Wifi disconnected when ethernet cable disconnects

[Rosario Di Palma]

Hi. I configured OrangePi zero with the NAS interface and with Openmediavault. I also configured ethernet card and wifi. Everything works. But if I disconnect the network cable, I also disconnect the wifi. Now I would like the wifi to work even without ethernet cable. This is possible?
Many thanks
ps. this the version of software
ARMBIAN 5.31 stable Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie) 3.4.113-sun8i

[chwe]

Yes, should be possible. How do you deactivate the ethernet? Do you login only via ssh or via serial console? I normaly do my settings via serial console. But it should be possible to to configure it with nmtui via ssh (set up wifi) disable ethernet (it's obvious that you will lose ssh connection as soon as you activate these settings).

[martinayotte]

This seams the scenario where both ETH and WLAN are connected on the same subnet, and when disconnecting the ETH, it break the whole routing, because the default gateway is gone.

It is never a good thing to have the same subnet for both ETH and WLAN, because in fact, doing an SSH on WiFi for example, the packets coming from WLAN, but reponses will go back thru ETH, therefore disconnecting ETH will freeze the SSH...

 

[chwe]

Tried it just once on an opi0,  seems that it works if you set up WiFi and then disable ETH before you disconnect the cable. Maybe this was a lucky punch.

Keep in mind, stability of wifi on opi0 is still 'unknown'. Maybe you should activate ETH (activate, not plug in the cable) immediately after first login via SSH over wifi so that you have access in case Wifi crashes.  It's a bit of a 'shitty compromise solution'. I prefer serial console for configuration of my boards.

[Rosario Di Palma]

Thank for all.

I will try with your tips.