I just need a couple of minuts to thank all the efforts and hours and days spent by Rob in his script.
It works flawlessly, even if its run by a rookie like me.

After some years using Windows astro software, I switched to K-Stars with the Raspberry pi4, it may not be the best way when I've never seen a Linux OS. But Rob's script made it easy.

Totally grateful.

Pardon me if this is a silly question - I am running Raspbian on Raspberry Pi4 and used your script to set everything up. I configured the Field Wifi to turn on after 3 minutes if the default 'home WiFi' is not found in range. Can you tell me if there is a simple way to VNC in via the Field Wifi access point (I can do this fine) and then switch the network on the Pi back to the 'home WiFi' (assuming it is in range), without having to reboot the Pi?
Dafont Showbox Adam4adam

Well, first of all you will need the name or the IP address of the rpi4 plus the password, I think the password with the script is 12345678 and you should then change, to use VNC, then when in there, just click on your home WiFi in the network list and “connect” same as any PC, but you will then have to re connect your VNC after a few mins to get back in, but no reboot should be required..
But as long as your home WiFi is in range, it will auto connect to that first, so you should not have to do any of the swapping around really...

Not a silly question until you have learned the technique!
Whilst still in VNC Viewer with the RPi in Hotspot mode open the Utilities folder on the desktop, and double click on StartNMService.desktop Enter the RPi user password and return, and the WiFi will switch off the hotspot and search for (and find) your home network. You will be knocked off the hotspot so you should connect with VNC Viewer again using your home WiFi settings.

I must say that 98% of the issues I have with my rig boil down to WiFi/networking, so, no this isn't a silly question to me either.

First, re the hotspot password. I believe when I installed via the script, the hotspot password was something like raspberrypi_password., not 123456789. You can find out for sure by looking in the folder /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ and finding the file that configures your hotspot (should be obvious from the filename) and then looking at that file (e.g. by running 'sudo cat FILENAME') and there will be a line with the password in plain text.

Second, though the standard WiFi connection to my home wifi usually works, it often doesn't or drops out. As opposed to using the hotspot, my approach is to use the hardwired cable approach--that is, connect a cat5 or cat6 line between the ethernet connector on the RPi and your laptop (if you have a macbookpro like I do, you'll need a ethernet-to-usbC converter) and you should be able to see the RPi at the address you set on script installation (it's possible that that requires some configuration on your laptop). This is a much more reliable/fast connection than the hotspot IMHO, and also probably avoids whatever was messing with my other WiFi connection in the first place. Of course another approach is connecting a monitor and keyboard to the RPi (which is my ultimate work-around), but that takes more time to set up.

I wish I knew why the WiFi is occasionally flakey. I assume the reason is the wimpy WiFi antenna inside the RPi. I've bought this thing which I've seen referenced by Rob www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07695YGLZ/ref..._title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 but haven't tried to install it yet. Given the pain WiFi has caused, I should up the priority on that project.

Hy

Rob, another script question (or perhaps this is general KStars?):
- when I run an imaging session, I get a ton of these on stdout/stderr:

I guess there's some audio thing I don't have, but I don't care about audio during imaging.
Is there a way of turning off sound, or some other way of disabling this? It's a minor annoyance, but I do use stdout/stderr to debug/explore the system
so I always wind up grepping out these lines, and who knows, this error may be slowing things down.

Hy

I should say, the previous question related to Raspberry Pi Buster, with a RPi4.

Hy,

I would recommend turning off Audio Notifications in KStars. You can find Notifications in one of the menus. You can just turn off each of the "Play a sound" ones. That should prevent it from trying to use Audio. Based on what you said, I suspect you don't have an audio device that VLC likes.

Thanks,

Rob

Rob,

I've looked for such a menu option, unsuccessfully.
I've even searched the code:

Not sure what to do with the snapcraft.yaml.
Do you know specifically where to look ? I can't find code that does the notifying either.

Thanks,
Hy

Not so fast rlancaste. I personally noted when I built KStars version 3.3.5 with your script some time ago, the entire notification configuration menu was missing. I have since updated it to 3.3.7 and the menu has returned.
Although interestingly enough I do not have the icons displayed in the top pull down menus as shown in your screenshot.

Rob, thanks, but that menu item "Configure Notifications" is missing from my system.
Perhaps that's a Raspbian Buster thing?
See the screenshot:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/f1kaxfJjub8KXmi78