Access the onboarding wizard

Connect to the Cockpit-based onboarding wizard on a device that is running the first-boot onboarding service. You can use wired ethernet, a temporary WiFi access point with captive portal, or a local console with a keyboard, mouse, and browser.

Before you begin

  • The device has booted and the flightctl-onboarding service is active.
  • The device has not completed onboarding.

Procedure

Choose one of the following access methods and complete the associated steps:
Note

WiFi and wired access methods use http:// (plain HTTP), while local console access uses https://. Cockpit listens on port 9090 in all cases, but the setup interfaces use IP addresses that do not have browser-trusted TLS certificates. Using HTTP on these interfaces avoids certificate warnings in the browser. Local console access uses https://localhost:9090 because Cockpit generates a self-signed certificate that browsers accept for localhost.

Accessing the wizard over WiFi

When the device has a WiFi interface and the required access-point packages are installed, the onboarding service advertises a temporary WiFi network with a captive portal. This network exists only so you can reach the onboarding wizard. You configure production WiFi connectivity to your site router in a separate wizard step.

  1. On your phone or laptop, open the WiFi settings and connect to the temporary network whose name starts with flightctl- followed by a device-specific suffix. The default WiFi password is onboarding.
  2. When your operating system detects a captive portal, accept the network sign-in prompt. Your browser automatically redirects to the onboarding wizard.
  3. If your browser does not open automatically, open a browser manually and navigate to http://10.42.0.1:9090 while you are still connected to the temporary network.
  4. If you still cannot reach the wizard over WiFi, use a wired or local-console access method instead. See Troubleshoot device onboarding in the Additional resources section.
  5. Log in to Cockpit with the username onboarding.
Note

If hostapd or dnsmasq is not installed on the device, the WiFi access point is unavailable. Use a wired or local-console access method instead.

Accessing the wizard over wired ethernet

When the device exposes a setup IP address on an ethernet interface, connect a laptop directly or through a provisioning switch.

  1. Connect your laptop to the same ethernet segment as the device setup interface.
  2. Open a browser and navigate to http://192.168.100.1:9090. If the image uses a custom static IP for the setup interface, use that address instead.
  3. Log in to Cockpit with the username onboarding.

Accessing the wizard from the local console

When the device has a display, keyboard, mouse, and browser, or when you have out-of-band console access:

  1. On the device, open a browser and navigate to https://localhost:9090.
  2. Log in to Cockpit with the username onboarding.