I have been struggling with a setup where I want to build an easy to use version of a project where a long range USB Wifi antenna is connected to the RPi and the internal Wifi is providing coverage for units locally. The project is described here : RPi as gateway. It's in use onboard our boat and works ok when set up to the remote hot spot. It's not user friendly as it lacks a web interface like luci.
I have tried to set up a RPi 3B+ and a USB dongle (RTL chipset) using OpenWrt with limited success. The 18.06.4 release struggle with country settings. I tried the snapshots, which would set the country code, but luci is not provided and installation failed as there were no candidates. In addition I could not get the USB dongle to work. dmesg fine the USB dongle and report it and lsmod also seem to have found it. Both the internal and USB works nicely with raspbian, so things should be supported.
Is these problems known problems that will be fixed in the forthcoming release or is it something more major ? It must be more common to have two radio devices and use one for long range Wifi connection, the antenna market itself for camping and boating where this kind of application is wanted.
I also have a GL-iNet GL-AR3000M16 which I expected could perform this task, which it turned out it could not. An image with USB wifi support would be nice.
I'm interested in help and hints how to provide a setup with OpenWrt that can provide this function and have the ease of use web interface to control is. All the users on board should be able to connect the long range antenna to a shore station. It not an easy task to use a Nintendo DS pen and and soft keyboard on a 3.5" RPi screen.
Regards,
Ole W. Saastad