[ale] Raspberry pi standalone hotspot/apache server - how insane?

[Alex Carver]

On 2019-03-22 14:36, Neal Rhodes via Ale wrote:
> So, if one was headed out on an extended cruise, and one wanted to do a
> couple of things:
> 
> 1) have a standalone hotspot to allow an android phone and a Roku stick
> to communicate so the phone could cast some learning videos to the TV. 
> (tai-chi/qigong - long cruise)
> 
> 2) have a that hotspot also provide a rudimentary webserver, so that
> static html pages could be served up to some number of people,
> completely independent of the ship's Wifi.
> 
> It looks like a raspberry pi 3 could readily do that.
> 
> How much work to set that up?  Where might one find the best deal in
> town on one?
> 
> Having never worked with one,  I'm guessing that one can find a base
> linux, and the hdmi port will drive a display, and one can stick a USB
> keyboard and mouse on it, and then it's pretty much a small linux box?

The supported version of linux on the Pi is Raspbian, a Debian
derivative.  You can set up the on-board wifi as an AP without any
special distros,  you just need hostapd running on it to make it work.
Plenty of tutorials out there including the official one at the
Raspbeery Pi foundation:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wireless/access-point.md

The Pi 3 (both B and B+ variants) also have onboard Bluetooth so you can
always use a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (you need a wired keyboard
first to get them paired the first time).  Makes it easier to work with
the Pi without having your face three inches from a big TV.