Traveling with my pi! No keyboard or internet how to setup ?

trekdrop

Hi! I am traveling around the world. I took my pi with me because I love gaming and we'll... I am not gonna do stuff every day when I am traveling. So last night I was busy making a decent installation (after I stupid! Deleted my 120 GB perfect one) but I am stuck and I so hope someone can help me. I don't have a keyboard and my wifi isnt activated because of the img. So here is my question.

How do I selected my country so I can have WiFi activated with a controller?

Is there a Bluetooth app for Android so I can type?

Can I somehow do something with my laptop?

What do I have:

Android phone (not rooted) with 4g
Laptop
WiFi
PS4 controller

tpo1990

@trekdrop

What Pi model do you have?

i dont think you can do it out a keyboard, since a keyboard is one of the required accessories to configure a Raspberry Pi. Otherwise if you can somehow enable ssh on your Raspberry Pi, then you could possibly install Putty SSH client on your laptop and then configure the raspberry pi by CLI. That would also require that your computer and the Raspberry Pi is on the same network for the ssh connection to work.

trekdrop

@tpo1990

Yeah! I did a few times. But now I need to confirm the action in the pi menu so I can activate WiFi and I only have a controller..

tpo1990

@trekdrop Well then maybe something like this could be useful. Mobile Universal Gamepad for RetroPie

trekdrop

@tpo1990

Yeah that's something! But we don't have a onscreen keyboard for the menus? Or a Bluetooth keyboard app where i don't need internet first to install it :)

tpo1990

@trekdrop Ok. Then im not sure what else you can do. Maybe some other community members here have some ideas that can help you out :-)

josephxx

Actually, that's a question I would be interested to have answered too :-)

I built my new Rpi3B+ as an emulation center, that I will be able to carry with me in a small bag during vacations etc (TVs with HDMI are everywhere).

Even though I bought a 20cm keyboard/touchpad to fit in that specific bag, it would be nice to know that I can use my phone as an input device. That solution would have to be over BT to make sense - Wifi solutions require the Pi to be already connected to the network, which means that a keyboard has to be available on-site at first to enter the password (the BT can be paired once at home and be done with it).

Efriim

If you have an ethernet cord you should be able to connect. Enable SSH with the controller in rasp-config.

I have tried to use a bluetooth app and while it should be very possible, I couldn't accomplish syncing 9/10 times, let alone sending keyboard commands.

I had a similarly different situation. Where my 50ft Ethernet cable was cut, and my desktop computer has a wireless card but it has no antennae. I used an old laptop screen with the wireless auxiliary antennae connectors to plug into the card. And now I'm installing retropie on ubuntu since about a half hour ago.

Actually my router doesn't allow Internet connection sharing, I didn't even know that was a thing. To not allow... not a thing.
I thought it was because the newest version of android for the longest time.

Oh! if you use internet connection sharing on your phone. To do so on Lollipop-Oreo you must enable Developer mode by clicking on the build number in [settings; system; about phone] about 15 times.
Then while connected with the RaspberryPi through USB to Android. Enter "Developer options" on the phone; and scroll down to Usb connection type; there you will see media sharing, charge only, and RNDIS remote ethernet! Ethernet with zero config.

petersmith69

i tried only Bluetooth module with the turbobit account on that .
WiFi seems tough.
is it?

josephxx

@Efriim said in Traveling with my pi! No keyboard or internet how to setup ?:

Then while connected with the RaspberryPi through USB to Android. Enter "Developer options" on the phone; and scroll down to Usb connection type; there you will see media sharing, charge only, and RNDIS remote ethernet! Ethernet with zero config.

Thanks for that piece of info - after having my latest phone for over a year, I only came across this setting yesterday by chance. Even though I didn't pay any attention then, I recalled it as soon as you mentioned it.

Efriim

@josephxx
You're welcome, on older android 2.x - 4.x you could share internet using the usb tether and if it was locked out then you could usually enable tether manually using an app like notification bar hotkeys, or cyanogenmod. Around 4.0 I guess alot of phone service providers were somehow trying to sell that to customers so it got locked out. The router needs to have Internet connection sharing not disabled, whatever that means.

trekdrop

@Efriim

Cool! But can I use my phone as a keyboard... Please say yes :)

Efriim

@trekdrop

Yes and no. You could setup some sort of serial device to root into the pi over the usb-ethernet(RNDIS).
The significant feature is that the phone can share its internet connection. Then you should be able to use Connectbot to SSH into the Pi. Then you just run raspi-config.
*Connectbot app

Efriim

@trekdrop Actually you can do this without sharing the internet connection, I was thinking laterally from a different perspective.

You should be able to do this just by enabling tether in the wireless settings. Then to find the IP address of the Pi to enter into Connectbot is another thing. I guess you could use the Retropie Show IP, but sometimes a lot of the time it gets cut off in the small dialog box. Also you may have to wait for the android to assign an IP address, which it might not do easily unless you share an internet connection, 5G or WiFi. If your phoneservice provider/branded phone, doesn't allow you to share internet and tether, then you can enable it in Developer settings.

trekdrop

@Efriim

No I can't because I can't activate the WiFi in the pi menu. I need to go to the raspberry pi menu to activate the WiFi. And I can't do that with a controller so I am stuck before I have WiFi activated.

But maybe you or someone can simply help me :)

It's maybe to much to ask. But can you upload a retropi IMG that is clean only activated the WiFi?

I am here in Indonesia and have WiFi on my laptop so I can download that one. And try from there on. It would be really nice.

Torrent or upload doesn't care.

😀

Efriim

@trekdrop
I'll just try to start over, you won't need wifi. Only your phone and the charging cable for your phone.

Charge your phone plugging it into the Raspberry Pi.
Turn on the tether setting on your phone.
Use your PS4 controller to to navigate EmulationStation and find "Show IP".
Use the Android App "ConnectBot" and create an ssh connection to the tethered IP address, entering the username "pi" and host "ip.address".
When you finally connect to the ssh, type sudo raspi-config into the ConnectBot SSH Terminal.
Setup your wifi and localization using your phone.

Efriim

@trekdrop
When you navigate to "Show IP" on the raspberry pi (hopefully your controller doesnt use the same charging cable <_<).
Wait a moment for the Android to assign the RNDIS USB ip address. And try "Show IP" again hopefully it will show you "USB0" connection IP address then.

Efriim

After you setup the wifi it should be a snap to connect to the pi using your laptop, then you can use a ssh with a keyboard and setup samba and file transfer.

Efriim

@trekdrop
Tell me how far you are along, and I will try to give better directions.

That was USB tether option, like tether-ball. Not the wireless tether.

trekdrop

@Efriim

Dude! Thank you so much! Really, it's also nice I learned a new trick. It's 11 pm here so I need to sleep. Tomorrow morning I will try it and let you know. Really again, thank you so much. Good tutorial!