Pixel phones and Raspberry Pi/Volumio

Volumio Community Forums
#1

Maybe this belongs under compatibility but I just wanted to let people know Google has made some changes to remove features like “manage devices” under the hotspot menu. This is bad for Pi setups or other headless devices. Normally you are allowed to view IP and MAC addresses when making new connections with the phone. You can’t set static IP addresses with your phone either. I just found out that the Pixel type phones have a different Android version (I mean software build) than Samsung or Motorola.

Maybe there is an app that can scan IP’s handed out by your phone? It would have to scan over it’s own network. Wireshark would be nice but I don’t think they have an app for that. I suspect iphones have been this private for a while but now google is doing the same. For Pi users that are going headless I would suggest staying away from Pixel phones. I have an Android version 11 on a 2021 Motorola and I still have all the awesome features.

Also why does the Volumio app not work without internet wifi? Instead of just a private Lan connection?

#2

This is partially googles fault as well, there is no way for android app to know if personal hotspot is active or not on current android versions, which is why most devs just decides to check the wifi state and call it a day if if not connected to any.

#3

Ah shoot I was afraid of that. So a hotspot isn’t “active” unless the cell network is feeding an internet connection to it’s hotspot or the phone is re-transmitting a hotspot from your home internet network? I wonder if that means small apps don’t actually handle initial TCP/IP handshakes and whatnot? (Even a ping to find an expected network?)

So it’s all packaged by Android and all the apps kind of rely on what the OS says?..I could agree they probably made that decision for security reasons. But the garbage I found out today, that they took away router-like options to control your own connections is ridiculous. My phone is like an iphone now. Yuck!

#4

i ripped off volumio scanning ability from my client app, it does find the volumio devices in wifi network or from hotspot of your device and shows the name and IP address.

I hope it helps find the IP of your volumio device.
(I only quickly tested that it’s able to find my devices)

#5

Oh that’s an android app? Sweet! I hope it works too! I’ll put in on soon.

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#6

Yeah its Volumio wifi scanner app for android.

There is a bit more polished version, it allows you to tap on the devices in the list to launch browser with the correct ip address, so you dont have to manually enter the address.

E: this should take out the need to set static IP address for volumio if one prefers to use browser to control it.

VolumioScanner.zip (1.5 MB)

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#7

Thank you soo much!! It works I even bought a small screen it showed up today and it showed the same IP. Now that I have a screen I might start subbing to get the nice Volumio features, and get an alarm clock mode going on another Pi.

And for anyone confused about the app not working when simply connected to a LAN with no internet it’s probably because the Pi does not have a real time clock. So for data to travel apparently the Pi needs the clock update each power on or boot from the internet. I didn’t realize the Pi had no battery powered clock like a PC does. Oops.

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