Customizing

Caveat: When running via cron, you need to import your display environment, or the notification will never show.

Config options are generated after first run and kept in ~/.config/wifi-channel-watcher/config.conf

Config variables:

• DISPLAY_CHANNEL_BSSID = Turn the BSSID, bars and manufacturer info on or off
  • 1 = maximum detail
  • 0 = only active channel count (besides yourself) is displayed
• MAC_LIST = (optional) Specify a local cache of the standards-oui.ieee.org list, if you don't want your machines pulling it from the web
  • Example value: http://company.example.com/mac.txt
  • "" = Pulled from the web and cached for later use
• AP_LIST = (optional) Reference a list of internal access points by their BSSID; assign custom, friendly names
  • Two columns, tab separated; with colons : stripped
  • See arrays.txt for example usage
  • Example value: http://company.example.com/arrays.txt
• INTERNAL_CHECK = (optional) An internal resource on your private network, not accessible to the internet that's used to determine whether or not to use internal lists, or pull a list off the web for caching
  • Example value: print.example.com
• Custom icon: default image is from OieIcons, you can add your own by replacing icon.svg:
  • Main folder (see icon.svg)
  • After first run, the icon is copied to: ~/.config/wifi-channel-watcher/icon.svg -- this is the one you'd want to replace for an immediate change; otherwise, the icon in the root directory only copies over once the ~/.config/wifi-channel-watcher/ folder isn't detected
  • Overall text, image and appearance of the notification will vary depending on what desktop theme you're using
• DEBUG = Will be noisy when set to 1, after testing, set back to 0
• DEBUG_PATH = Path for the debug output to write to
  • Example value: /home/angela/Desktop/debug.txt
• CACHE_DIR = Don't modify, unless you moved where the cache directory is stored. Incorrectly setting this value will cause stuff to break
• SUGGEST_CHANNEL = If you want a better channel to be suggested, set this to 1
• THRESHOLD = How many are on your channel (excluding you), in order for you to get a notification -- if you find you're getting a lot of notifications, you're in a congested area and may want to set this higher

Channels note: Not every channel works for every device. See Channel Suggestions wiki for more info.

• CHANNELS_5G = What 5GHz channels you want to consider
• IGNORE_5G = While using 5GHz; the channels you want to ignore (this should include all 2GHz channels, as well as any 5GHz that may have incompatibilities in your environment)
• CHANNELS_2G = What 2GHz channels you want to consider
• IGNORE_2G = While using 2GHz; the channels you want to ignore (this should include all 5GHz channels, as well as any 2GHz you might also want to ignore, like channels 12 and 13 for US users)

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For systemd installations

Adjusting the frequency of the scans

1. Edit the following timer

pico ~/.config/systemd/user/wifiwatcher.timer

2. Find the line:

OnUnitActiveSec=10m

Change 10m to your desired threshold. Default: 10 minutes

3. Reload the timer to take effect

systemctl --user daemon-reload

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Info

If at any time you want to monitor the status of the systemd service or timer:

• How much time until the next trigger

   wifiwatcher.timer - Run wifi watcher every 10 min
   Loaded: loaded (/home/angela/.config/systemd/user/wifiwatcher.timer; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (waiting) since Thu 2021-02-18 21:31:07 CST; 30min ago
  Trigger: Thu 2021-02-18 22:03:01 CST; 54s left

^ 54s until the next scan

systemctl --user status wifiwatcher.timer

• Check the service status

   wifiwatcher.service - Wifi channel watcher
   Loaded: loaded (/home/angela/.config/systemd/user/wifiwatcher.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Thu 2021-02-18 22:03:21 CST; 2min 0s ago
  Process: 343 ExecStart=/storage/wifi-channel-watcher/channel-watch (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 343 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

systemctl --user status wifiwatcher

• Restart the timer

systemctl --user restart wifiwatcher.timer

• Restart the service

systemctl --user restart wifiwatcher

• Stop the timer

systemctl --user stop wifiwatcher.timer

• Stop the service

systemctl --user stop wifiwatcher