Install on laptop with USB Ethernet adapter requires adapter to stay plugged in

[imnasnainaec]

Installation of The Combine on a laptop for offline usage requires the laptop to be plugged in to ethernet. When the installation is complete, the ethernet can be unplugged. However, if the ethernet is connected via a USB adapter (if the laptop doesn't have an ethernet port), then when the ethernet is unplugged from the adapter, the adapter has to remain plugged in to the USB port for The Combine's wifi hotspot to start when combinectl start is run. The adapter can be removed once combinectl status shows everything up and running.

[imnasnainaec]

Jan '25 note from Jim:

Regarding the USB adapter, is the WiFi hotspot not created or is the user just not able to reach The Combine once connected to the hotspot? If it's the latter, I think that has something to do with the way the ingress controller works. The ingress controller needs to have a wired Ethernet connection when it starts up. The install script should create a dummy connection that meets that need. If I recall correctly, the computer needed to boot without the Ethernet connected - but my memory is very rusty at this point. Running ip link at various configurations will show you which interfaces visible and which ones are up. If you then look at the ingress in the cluster, you will see which connection Kubernetes is using.

[imnasnainaec]

Jan '25 note from Jim:

The create_ap code [...] sets up the wifi access point with Internet sharing - this was very useful with the NUC and when working on a laptop - I could connect to the WiFi and still see the Internet for non-Combine access. However, it seems that this is not (always) what is needed. create_ap supports creating an access point without internet sharing. From https://github.com/oblique/create_ap/?tab=readme-ov-file#examples

AP without Internet sharing:
create_ap -n wlan0 MyAccessPoint MyPassPhrase
Bridged Internet sharing:
create_ap -m bridge wlan0 eth0 MyAccessPoint MyPassPhrase

So, either you could [...] change the hotspot to always use create_ap -n or to use that command when there is no ethernet interface available (not counting the dummy interface, of course).

May '25 note from Jim:

I think that it would be possible to create 2 wifi configuration files - one with and one without Internet sharing. I have not given a lot of thought on how to select the appropriate file when starting the wifi_ap. It could be a command line argument or it could be that it does not enable Internet sharing if the interface is not up. There is already some logic for whether Kubernetes uses the ethernet port or a dummy IP for the ingress.