Wi-Fi on/off buttons
Quite a bit of devices come with at least one button (apart from the omnipresent reset/recovery button, which isn't convenient to press), which in the stock firmware is used for WPS, toggling Wi-Fi, or whatever, and on OpenWrt is not usually connected to any function.
In this article we will install and configure a package called wifitoggle, which allows us to configure one of such buttons as a Wi-Fi on/off (toggle) button.
Setup steps
- This package lacks a graphical interface so for the setup we will need to connect to the OpenWrt device using SSH (remote terminal).
- Install wifitoggle package with
opkg update && opkg install wifitoggle - see the new uci configuration for it
uci show wifitoggle, you will see something like this
# uci show wifitoggle wifitoggle.@wifitoggle[0]=wifitoggle wifitoggle.@wifitoggle[0].button='wps' wifitoggle.@wifitoggle[0].timer='600' wifitoggle.@wifitoggle[0].persistent='0' wifitoggle.@wifitoggle[0].led_enable_trigger='timer' wifitoggle.@wifitoggle[0].led_enable_delayon='500' wifitoggle.@wifitoggle[0].led_enable_delayoff='500' wifitoggle.@wifitoggle[0].led_disable_default='0'
- Do any customizations to the configuration and then save the changes with
uci commit
wifitoggle uci section
The wifitoggle section contains these settings:
| Name | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
button | String | yes | wps | internal name of the button to use. Usually the internal name is similar to what the button did in stock firmware. See notes below this table. |
persistent | Boolean | yes | 0 | Commit changes to wireless config file, persistent after reset. Always 0 if Timer enabled |
timer | Integer | yes | 600 | Seconds for Wi-Fi to be turned off, 0 for no timer |
led_sysfs | String | no | none | Led to use, see Led configuration for possible values |
led_enable_trigger | String | yes | timer | led trigger name, see Led configuration for other possible led trigger names |
led_enable_delayon | Integer | yes | 500 | Milliseconds to turn led on after button pressed |
led_enable_delayoff | Integer | yes | 500 | Milliseconds to turn led off after button pressed |
led_disable_default | Boolean | yes | 0 | Led state for Wi-Fi disabled, 1 to turn it off if Wi-Fi is off |
Common internal names for button (by searching through the source code) are:
- wps = Wi-Fi protected service, most likely to be free in OpenWrt and also default in wifitoggle
- wlan = used for buttons that toggle Wi-Fi on/off in stock firmware
- rfkill = also used for buttons that toggle Wi-Fi on/off in stock firmware
- wifi = also used for buttons that toggle Wi-Fi on/off in stock firmware, yes there is a bit of creativity going on.
- power = used to power up some devices, may be bound already to system shutdown function
- help = unknown, but I see it in the source code of some devices
- phone = unknown, but I see it in the source code of some devices
- BTN_0 = unknown, but I see it in the source code of some devices
- BTN_1 = unknown, but I see it in the source code of some devices
- ses = cisco services button
- reset = the reset button, usually already bound to system restart function
Here's a way to identify the internal name of your button if just trying the above list blindly does not work.
Troubleshooting
If the script isn't working on your Wi-Fi networks, or it works only on some but not all, try deleting and creating again the ones that don't work.
Default Wi-Fi networks look like this in the config, and it seems the script can't parse that.
wireless.default_radio0=wifi-iface wireless.default_radio0.device='radio0' wireless.default_radio0.network='lan' wireless.default_radio0.mode='ap' wireless.default_radio0.ssid='myWifi' wireless.default_radio0.encryption='psk2+tkip+ccmp' wireless.default_radio0.key='password' wireless.default_radio0.disabled='1'
This is how it looks after I deleted and created it again (and is actually working)
wireless.@wifi-iface[0]=wifi-iface wireless.@wifi-iface[0].device='radio0' wireless.@wifi-iface[0].mode='ap' wireless.@wifi-iface[0].ssid='myWifi' wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption='psk2+tkip+ccmp' wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key='password'
Anyone that can fix the script please send a PR from the link below.
Wi-Fi disable after boot
If you like to have Wi-Fi disabled after power on, set it disabled by default and then set wifitoggle to NOT save Wi-Fi state changes to permanent memory (so that whatever the state was on reboot it would reset to disabled) with the following:
uci set wireless.@wifi-device[0].disabled=1 uci set wifitoggle.@wifitoggle[0].persistent=0 uci commit
Or add this to /etc/rc.local or in Startup (LuCI System - Startup):
uci set wireless.@wifi-device[0].disabled=1 wifi