Error no module named 'network'

[jazzjohn27]

A few months ago I wrote code for the Pico W and successfully imported the network module. Revisiting the same code n ow results in an error importing the network module.
What changed?

[jimmo]

Can you provide some more information?

Have you changed anything on your device? Is it running Pico W (not Pico) firmware?

If you hit Ctrl-B at the REPL, what's the version information that is printed out?

[peterhinch]

I hit this the other day. The answer was embarrassingly simple: I'd installed firmware for Pico instead of Pico W.

[jazzjohn27]

I might be confusing 2 issues here. Let me start simply...
Running Win 10. Plugged in a new Pico W with reset button pressed to mount as a drive.
Downloaded micropython-firmware-pico-w-290622.uf2 and copied it to the Pico W.
After that unplugged and plugged back into the USB on the computer.
In Thonny, I am now able to import network.

On a third Pico W (not the one running my code) I went through the above steps and it keeps connecting and disconnecting as a serial port ( once every few seconds.)

However, the problem is with the PIco W that has the main.py code (that has been running stand-alone for a few months.)
After plugging it in and configuring the port and board in Thonny,
I get this in Thonny's shell window:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 189, in
File "uasyncio/core.py", line 1, in run
File "uasyncio/core.py", line 1, in run_until_complete
File "uasyncio/core.py", line 1, in wait_io_event
KeyboardInterrupt:
MicroPython v1.19.1 on 2022-10-14; Raspberry Pi Pico W with RP2040
Type "help()" for more information.
MicroPython v1.19.1 on 2022-10-14; Raspberry Pi Pico W with RP2040

Type "help()" for more information.

Connection lost -- EOF

Use Stop/Restart to reconnect.

Process ended with exit code 1.

Needless to say, without a connection I cannot get at the main.py file on the Pico W.
I have changed nothing on this Pico W since I first wrote the code and put it into service a few months ago. Could something change on the device by just being powered on and running main.py?

[robert-hh]

Do you get the same sequence when NOT using Thonny with all it's magic under the hood, but a dump terminal emulator like Putty or TeraTerm?

[jazzjohn27]

That was my next question. I tried Puttying in to the com port, but that does nothing. Is there a way to directly edit the .py files on a Pico W that does not run network code? Thonny does seem to introduce an extra layer.
When the Pico is mounted as a USB drive, it would be nice to be able to see the files, but apparently they are hidden.

[robert-hh]

With Putty you have to disable flow control. You can as well use mpremote.py with it's subcommands.

mpremote --help

shows as short help page.

mpremote connect COMx

gets you in a REPL terminal.

mpremote connect COMX ls

shows the files.

mpremote connect COMx edit filename

Allows editing a file on the device. Unless you just open a REPL terminal, mpremote attempts to stop a running script.

[jazzjohn27]

mpremote connect COM6 ls does list the main.py file...
but
mpremote connect COM6 edit filename generates error "edit: $EDITOR not set"
How can I get the editor to work?

[jimmo]

"edit: $EDITOR not set"

Sorry this is not currently supported on Windows. See #9609 (I'll try and get that merged ASAP).

In the meantime you can do this manually:

mpremote connect COMx cp :main.py main.py
# edit main.py
mpremote connect COMx cp main.py :main.py