I have a 2nd-gen chromecast, it’s factory reset. If i plug it in all it tells me is to install the app to start configuring.

I don’t have a google account not do i want to install/use google-related stuff on my phone.

My home router doesn’t register any new device, which makes sense since the cast doesn’t know the SSID/pass of the WiFi.

Does it try to ping some service/port? Multicast perhaps? Where would it get an IP from without authenticating?

My (wired) PC runs gentoo.

How can i get it to work in these conditions?

Well it’s not a network client, it presents its own WiFi network. Got a laptop with a live distro to connect to it and run this script to configure it. Seemed to work, apparently.

Then tried a bunch of clients:

  • VLC will just eternally remain in scanning mode
  • go-chromecast kept throwing errors even with host/port parameters
  • chrome wouldn’t find the device (with the laptop connected to the hotspot)

My guess is it needs to phone home to finish setup (the script has wifi name/pass parameters though) or i borked something.

Not gonan waste more time on it, i’ll just gift it.