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portal: the split left two unlabelled switches and a warning that could not fire - #117

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mclueppers merged 1 commit into
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fix/portal-wifi-link-labels
Sep 5, 2026
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portal: the split left two unlabelled switches and a warning that could not fire#117
mclueppers merged 1 commit into
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fix/portal-wifi-link-labels

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Splitting Wi-Fi into an access point and a station changed the keys the API publishes, and the page had two places that still knew the old one.

The label table did not, so the new switches rendered under their raw keys — "wifi_ap" and "wifi_sta" — with no word about what either does or which one is worth turning off. They are named now, and the note says the useful thing: the access point is the one to switch off on a battery, because it must beacon and cannot sleep, and it frees only a couple of kilobytes so it is worth doing for the power rather than the memory.

The second is the one that matters. Saving the links form used to ask "Turn Wi-Fi off?" before cutting the connection this page is usually being read over. That check tested a key called "wifi", which no longer exists — so it had quietly stopped firing, and the portal would take away its own access without a word. It now asks whenever the save would leave both Wi-Fi links down, which includes turning one off while the other is already off: the case that locks somebody out by changing a single switch, and one the old single-key check could not have expressed even before the split.

Also says what the section is. "Local links" is how a phone or laptop reaches this node, not where Reticulum routes — that is the transport form above — and the name invites the other reading.

Verified headless against a stub: the guard warns when both links end up down and when the second is already down, and stays quiet when the station survives or nothing changes.

…ld not fire

Splitting Wi-Fi into an access point and a station changed the keys the API
publishes, and the page had two places that still knew the old one.

The label table did not, so the new switches rendered under their raw keys —
"wifi_ap" and "wifi_sta" — with no word about what either does or which one is
worth turning off. They are named now, and the note says the useful thing: the
access point is the one to switch off on a battery, because it must beacon and
cannot sleep, and it frees only a couple of kilobytes so it is worth doing for
the power rather than the memory.

The second is the one that matters. Saving the links form used to ask "Turn
Wi-Fi off?" before cutting the connection this page is usually being read over.
That check tested a key called "wifi", which no longer exists — so it had
quietly stopped firing, and the portal would take away its own access without a
word. It now asks whenever the save would leave both Wi-Fi links down, which
includes turning one off while the other is already off: the case that locks
somebody out by changing a single switch, and one the old single-key check
could not have expressed even before the split.

Also says what the section is. "Local links" is how a phone or laptop reaches
this node, not where Reticulum routes — that is the transport form above — and
the name invites the other reading.

Verified headless against a stub: the guard warns when both links end up down
and when the second is already down, and stays quiet when the station survives
or nothing changes.
@github-actions github-actions Bot added the fix label Sep 5, 2026
@mclueppers
mclueppers merged commit 70af63c into main Sep 5, 2026
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@mclueppers
mclueppers deleted the fix/portal-wifi-link-labels branch September 5, 2026 14:41
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