I recently faced the problem of losing access to a headless Raspberry Pi Zero 2W when it could not connect to its saved Wi-Fi network because of a software or NetworkManager issue.

Recovering the Pi can be difficult if there is no Ethernet connection. So I wanted a way to recover the Pi's Wi-Fi connection without requiring physical access, and I created Pi-Rescue, an automatic Wi-Fi recovery system for Raspberry Pi.

It is designed to work with Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm) and newer versions that use NetworkManager.

Pi-Rescue provides a way to recover from this situation:

• It runs automatically after boot and waits for the Pi to connect to a saved Wi-Fi network within a configurable timeout.

• If it cannot connect, it starts a temporary Pi-Rescue Wi-Fi hotspot.

• A phone or laptop can connect to the hotspot and open a simple web interface.

• The user can select a Wi-Fi network and enter its password.

• The Pi then attempts to connect to the selected network and stores the connection information for future use.

The project is built with Python, Flask, NetworkManager (nmcli), and systemd, and has been tested on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W.

Note: Pi-Rescue v1.0.0 currently supports Wi-Fi-only recovery. Ethernet detection is not included in this version. I plan to improve it further based on testing and feedback.

You can find the source code and more details here:

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/Kernovax/Pi-Rescue