nibOS Alpha

Chapter 6

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Turning the radios on, joining networks, pairing headphones and controllers.

On this page

On a fresh card both radios are off. Each stays as you leave it, across restarts. On the DSlot edition, leave Wi-Fi off when you don’t need it: idle, the radio costs about a quarter of what the whole device draws on the shelf.

Wi-Fi🔗

In DSlot, press X for the menu and go to the Wi-Fi page (or tap the Wi-Fi icon in the status bar):

  • Wi-Fi: the switch.
  • The network you are on.
  • Look for networks, then each network in range with its signal, and whether it is saved.
  • A on a network joins it. One that needs a password brings up the keyboard.
  • A twice on the network you are on leaves it. Y twice on a saved network forgets it.

The keyboard: the D-pad and A type (or tap the keys), B deletes, X types a space, Y shows the password as you type it, L is Shift, R symbols, Start is Done and Select cancels.

Other ways to add a network:

  • In provision.toml, before a start (Installing).

  • As a file on NIBOS-DATA, read at every start: nibos/wifi/<network>.psk, holding

    [Security]
Passphrase=the-network-password

    A network whose name has anything but letters, digits, - and _ needs its name written in hex: = followed by the name’s bytes, =4d79204e6574.psk for “My Net”. An open network is <network>.open, empty.

  • In the console: iwctl station wlan0 connect <network>.

After sleep, Wi-Fi reconnects about 2 seconds after the DS+ wakes.

In a game, the menu’s Connections page turns Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on or off; choosing a network is in DSlot.

Bluetooth🔗

In DSlot’s menu (X), the Bluetooth page:

  • Bluetooth: the switch.
  • Your paired devices (headphones, controllers, keyboards), with their battery where they report it. A connects or disconnects one; Y twice forgets it.
  • Pair a new device: put your device in pairing mode first, then choose this. nibOS looks for devices; A on one pairs it, asking for a PIN, or to check a passkey on both, where the device needs one, and connects it.

Headphones. When Bluetooth headphones connect, the sound moves to them; the volume keys then set their volume. The codecs are SBC, aptX, LDAC and Opus; AAC isn’t included (headphones use one of the others). Bluetooth audio is new in the alpha and hasn’t yet been tested with real headphones: tell us how yours do. In a game, the menu’s Connections page connects or disconnects paired headphones with one press.

Controllers and keyboards pair the same way. A Bluetooth keyboard types in the console.

SSH🔗

With a key given in provision.toml and Wi-Fi on, you can log in from a computer on the same network: ssh nibos@nibos.local. See The console and the base edition.