I'm trying to do this now with a Raspberry Pi Zero W and for the life of me I cannot figure it out. I got the firmware image from the table on this page. Specifically, this link. I flashed it to my SD Card, I put the card in the pi and booted it up. When it comes up, it isn't hosting an AP and logging into the command line to run commands shows that the WiFi adapter wlan0 is completely unconfigured.
I guess I had hoped that it would just be broadcasting an AP I could connect to in order to configure it appropriately. Using command line Linux args I was able to configure the wlan0 interface using a wpa_supplicant.conf to connect to my normal router's SSID, I manually ran udhcpc to get a DHCP address, then I manually updated the resolve.conf so I could get DNS working. At that point, I was able to ping internet sites and whatnot. However, even still I could not open the device's IP address to see the OpenWRT dashboard!
What's worse? I ran opkg update, which worked awesomely. Then I ran opkg install owut, because I wanted to update all the packages that may be stale, it also worked great. Then I executed owut upgrade and it downloaded all the new packages updated them and then rebooted the pi. When it came back up all my manual customization to create the wlan0 network connection was reset... there HAS to be an easier way to get this working, right? I used the ext4 FS so that I could write changes to it that would be saved but my /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file was gone after reboot!
Where are the low-level instructions for my simple mind? I've poked around on the openwrt documentation pages and I can only find instructions that assume you've got the dashboard working! What if I can't even get there??
As expected, the AP (or other WLAN settings) are always left to the user - typically via wired ethernet (but on-cli, via keyboard and monitor or serial is also possible).
In other words you completely ignored OpenWrt's configuration system (uci) and conffiles, but made up your own runtime config. While that is obviously 'possible', OpenWrt doesn't know about that and won't magically re-apply it after the next reboot. Just use the official configs according to the wiki instead.
Thanks for the response. Which guide should I use to set the only network adapter on this Pi Zero W (wlan0) to be an access point for configuring the device? By all the videos I've seen on installing and configuring Raspberry Pi's the firmware seems to default to ethernet, but there is no ethernet port on this device.
Based on your response, I've gathered that I need to just hack the files in /etc/config which I think is what you're referring to as uci and conffiles. Please be gentle, I know nothing about this and I'm just frustrated that I can't figure it out with all the documentation that is listed on the site.
On a side note, do you know if it is possible to use the Raspberry Pi Zero W (which seems to only have a single network adapter) as a travel router? That's ultimately what I'd like to be able to do but I'm worried that doing that will require two wireless NICs.
Oh, this I know. That's actually my plan. I am using this platform as a test bed to prove out its capability before I buy something else. However, if I can't figure it out or it doesn't work as expected, I'll change up my plan.
I found this page which has a script that turns the device into a Hotspot on boot after 30 seconds of failing to connect to local wifi. But at the bottom where it says "How to run these scripts" it indicates that we should create them in /tmp by copy and pasting them and then executing them. I chose the ext4 image so that I could have some writable persistent storage... how should I go about making this a more permanent change?
I finally got luci working by just poking around in the config files.
However, when I tried to use travelmate to establish an internet connection with a local internet-enabled SSID, it seemed to cause a radio0 boot loop condition and I could not connect to it anymore. I had to issue a reboot from the command prompt and on boot, quickly go back into travelmate config to disable travelmate manually to get the adapter to connect again.
No... the Pi Zero W cannot be used as a travel router (unless you add additional hardware).
Yes, this is a requirement in the case of the Raspberry Pi series of devices (all of them) because the wifi chipset they use is extremely low end and does not support simultaneous STA (client) and AP mode operation. As such, unless you do add additional wifi hardware, you are limited to one mode at a time (STA - XOR - AP).
The Pi's are very poor choices for travel routers owing to their poor wifi performance and capabilities as well as the form factor, so it doesn't make sense to buy additional wifi hardware to make the setup generally functional.
If your goal is a travel router, it is best to have a purpose built device of this type -- there are many options. If you are hesitant to spend the money until you can really play with OpenWrt, try to get a very inexpensive/free device on the used market (even if it is not a travel router form factor) to play with, but do your research before you buy so that you can get one that is at least supported by the current versions of OpenWrt (24.10 and 25.12) and has the basic capabilities you'll need to experiment.
Ah! This is the information I was looking for. Thank you very much @psherman! So, on that note, is that information "tribal knowledge"? I'm looking at these Gl.iNet travel routers and I'm guessing that they support simultaneous STA and AP mode operation but it doesn't seem to be advertised anywhere... they do advertise "dual-band" but I'm thinking that's a 2.4GHz radio and 5GHz radio. Which, I guess, I could technically use one for the AP and the other for the STA but, ideally, I'd get both bands for both functions if needed.
Yes, most (probably all?) of them do support simultaneous STA+AP modes. It's not something that's usually explicitly advertised at the consumer product level, but a travel router generally needs this functionality so they pick the chipsets appropraitely.
Yes, and yes, the dual radio setup does allow for one to be dedicated to each task (regardless of the support for simultaneous AP+STA modes on the hardware).
As far as the devices, I do recommend a dual radio/dual band device. Select one with a minimum of 16MB flash and 128MB RAM to ensure OpenWrt support for the foreseeable future. The GL-Inet travel routers are good -- I have one myself and I really like it (the MT3000). There are similar devices from Cudy which are a bit less expensive, but also highly regarded.
Haha, just to wrap this thread up. As psherman said, it's totally doable with additional hardware. I found an old TP-Link USB dongle in my drawer and I used the USB OTG with it to install a second hardware radio. When I configured travelmate to use the second radio, everything works great.
they do advertise "dual-band" but I'm thinking that's a 2.4GHz radio and 5GHz radio. Which, I guess, I could technically use one for the AP and the other for the STA but, ideally, I'd get both bands for both functions if needed.