I have installed PiFi on my Pi5, the setup is very easy however I do not have the Wifi dongle that PiFi sells i have my own that does work on OpenWRT with the right driver installed. Problem #1: I wanted to use the internal NIC on the pi as a client not an access point, I couldn’t find anywhere in the app to do this so I went to luci. On luci I did the same thing i do for openWRT network > wireless > scan > “mywifi” > replace network configuration checked put in my bssid and password. This initially worked and I was able to opkg update and install some drivers however after about a minute the wireless settings reset and went back to access point of the Pi 5 setup. I went through the setup again and this time tried ssh, I went in and changed the wireless file via ssh to make it a client on my home wifi and again after a few minutes it reset to its original configuration. Problem #2: I was able to install the drivers I needed for my USB dongle in-between resets of the wireless settings and then went into ssh to “ifconfig wlan0 up” to bring my USB dongle online and it worked… up until it reset a few minutes later and deleted the device and configuration. My question is… is this a feature or a bug? I am sure that PiFi is very optimized for the usb dongle that you guys sell and will work properly but is it designed that other dongles cant be used? Or which is also very likely am I doing something wrong?
It is based on OpenWrt for firmware so there is no additional optimisation or lack of optimisation for other USB dongles - I’ve tested the PiFi dongle a lot with it but there will be other dongles that should work too
With the Pi 5 in particular, the OpenWrt firmware is “snapshot” meaning the underlying firmware is still in-development and support for packages/drivers can vary build to build. On Pi 4, because it’s a stable Openwrt release, it should have the exact same support for drivers as mainline Openwrt
With Pi 5, the firmware will have updates released to keep in line with OpenWrt especially when it moves to stable status - as it is just now with Pi 5 builds (both from OpenWrt and PiFi) there can be issues with drivers for some USB adapters and it can vary between builds because the firmware is still “in-development” on that model
On the using internal NIC as a client - with PiFi dongle it supports that (because it continues to broadcast a wireless network - but if switching to NIC without a dongle - it would pair wirelessly but not broadcast anymore so if adding to app I’d need to switch it to LAN/ensure a third-party dongle was broadcasting - it can be done via LuCI just pairing in the regular way though (I’d suggest switching ethernet to LAN before doing it for easy recovery).
Trying to install kmod-mt7921u to attempt to get my dongle working I get the opkg message "MediaTek MT7921U wireless driver
Required dependency package kernel is not available in any repository."
A quick google suggests that this could be due to a custom build of openwrt. Any ideas of how to get round this?
Can certainly take a look for you?
Are you running PiFi on Raspberry Pi 4 or Raspberry Pi 5?
Pi4b with 4gb memory
Official released builds of OpenWrt currently run kernel 5.15 (as does the release version of PiFi for Pi 4)
So it’s not because it’s a custom build - it’s just that it’s not supported in any release builds of OpenWrt (snapshot including PiFi for Pi 5 may vary as newer kernel)
The next major release of OpenWrt (24.x), which will also be supported by PiFi shortly after release, will support this wifi in-kernel
Kernel support is a big issue, support is pretty limited in current versions of OpenWrt which is a big reason we offer the PiFi Kit
So, will be available whenever it’s supported by stable OpenWrt
Hello, openwrt distro 24.10 rc2 available for Raspberry Pi 5. Unfortunately brings the limitation for /root partition (2nd) set to 104 MB. So quickly full. It can be resized to rest of SDcard/nvme-disk using unallocated space.
For PiFi builds, we update the firmware for major releases of OpenWrt so when 24.10 is released (and not just RC = Release Candidate) the PiFi images will be updated for it.
And those images will have all the PiFi optimisations including app support, pre-installed WireGuard, OpenVPN, USB adapters and a larger root partition.
Based on the 24.10 being RC (release candidate) I’d expect a release version, followed by a PiFi build early next year.
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If you want to use vanilla OpenWrt without PiFi and it has a small root partition - apart from using image builder - my advice if you have access to linux is to use Gparted (and resize the partition before booting as post-boot it’s harder for the system to recognise any re-size)
You can also check here but Gparted would be my go-to for that - [OpenWrt Wiki] Expanding root partition and filesystem
Alternatively, if you want a build with the PiFi modifications that will be available when it’s released and no longer RC 
Thank you for hard work on every openwrt release for PiFi.
Regarding root partition, I’m using nvme ssd 2230 disk, usually 256GB, and I’m able to resize incl. apply to filesystem and issues fixed by fsck.ext4 (via Raspbian running on SD card). It’s connected to monitor, USB mouse+keyboard, unfortunately during boot, Raspberry got frozen in moment of USB devices recognizing. I saw error for cma_alloc but it seems to be solved by two lines added into /boot/distroconfig.txt. I tried to go through using another nvme SSD, another M.2 hat and/or another RPi5 - but no succes.
I will check link you have sent and I will see if it could help.
Thanks for the offer of PiFi. I’m currently playing with official openwrt release, sometimes spiced by important packages in addition to openwrt standard. It’s still sandbox that I need to hurt by learning, it’s quickly renewed by flashing a bit tuned vanilla image. PiFi requires more preparation and with hands inside, I don’t need iOS app these days. The reason is clear - I need to be able to set and maintain openwrt based RPi5 router. I have to replace my tp-link Archer AX55 Pro, it’s on 50-60% permanent load and it causes connection issues over all my home network. PiFi based RPi will be connected to GPON, run some network services and routing internet to other nodes. Like Archer AX55 that will continue only providing separate network for trusted devices, by dhcp range on metallic and 2.4GHz & 5GHz WLAN. Next directly connected node, RPI5 again, that is running Home Assistant and NUT for local UPS’s. The last RPI5 will be taking care about IoT devices as dedicated dhcp & dns provider incl. 2.4GHz WLAN with Zigbee and bluetooth, again separated by dhcp range.
I guess PiFi could easily become the heart and brain of my network. I found PiFi a bit overcustomised to serve as sandbox and playground. But I’m looking forward for times when PiFi will take over and handy PiFi iOS app will be sufficient for keeping eye on my SmartHome.