Pi3 Wifi not working [SOLVED]

[SeanHowson]

Hello!

So I have had a good look around all of the thread on seemingly every Pi forum going to try and first solve this issue before posting, I'm fairly new to Pi's but have a strong background in embedded systems and programming.
I recently purchased a Raspberry Pi 3 model B, I've been trying to get the wifi going on it, to no end.
instead of a normal wifi symbol on my desktop, i have two opposing vertical arrows, ethernet connects fine, and the symbol comes up saying "no wireless interfaces found" when i hover the mouse over it, it's as if the wifi module just isnt physically there, im almost starting to wonder if it's been damaged.

ifconfig only shows etho0 and lo, no wlan0 - which seems to be a fairly common problem, for which i've tried the following solutions:

Updating the pi, apt-get update & upgrade - the usual.

Updating firmware (via rpi-update? not tried any other method).

Reinstalling raspbian - i've tried via noobs, noobs lite and raspbian (without noobs).

Updating drivers, i've tried a method posted by MrEngman that seems widely used and managed to install an up to date version of the 8188eu driver, my version 4.4.34-v7+ #930 (uname -a).

Modifying the /etc/network/interfaces file according to various examples and small wlan0 based modifications although dont fully understand the purpose of the file -(usually a big nono i know, hence restored to default after lack of success and various disgruntled noises).

Disabling the wifi power management and other commands that supposedly "turn on the wifi", inc. "rfkill unblock wlan" & several variations, continually get responses suggesting the pi has no knowledge of the wifi chip inself.

lsusb returns
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

apologies for not listing all full details im trying to keep the post as brief to read as possible. Im currently viewing the Pi through a VNC server and thus have only the ethernet and power cable plugged into it, leading me to believe my 2A power supply would be sufficient?

Any suggestions?

[Konrad9519]

Hi!
I'm having same problem as you, PSU shouldn't cause any trouble as I'm using 2,5A official PSU. I've searched some forums but haven't found any answers, and I'm considering returning it as it might be hardware failure

[SeanHowson]

Good to know it's not just me, have you tried using your bluetooth yet since i believe they are housed in the same module, my bluetooth works fine thus i would have thought any physical damage would impair both. :/

[MaxK1]

Any messages related to mmc1 during boot? ( dmesg | grep mmc1)

[SeanHowson]

Seemingly not im afraid, entered the command, nothing returned at all :/

[SurferTim]

I used this guide, and the wifi on my RPi3 is working fine.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/setup-wi-f ... erry-pi-3/

edit: Then click on the Up/Down arrows on the top bar and enable the wifi.

[BSmallz]

Might be dumb of me to assume otherwise, but have you tried

Code: Select all

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

[dgordon42]

Any messages related to mmc1 during boot? ( dmesg | grep mmc1)

Seemingly not im afraid, entered the command, nothing returned at all :/

There should be. 'mmc1' is the WiFi device, if the kernel can't talk to it it won't work!
Check that the WiFi driver is loading with:

Code: Select all

lsmod | grep brcmfmac

you should see something like:

Code: Select all

brcmfmac              186403  0
brcmutil                5661  1 brcmfmac
cfg80211              428431  1 brcmfmac

If you are not seeing this as well, then either you have a corrupt copy of Raspbian on your SD Card, or bad hardware on your Pi.

Although the WiFi and Bluetooth use the same chip (BCM43438 I think) they use different means of communication to talk to the Pi. WiFi uses the SDIO interface while Bluetooth uses a Serial Port interface. This means that one can work without the other.

The '/etc/network/interfaces' file should be left in it's default state. Tutorials telling you to modify it are out of date, modifying this file is one of the causes of problems using WiFi on Raspbian Jessie.

Code: Select all

rfkill list

should return:

Code: Select all

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

Again, if the Wireless LAN is not showing up, it points to a bad SD Card Image or bad hardware.

Updating firmware (via rpi-update? not tried any other method).

"sudo apt-get update" and "sudo apt-get upgrade" are all you need to stay up to date. "rpi-update" loads a testing kernel which may not work. It's mainly for people who beta test things for the Foundation.

Updating drivers, i've tried a method posted by MrEngman that seems widely used and managed to install an up to date version of the 8188eu driver, my version 4.4.34-v7+ #930 (uname -a).

Mr Engman's 8188eu driver is for a USB WiFi dongle. It is not required for the Pi 3B's built in WiFi. All the drivers you need should come on your SD Card

Verify that your Pi has a good power supply. The red power LED on the Pi should be on constantly, if it flickers or goes out at any time you power supply and/or power lead is not up to the job of powering a Pi 3B.

Reinstalling raspbian - i've tried via noobs, noobs lite and raspbian (without noobs).

If you have reinstalled Raspbian on different SD Cards and are still seeing the same results, I would suggest returning your Pi for a warranty replacement.

Hope this helps,
Dave.

[SeanHowson]

I used this guide, and the wifi on my RPi3 is working fine.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/setup-wi-f ... erry-pi-3/

edit: Then click on the Up/Down arrows on the top bar and enable the wifi.

Thanks for the tip, i'd seen this guide while searching and unfortunately i fall down at the third command, it wont let me scan wlan0

[SeanHowson]

Might be dumb of me to assume otherwise, but have you tried

Code: Select all

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

Yep i have thanks

[SeanHowson]

Any messages related to mmc1 during boot? ( dmesg | grep mmc1)

Seemingly not im afraid, entered the command, nothing returned at all :/

There should be. 'mmc1' is the WiFi device, if the kernel can't talk to it it won't work!
Check that the WiFi driver is loading with:

Code: Select all

lsmod | grep brcmfmac

you should see something like:

Code: Select all

brcmfmac              186403  0
brcmutil                5661  1 brcmfmac
cfg80211              428431  1 brcmfmac

If you are not seeing this as well, then either you have a corrupt copy of Raspbian on your SD Card, or bad hardware on your Pi.

Although the WiFi and Bluetooth use the same chip (BCM43438 I think) they use different means of communication to talk to the Pi. WiFi uses the SDIO interface while Bluetooth uses a Serial Port interface. This means that one can work without the other.

The '/etc/network/interfaces' file should be left in it's default state. Tutorials telling you to modify it are out of date, modifying this file is one of the causes of problems using WiFi on Raspbian Jessie.

Code: Select all

rfkill list

should return:

Code: Select all

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

Again, if the Wireless LAN is not showing up, it points to a bad SD Card Image or bad hardware.

Updating firmware (via rpi-update? not tried any other method).

"sudo apt-get update" and "sudo apt-get upgrade" are all you need to stay up to date. "rpi-update" loads a testing kernel which may not work. It's mainly for people who beta test things for the Foundation.

Updating drivers, i've tried a method posted by MrEngman that seems widely used and managed to install an up to date version of the 8188eu driver, my version 4.4.34-v7+ #930 (uname -a).

Mr Engman's 8188eu driver is for a USB WiFi dongle. It is not required for the Pi 3B's built in WiFi. All the drivers you need should come on your SD Card

Verify that your Pi has a good power supply. The red power LED on the Pi should be on constantly, if it flickers or goes out at any time you power supply and/or power lead is not up to the job of powering a Pi 3B.

Reinstalling raspbian - i've tried via noobs, noobs lite and raspbian (without noobs).

If you have reinstalled Raspbian on different SD Cards and are still seeing the same results, I would suggest returning your Pi for a warranty replacement.

Hope this helps,
Dave.

I'll reply properly to this later Dave, thanks, I had a few suspicions about some of the problems you've mentioned being true so thanks for pointing them out.

Thanks for all the really helpful replies guys, i'm going to have another crack at it later with some of the tips you've given me, useful to know about them working on separate interfaces, i'd be really irritated if i had to send it back, but at the same time i'd feel a little better about it all ha! I'll try see if the driver is loading up later and follow some of the other steps you've suggested,
thanks again everyone

[DougieLawson]

Is this the 2017-01-11 (CM3 ready) version of Raspbian? If not then your first task is sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade to get the 4.4.38-v7+ kernel and latest stable bootcode.

[SeanHowson]

Is this the 2017-01-11 (CM3 ready) version of Raspbian? If not then your first task is sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade to get the 4.4.38-v7+ kernel and latest stable bootcode.

As far as i know it is yes thanks, i havent yet used the sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade command, what is the purpose of the "-y dist upgrade" section?
Thanks, ill double check and give it a go!

[SeanHowson]

Any messages related to mmc1 during boot? ( dmesg | grep mmc1)

Seemingly not im afraid, entered the command, nothing returned at all :/

There should be. 'mmc1' is the WiFi device, if the kernel can't talk to it it won't work!
Check that the WiFi driver is loading with:

Code: Select all

lsmod | grep brcmfmac

you should see something like:

Code: Select all

brcmfmac              186403  0
brcmutil                5661  1 brcmfmac
cfg80211              428431  1 brcmfmac

If you are not seeing this as well, then either you have a corrupt copy of Raspbian on your SD Card, or bad hardware on your Pi.

Although the WiFi and Bluetooth use the same chip (BCM43438 I think) they use different means of communication to talk to the Pi. WiFi uses the SDIO interface while Bluetooth uses a Serial Port interface. This means that one can work without the other.

The '/etc/network/interfaces' file should be left in it's default state. Tutorials telling you to modify it are out of date, modifying this file is one of the causes of problems using WiFi on Raspbian Jessie.

Code: Select all

rfkill list

should return:

Code: Select all

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

Again, if the Wireless LAN is not showing up, it points to a bad SD Card Image or bad hardware.

Updating firmware (via rpi-update? not tried any other method).

"sudo apt-get update" and "sudo apt-get upgrade" are all you need to stay up to date. "rpi-update" loads a testing kernel which may not work. It's mainly for people who beta test things for the Foundation.

Updating drivers, i've tried a method posted by MrEngman that seems widely used and managed to install an up to date version of the 8188eu driver, my version 4.4.34-v7+ #930 (uname -a).

Mr Engman's 8188eu driver is for a USB WiFi dongle. It is not required for the Pi 3B's built in WiFi. All the drivers you need should come on your SD Card

Verify that your Pi has a good power supply. The red power LED on the Pi should be on constantly, if it flickers or goes out at any time you power supply and/or power lead is not up to the job of powering a Pi 3B.

Reinstalling raspbian - i've tried via noobs, noobs lite and raspbian (without noobs).

If you have reinstalled Raspbian on different SD Cards and are still seeing the same results, I would suggest returning your Pi for a warranty replacement.

Hope this helps,
Dave.

I'll reply properly to this later Dave, thanks, I had a few suspicions about some of the problems you've mentioned being true so thanks for pointing them out.

Thanks for all the really helpful replies guys, i'm going to have another crack at it later with some of the tips you've given me, useful to know about them working on separate interfaces, i'd be really irritated if i had to send it back, but at the same time i'd feel a little better about it all ha! I'll try see if the driver is loading up later and follow some of the other steps you've suggested,
thanks again everyone

Hi Dave,
Well, my Pi3 didnt exactly make it far through your suggestions, fell at the first line, i tried checking the driver, and

Code: Select all

lsmod | grep brcmfmac

returned nothing doesnt this typically mean the driver is not present? or not loading properly?
Given i've re-imaged Raspbian several times, would i be right to doubt raspbian as the cause of the issue? and perhaps a hardware problem.

Interestingly, i sent a message to the ebay seller i bought the pi from, informing them of the issue (at least making them aware before my returns period ran out) without intent to return the item straight away and received an immediate refund with no request to return the item, so im free to try and get another one if need be. Useful!
Regards,
Sean

[DougieLawson]

The -y flag means just say "yes" to any prompts. It's for running it headless.

[bkm888]

Okay, I recently suffered through this as well. I had a perfectly working RPi 3 on Jessie and did the apt-get update, upgrade, and dist upgrade, only to find the WiFi no longer worked.

Now this is my "opinion" but it seems that the upgrade path does not make your system equivalent to a 2017-01-11 new image. I also found the 2017-01-11 image to give unstable wifi results on "some" of my RPi 3 boxes.

I did NOT waste too much time trying to figure out the root cause, I just downloaded an older release image, I think either the March, or September of 2016 images and did NOT do the apt-get upgrade. I only did the apt-get update to have access to newer version of the few things I needed to download and install to get something working.

Not interested in why some of my RPi boxes would work and some would not. Just went to a distro version that works in all of them and stopped there. If you have a spare SD card it is certainly worth the try to boot up something and see if the wifi works before you spend a lot of time agonizing over what to do next. It may be the distro and not your hardware.

[dgordon42]

@SeanHowson.
You can check which version of the Linux kernel you are running with:

Code: Select all

uname -a

Anything with a date later than July 2016 has the latest WiFi stuff for a Pi 3B, so you don't need to do the 'apt-get' stuff to get your built in WiFi working on a Pi 3B.
I'm running 4.4.38-v7+, #938, dated 15 Dec 2016.

@bkm888 suggests that the kernel version dated 2017-01-11 caused his Pi 3B's WiFi to stop working. This is very odd as the Foundation Engineers have stated on these forums that there are no changes to any of the files between this and the Dec 2016 issue.

Again, if you have tried a few different loads of Raspbian, and you cannot see "mmc1" and "brcmfmac" as detailed above, and everything else is working normally, then I believe you have bad WiFi hardware.
I recommend you buy a Pi 3B from one of the official distributors here with your E-bay refund.
If you are keeping your old Pi 3B, you can think of it as a "Pi 2B++ with added Bluetooth"

Dave.

[SeanHowson]

The -y flag means just say "yes" to any prompts. It's for running it headless.

Thanks pal! Useful to know !

[SeanHowson]

@SeanHowson.
You can check which version of the Linux kernel you are running with:

Code: Select all

uname -a

Anything with a date later than July 2016 has the latest WiFi stuff for a Pi 3B, so you don't need to do the 'apt-get' stuff to get your built in WiFi working on a Pi 3B.
I'm running 4.4.38-v7+, #938, dated 15 Dec 2016.

@bkm888 suggests that the kernel version dated 2017-01-11 caused his Pi 3B's WiFi to stop working. This is very odd as the Foundation Engineers have stated on these forums that there are no changes to any of the files between this and the Dec 2016 issue.

Again, if you have tried a few different loads of Raspbian, and you cannot see "mmc1" and "brcmfmac" as detailed above, and everything else is working normally, then I believe you have bad WiFi hardware.
I recommend you buy a Pi 3B from one of the official distributors here with your E-bay refund.
If you are keeping your old Pi 3B, you can think of it as a "Pi 2B++ with added Bluetooth"

Dave.

Hi Dave

I mentioned in the original post (although buried somewhere in the post) I was running version 4.4.34-V7+ #930 (although it's since picked up almost the same version as you .38 #934) PiHut have the Pi3 for only a few pound more than the original order, normally i do stick to "proper" sellers, the seller i used i believe was an authorised distributor too, nevermind, can't get it right every time, i'll enjoy my custom Pi2B++BT model and perhaps find a use for it, i've wanted to build a roomba for a while now haha! Im going to try and re-image it once more, try everything totally fresh and use the advice i've gained in this thread i think and then put it down to hardware, i just though it unusual hence why i came here first before just sending it back.
Thanks again pal,

[filippos]

I've migrate from Pi2 to Pi3 and Pi's wifi is not working, but a wifi stick works well

wlan0 is missing, but it is mentioned in /etc/network/interfaces

OK I've found it after all !!!

Get this:

Code: Select all

# wget 'http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-brcm80211_0.43+rpi4_all.deb'

Then install it with

Code: Select all

# dpkg -i firmware-brcm80211_0.43+rpi4_all.deb

[SeanHowson]

Okay, I recently suffered through this as well. I had a perfectly working RPi 3 on Jessie and did the apt-get update, upgrade, and dist upgrade, only to find the WiFi no longer worked.

Now this is my "opinion" but it seems that the upgrade path does not make your system equivalent to a 2017-01-11 new image. I also found the 2017-01-11 image to give unstable wifi results on "some" of my RPi 3 boxes.

I did NOT waste too much time trying to figure out the root cause, I just downloaded an older release image, I think either the March, or September of 2016 images and did NOT do the apt-get upgrade. I only did the apt-get update to have access to newer version of the few things I needed to download and install to get something working.

Not interested in why some of my RPi boxes would work and some would not. Just went to a distro version that works in all of them and stopped there. If you have a spare SD card it is certainly worth the try to boot up something and see if the wifi works before you spend a lot of time agonizing over what to do next. It may be the distro and not your hardware.

Hi pal, thanks for the reply, I had found some information around the previous images, suggesting they were much more reliable, i might try one, although i'm just generally the sort of person who likes to get to the bottom of these things, other people have used the latest image and had working wifi, why cant i? Just irritating, but i've you've seen some of the other posts in the thread i've actually been sent a refund for the Pi with no obligation to return it, so perhaps i'll buy another, and maybe run this one on an older version like you suggest and perhaps get somewhere with it over time, but i've the opportunity to erradicate hardware as the problem by buying another and can like you said, not agonise over that potential problem anymore. Thanks for the message pal!

[HawaiianPi]

Are you guys getting the no wireless interfaces found message logging in as the default user (pi), or are you creating your own users? If it's the latter, then your user is not in the groups it needs to be.

sudo usermod -G adm,dialout,cdrom,sudo,audio,video,plugdev,games,users,input,netdev,spi,i2c,gpio {username}

Will put you in all the same groups as the default pi user (replace {username} with the name of your user).

[SeanHowson]

Are you guys getting the no wireless interfaces found message logging in as the default user (pi), or are you creating your own users? If it's the latter, then your user is not in the groups it needs to be.

sudo usermod -G adm,dialout,cdrom,sudo,audio,video,plugdev,games,users,input,netdev,spi,i2c,gpio {username}

Will put you in all the same groups as the default pi user (replace {username} with the name of your user).

Im just on default user to my knowledge, i've never created my own or even entered my name or any similar details on the Pi,, useful point to keep in mind though, thanks!

[bkm888]

Hmm... same here. I never do anything other than install what I need for data work and leave everything else to the default user "pi".

As for "unreliable" sources, I wouldn't know. I have purchase over a hundred Pi2 and Pi3 kits from AddaFruit and they are a certified distributor. But with so many Pi's here to work with I feel pretty good with my guess about something not quite right in the latest images. I have since reverted over 40 of the pi's back to the March 2016 image and everything is stable.

Sorry. Can't tell you if there really is something wrong with the images, I only have time to react to the issues and the fastest fix for me was going backwards.
BKM888

[SeanHowson]

Hmm... same here. I never do anything other than install what I need for data work and leave everything else to the default user "pi".

As for "unreliable" sources, I wouldn't know. I have purchase over a hundred Pi2 and Pi3 kits from AddaFruit and they are a certified distributor. But with so many Pi's here to work with I feel pretty good with my guess about something not quite right in the latest images. I have since reverted over 40 of the pi's back to the March 2016 image and everything is stable.

Sorry. Can't tell you if there really is something wrong with the images, I only have time to react to the issues and the fastest fix for me was going backwards.
BKM888

Thanks pal, looks like a lot of people are favouring the older images, not had any problems with the built in wifi on the model 3?