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vanlink/ap/van-ap-watchdog
T
Andreas WredeandClaude Opus 4.8 4117802f69 ap: watchdog checks link ground-truth, not just hostapd state
After a USB re-enumeration the rtw89 radio can come back as a fresh DOWN
netdev, dropped from br0, while the still-running hostapd never notices and
never exits — so Restart=always never fires. hostapd_cli keeps answering
state=ENABLED off stale in-memory state, so the watchdog considered the AP
healthy and left it dark (observed 2026-07-05: AP down ~16:41 until manual
hostapd restart).

Add link_healthy(): require the netdev to be operstate=up and still a port of
its bridge, alongside the existing state=ENABLED check. That catches the wedged
case the control socket can't see.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-05 17:56:12 -04:00

150 lines
5.7 KiB
Python

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""van-ap-watchdog — keep the VanLink AP beaconing.
The AP wlan (rtw89, USB) shares a USB hub with the Starlink ethernet (r8152, USB).
When Starlink's link flaps the hub can re-enumerate and take the Wi-Fi radio down
with it. The hostapd.service drop-in (restart.conf) handles the common case — hostapd
exits and systemd restarts it (Restart=always, no start limit) until the interface
returns. This daemon is the backstop for the case systemd *can't* see: hostapd stays
running but the radio has wedged and stopped serving (dmesg "timed out to flush queues").
Every `interval` seconds it checks two things: hostapd's self-reported state via the
control socket (hostapd_cli status -> state=ENABLED), AND the kernel's ground truth for
the netdev (operstate up + still a port of the bridge). Both matter because they fail
independently: hostapd_cli keeps answering state=ENABLED off stale in-memory state after
the USB radio is torn down and re-enumerated underneath a still-running hostapd — the
netdev is recreated DOWN and dropped from the bridge, but hostapd never noticed and never
exited, so Restart=always never fired. The link check catches exactly that. If the AP is
unhealthy for `fail_threshold` checks in a row, it clears any failed state and restarts
hostapd. If the interface is simply gone (mid re-enumeration) it waits — there is
nothing to restart onto, and Restart=always reclaims it when it reappears. Stdlib only.
"""
import re
import subprocess
import sys
import time
from pathlib import Path
HOSTAPD_CONF = "/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"
CTRL_DIR = "/var/run/hostapd"
INTERVAL = 15 # seconds between health checks (backstop cadence, not first response)
FAIL_THRESHOLD = 2 # consecutive bad checks before restarting (debounces re-enum blips)
def log(msg, level="info"):
# systemd journal severity prefixes (sd-daemon), same convention as van-thermal.
pri = {"info": "<6>", "warn": "<4>", "crit": "<2>"}.get(level, "<6>")
print(pri + msg, flush=True)
def _conf_value(key):
"""Read a `key=value` from hostapd.conf so there's one source of truth."""
try:
for line in Path(HOSTAPD_CONF).read_text().splitlines():
m = re.match(rf"\s*{key}=(\S+)", line)
if m:
return m.group(1)
except OSError as e:
log(f"cannot read {HOSTAPD_CONF} ({e})", "crit")
return None
def ap_ifname():
"""The AP interface name."""
return _conf_value("interface")
def ap_bridge():
"""The bridge the AP netdev is enslaved to, or None if hostapd isn't bridging."""
return _conf_value("bridge")
def iface_present(ifname):
return Path(f"/sys/class/net/{ifname}").exists()
def link_healthy(ifname, bridge):
"""True when the netdev is actually carrying traffic: operationally up and, if
hostapd bridges the AP, still a port of that bridge. This is the ground truth
hostapd_cli can't see — after a USB re-enumeration the radio comes back as a fresh
DOWN netdev outside the bridge while a stale hostapd still reports state=ENABLED."""
try:
operstate = Path(f"/sys/class/net/{ifname}/operstate").read_text().strip()
except OSError:
return False
if operstate != "up":
return False
if bridge and not Path(f"/sys/class/net/{bridge}/brif/{ifname}").exists():
return False
return True
def ap_enabled(ifname):
"""True if hostapd reports the AP as beaconing (state=ENABLED). False if it's
running but not enabled; None if the control socket is unreachable (hostapd down)."""
try:
out = subprocess.run(
["hostapd_cli", "-p", CTRL_DIR, "-i", ifname, "status"],
capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=10,
).stdout
except (OSError, subprocess.SubprocessError) as e:
log(f"hostapd_cli failed: {e}", "warn")
return None
for line in out.splitlines():
if line.startswith("state="):
return line.strip() == "state=ENABLED"
return None # no state line -> couldn't talk to hostapd
def recover(ifname):
log(f"AP {ifname} not beaconing — clearing failed state and restarting hostapd", "warn")
# reset-failed first in case some other path parked the unit in a failed state;
# harmless when it isn't.
subprocess.run(["systemctl", "reset-failed", "hostapd"],
capture_output=True, text=True)
r = subprocess.run(["systemctl", "restart", "hostapd"],
capture_output=True, text=True)
if r.returncode != 0:
log(f"hostapd restart returned {r.returncode}: {r.stderr.strip()}", "warn")
def main():
ifname = ap_ifname()
if not ifname:
log("no interface= in hostapd.conf; nothing to watch", "crit")
sys.exit(1)
bridge = ap_bridge()
log(f"van-ap-watchdog up: watching {ifname}"
f"{f' on {bridge}' if bridge else ''} every {INTERVAL}s "
f"(restart after {FAIL_THRESHOLD} bad checks)")
bad = 0
waiting = False # latch so "interface absent" logs once, not every tick
while True:
if not iface_present(ifname):
if not waiting:
log(f"{ifname} absent — USB re-enumeration in progress; "
f"waiting for it to return (hostapd Restart=always will reclaim it)", "warn")
waiting = True
bad = 0
else:
waiting = False
if ap_enabled(ifname) and link_healthy(ifname, bridge):
if bad:
log(f"AP {ifname} beaconing again")
bad = 0
else:
bad += 1
if bad >= FAIL_THRESHOLD:
recover(ifname)
bad = 0
time.sleep(INTERVAL)
if __name__ == "__main__":
try:
main()
except KeyboardInterrupt:
sys.exit(0)