me know what commands output you need. Thanks so much!

Peter

@Peter,

Look in your log file var/log/message to see if dhcp re-attempt to connect? if you log to ram then use logread.

-bodhi
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@bodhi

The folder /var/log contains the following items:

apt dmesg dmesg.2.gz  dpkg.log  preload.log boot  dmesg.0 dmesg.3.gz  fsck wtmp alternatives.log  btmp  dmesg.1.gz  dmesg.4.gz  lastlog

I'm sorry. I feel like I have failed you :(
What else can I try?

Thanks!
Peter

@monk

When you say it disconnects and doesn't reconnect on the WiFi. Does it reconnect when you hard reset the unit. Or reconnect hen you turn it off for a few moments then power on again.

The reason I ask this is I have seen some WiFi adaptors appear to fail when they get warm.

@Peter,

Kernel log is in /var/log/dmesg, so it migth have something in there too.

But if you don't have var/log/message file, it is probably because you're logging to RAM. If your rootfs is based on my uploaded basic rootfs, then it is logging to RAM. To temporarily switch to logging to disk, comment out the option as below and restart (it's been a while so I'm not 100% sure that I don't have another config file somewhere! please try this).

# cat /etc/default/busybox-syslogd

# Defaults for busybox-syslogd initscript
# This is a POSIX shell fragment sourced by /etc/init.d/busybox-syslogd

# Additional options that are passed to the daemons.  Default is to log
# to ring buffer (to be read with logread(1)) and drop duplicates.
#SYSLOG_OPTS="-C128"
KLOG_OPTS=""

If you have intermitten problems, then you can leave it commented out to catch any error that got logged into the /var/log/message. But remember to restore it later, because logging to USB or SD flash should be avoid.

As Gravelrash said, it might be just the Wifi adapter that got warm and shutdown.

-bodhi
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Thank you very much!
I have put an extender cable on the wifi adapter and placed it next to a cold surface.
I don't think the pogoplug was designed with very good heat management in mind, which is totally acceptable considering the price.

Will report back with results.
Thanks!

Peter

@Peter,

> I don't think the pogoplug was designed with very
> good heat management in mind, which is totally
> acceptable considering the price.

You'd bet! the Dockstar and the Pogo V4/Mobile are running very hot. I have silicon feet that raise them higher 1/4" above the flat surface, that seems to help reducing the temperature down quite a bit.

-bodhi
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Hi, Peter:
I always have problem to enable wifi on my Pogo-mobile. If you are using wifi on Pogo V4, can you let me know which Kernel version of Debian you are using and what is the procedure you did to enable wifi? I basically used the same way for RPi but not always successful on Pogo-Mobile. Thanks.