Raspbian 2015-05-05 missing WiFi config?

[Bosse_B]

I plugged in my new Edimax EW-7811 WiFi dongle in order to test how it would connect to my home network.
Went looking for the WiFi setup program which is described on this manual page:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... /wireless/
But on my Raspbian from the Wheezy image dated 2015-05-05 there is no such icon to be seen.
Has it been removed and the documentation is not updated or what?
On the menu bar I only see the network symbol with two computer terminals behind each other. No WiFi symbol at all.
Do I need to install/enable something to get this working?

[MrEngman]

I plugged in my new Edimax EW-7811 WiFi dongle in order to test how it would connect to my home network.
Went looking for the WiFi setup program which is described on this manual page:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... /wireless/
But on my Raspbian from the Wheezy image dated 2015-05-05 there is no such icon to be seen.
Has it been removed and the documentation is not updated or what?
On the menu bar I only see the network symbol with two computer terminals behind each other. No WiFi symbol at all.
Do I need to install/enable something to get this working?

The icon with two computer terminals would indicate your wifi module is not connected or not detected. It would change to the wifi icon if your wifi module is working.

There are several different wifi modules using EW-7811 in the name. Exactly what is yours, EW-7811Un, EW-7811UTC, EW-7811UAC and a few more and they use different drivers. Depending on the one you are using you may need to install the driver.

What is the output from commands lsusb and lsmod.


MrEngman

[Bosse_B]

My Edimax module version is EW-7811Un
This is what the commands say:

Code: Select all

pi@rpi2b-wheezy ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 7392:7811 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd EW-7811Un 802.11n Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8188CUS]
pi@rpi2b-wheezy ~ $ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
8192cu                528365  0
cfg80211              386508  0
rfkill                 16651  1 cfg80211
snd_bcm2835            18649  4
snd_pcm                73475  1 snd_bcm2835
snd_seq                53078  0
snd_seq_device          5628  1 snd_seq
snd_timer              17784  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd                    51038  13 snd_bcm2835,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_seq_device
uio_pdrv_genirq         2958  0
uio                     8119  1 uio_pdrv_genirq
pi@rpi2b-wheezy ~ $

Here is how the network icon looks like when I hover over it:

Network icon

RaspbianNetwork.png (14.96 KiB) Viewed 6164 times

And here is the rightclick menu of the network icon:

Network menu

RaspbianNetworkMenu.png (41.5 KiB) Viewed 6164 times

Finally this is the dialog shown when I select the network preferences item:

Network preferences

RaspbianNetworkPrefs.png (41.34 KiB) Viewed 6164 times

It seems like Raspbian recognizes the WiFi module but does not allow me to configure it..
Does it need to be present when the system boots in order to work?
I am accessing the desktop using TightVNC and my Pi has a wired network connection for this.
It is necessary for my purpose with the Pi that it be connected BOTH to wired Ethernet and WiFi because it is meant to bridge between a data collection instrument accessible via WiFi and the Internet on a wired connection. I don't mean bridge in the network sense, I will use a program to talk to the data collection system via the WiFi network and send data out via the wired network.
This does not look anything like what is shown in the documentation...

[Bosse_B]

Tried to add an image from the documentation page above but failed. Trying in a separate post:

Pi WiFi documentation

WiFiDocumentation.png (35.46 KiB) Viewed 6161 times

This screen does not show at all in my installation...
So I cannot configure the WiFi connection at all.

Do you have to log on as root to be able to see any configuration related dialogs in the GUI?
Or is Raspbian set such that a multi-homed setup is impossible? I do have wired Ethernet hooked to the Pi, does this mean I am forbidden to use WiFi?

It seems like the Preferences submenu only contains "eye candy" stuff and no real configuration dialogs.
For example there is no way I can adjust the keyboard type to get rid of the US layout when I am using the keyboard directly attached to the Pi. Then it insists on using the US layout...

[MrEngman]

What do you get if you open a terminal and type the command

Code: Select all

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

I would expct it to show a list of wifi networks your Pi can find.

What do you see if you left click the network icon? I see a list of wifi networks


MrEngman

[Bosse_B]

The command sudo iwlist wlan0 scan generates this:

Code: Select all

pi@rpi2b-wheezy ~ $     sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: B8:A3:86:5E:44:C5
                    ESSID:"bossehemma"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:54 Mb/s
                    IE: Unknown: DD7C0050F204104A00011010440001021057000101103B0001031047001000000000000010000000B8A3865E44C51021000644                                                       2D4C696E6B1023000D442D4C696E6B20526F75746572102400074449522D363535104200046E6F6E651054000800060050F2040001101100074449522D3635351008000                                                       20080103C000103
                    Quality=100/100  Signal level=100/100
          Cell 02 - Address: 54:A0:50:79:02:B8
                    ESSID:"Karlbom"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:300 Mb/s
                    Extra:rsn_ie=30140100000fac040100000fac040100000fac020000
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD8F0050F204104A0001101044000102103B00010310470010BC329E001DD811B2860154A0507902B810210015415355535465                                                       4B20436F6D707574657220496E632E1023000A57505320526F757465721024000752542D4E3536551042000830303030303030301054000800060050F20400011011000                                                       F415355532057505320526F7574657210080002008C103C000101
                    Quality=96/100  Signal level=46/100
          Cell 03 - Address: 00:16:A6:10:30:90
                    ESSID:"bossehemma"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:54 Mb/s
                    Quality=20/100  Signal level=43/100

There are two networks "bossehemma" they are my main router and a repeater operating on channels 1 and 11 respectively.
"Karlbom" is a neighbor's WiFi

Left clicking the network icon does absolutely nothing at all...

NOTES (if it matters):
- All GUI stuff is done using a TightVNC window on my Win7 PC.
- All command line work is done in an SSH session using PuTTY.
- The Pi is set to boot into the command line rather than the GUI.

An Idea:
Is the GUI presented by VNC different from the GUI presented on an attached monitor if the Pi is allowed to boot into the GUI? Right now I cannot change it because I don't know how to handle the VNC server in that case. VNC currently serves out display :0 and if I enable boot to GUI in raspi-config I am sure that there will be conflicts because the hardware GUI is probably going to use display :0 too.
But maybe there are content differences in the way the GUI is displayed when using the monitor versus using TightVNC remotely?
Anyone knows?

[MrEngman]

I connect to my Pi using SSH or vncserver/Tightvnc viewer on my Win 7 laptop. My Pi is using raspbian 4.1.10+ #820 so it seems the X gui is slightly different to the one you have.

Looking at the X window, with no wifi configured and files /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/wpa-supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf set to the defaults, and with the mouse pointer on the icon
I see

wifi-setup1a.png (29.26 KiB) Viewed 5992 times

My /etc/network/interfaces file is

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# Please note that this file is written to be used with dhcpcd.
# For static IP, consult /etc/dhcpcd.conf and 'man dhcpcd.conf'.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

auto wlan1
allow-hotplug wlan1
iface wlan1 inet manual
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

and file /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf is

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ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

which are the defaults. And left clicking the icon I see a list of wifi networks

wifi-setup2a.png (37.36 KiB) Viewed 5992 times

If I add the lines

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network={
       ssid="network-name"
       psk="network-password"
}

to the file /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf and reboot, or unplug and plug in the wifi adapter, then I get a wifi connection and the network icon changes to the wifi icon.

wifi-setup3a.png (36.99 KiB) Viewed 5992 times

One thing to note is that if you change file /etc/network/interfaces then the X gui wifi config may not work.


MrEngman

[Bosse_B]

Thanks, then it is actually supposed to work...
Here is my interfaces file:

Code: Select all

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

auto wlan1
allow-hotplug wlan1
iface wlan1 inet manual
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

And my wpa_supplicant.conf file:

Code: Select all

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

I tried adding the network data as you described but unplugging the adapter did nothing...
And rebooting the system did also nothing about this.

[Bosse_B]

Can more than one network be entered here? if so what would the syntax be? Like this:

Code: Select all

    network={
           ssid="network1-name"
           psk="network1-password"
    }
    network={
           ssid="network2-name"
           psk="network2-password"
    }

Or some other way?
I have two different networks which I move between and in the other place the WiFi is using a different SSID.
The network at home is WEP because of a couple of boxes that need to be connected but do not understand WPA. Could this be the problem (that the Edimax adapter is unable to connect WEP)?

[Bosse_B]

As an experiment I switched on my mobile network router, which creates another WiFi hotspot with Internet access.
This is for sure a WPA router and I could see it in the list of WiFi networks as follows using
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan:

Code: Select all

          Cell 03 - Address: 00:16:A6:1B:B4:44
                    ESSID:"bosse4g"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.457 GHz (Channel 10)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:300 Mb/s
                    Extra:wpa_ie=dd160050f20101000050f20401000050f20401000050f202
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    Extra:rsn_ie=30140100000fac040100000fac040100000fac020000
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    Quality=96/100  Signal level=96/100

But still no go...

EDIT:
I googled and found a page describing the conf file entries a bit.
From reading this I have tried to make it work like this:

Code: Select all

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

#Mobile broadband router using WPA
network={
       ssid="bosse4G"
       scan_ssid=1
       key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
       psk="password"
}
#Home network using WEP
network={
       ssid="bossehome"
       scan_ssid=1
       key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
       psk="some hex value"
}

But the WiFi is still not associated...

[MrEngman]

I've just tried setting up one of my access points to WEP and I cannot get a connection using the new network configuration in raspbian so it looks like it is WEP that is causing your problem.

I have used WEP before with older versions of raspbian without problems, but with the latest raspbian it looks to be a real problem. Changing back to WPA2 and I get a connection immediately.

I'm going to have a hunt around the internet to see if I can find a way to get WEP working.

MrEngman

[MrEngman]

There is a very comprehensive description of wpa_supplicant.conf that I use herehttps://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/plain/wpa_sup ... icant.conf

If you get WEP working I would be interested to see how. I will let you know if I find a solution.


MrEngman

[Bosse_B]

Thanks for your interest and support, much appreciated!
I am going away for a couple of days, might bring the Pi along, but not sure now.
But I need to resolve it because the target application requires the Pi to be dual-homed with both wired Ethernet and WiFi (to different networks).

[MrEngman]

Thanks for your interest and support, much appreciated!
I am going away for a couple of days, might bring the Pi along, but not sure now.
But I need to resolve it because the target application requires the Pi to be dual-homed with both wired Ethernet and WiFi (to different networks).

Hi Bosse_B,

I've finally managed to get WEP working. I tried it on both raspbian Wheezy (4.0.9-v7+ #807) and Jessie (4.1.10+ #820) and the same configuration works on both.

The /etc/network/interfaces file is not edited and uses the default set up. You just need to edit file /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf like

Code: Select all

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
        ssid="network-name"
        key_mgmt=NONE
        auth_alg=OPEN
        wep_key0=hex-digit-wep-key
}

and is the same for both Wheezy and Jessie. Setting up the wifi in Wheezy I used wpa_gui. When trying to use the network icon in Jessie it complained about the password, saying it may be being too short, so I had to edit the file manually and I just copied the set up from Wheezy and it worked OK with Jessie.

For raspbian Wheezy file /etc/network/interfaces is

Code: Select all

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

For raspbian Jessie file /etc/network/interfaces is

Code: Select all

# Please note that this file is written to be used with dhcpcd.
# For static IP, consult /etc/dhcpcd.conf and 'man dhcpcd.conf'.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

auto wlan1
allow-hotplug wlan1
iface wlan1 inet manual
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Hope this helps


MrEngman

[Bosse_B]

Thanks, but right now I am in my vacation home and I brought the mobile network router along with the RPi2.
The Pi is connected via wired Ethernet so I can access the GUI via the TightVNC server.
So here there is only a single WiFi network, but it will still not connect.
I have started wpa_gui from a terminal window in the GUI and this is what I see:

WiFi dialogs

RPi2-WiFi_Dialogs.jpg (48.03 KiB) Viewed 5626 times

As you can see the WiFi network is full well visible, it is just that it is not connected to.
I even re-added the passphrase as the PSK value and trie, no go!
No matter how much I click the Connect button nothing at all happens.

When I use the Scan button this is what is shown:

WiFi scan result

ROi2_WiFi_ScanResults.png (27.74 KiB) Viewed 5626 times

The WiFi network is listed. The Pi sits about 1m from the router...
Will Wheezy not connect when the wired network is already connected to the same network? Is that the problem here?
I need VNC and thus the Ethernet connection in order to view the screen....

[Bosse_B]

Will Wheezy not connect when the wired network is already connected to the same network?

Well, I shut down the Pi and disconnected the Ethernet cable. Then I reconnected the power to the Pi and finally looked in my router's dhcp table. No joy, it is not there. Only the cached entry for Ethernet is visible. No WiFi...

[cornpone]

MrEngman, you have solved my problem with WiFi and Jesse!! I have been beating my head against the wall for several weeks before I realized that my router was using WEP and dhcpcd wasn't configured for that. Your post with the suggested /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf edit worked like a charm.

Your post should be #1 under the troubleshooting WiFi topic!

Thank you!

[Bosse_B]

UPDATE:
I have now scrapped my Raspbian Wheezy installation and re-done the whole thing using a bigger SDcard and the Raspbian Jessie image.
Now the WiFi items are listed when I right click the network icon and I get to enter the passphrase.
It did not connect, but I bet this is because of the WEP network. I will test tomorrow with my mobile network router, which uses WPA instead.
So far so good, Debian Jessie seems to be better at this in any case!

[Bosse_B]

VERIFIED on Raspbian Jessie:
I now can connect to a WPA WiFi network!

Still a problem:
But WEP to the main network is still a no-go.
I have edited the wpa_supplicant.conf several times now and it seems to make no difference.
In fact the Pi did not connect to the WPA network either until I clicked it in the network icon on top right of the screen and entered the key value. I had expected it to auto-connect since the key was already in the wpa_supplicant.conf file.

Right now my conf file looks like this:

Code: Select all

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
        ssid="bossehemma"
        key_mgmt=NONE
        auth_alg=SHARED
        wep_key0="ff23------a"
}

network={
        ssid="bosse4g"
        psk="FF23-----A"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

I have tried with auth_alg=OPEN too but it makes no difference...

Question:
Does one have to restart some service after editing the conf file for it to take effect?
Or reboot? (Ouch!)

[MrEngman]

It is necessary to restart network services if you change the network configuration.

I always reboot, but I believe you can restart without rebooting using

Code: Select all

/etc/init.d/networking restart

although I have never used it so can't be sure.


MrEngman

[Bosse_B]

The command to restart networking seems to have done what it should. The WiFi, which was disconnected before I issued that command connected again to the WPA network.

I have still not been able to reach the WEP network even though I have tried both variations for the auth_alg setting (OPEN and SHARED).
Well, as long as it connects to a WPA network I will be OK in the final project.
It's just when I debug at home I have a problem and I cannot change the WiFi protocol because I will lose the connection to two of my set-top boxes.

[cornpone]

EDITED: Sorry for the mis-typing!
Found some new information that might help.

In the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file the line for wep_key0 should NOT have quotes if it is a hex key! The dhcpcd gui was asking for a key, but it apparently puts it into the wpa_supplicant.conf file with quotes. I changed the line to read:

wep_key0=123456abcd instead of wep_key0="123456abcd"

and I also changed / added this line:

auth_alg=SHARED

and now the RasPi hooks up to my WEP-enabled router!

[Bosse_B]

Are you sure about the name of the conf file?
I have neither a wep_supplicant dir nor an /etc/wep_supplicant/wepsupplicant.conf file...

Did you create it all by yourself?
I have the same info but inside the wpa_supplicant.conf file:

Code: Select all

network={
        ssid="bossehemma"
        key_mgmt=NONE
        auth_alg=SHARED
        wep_key0=ff2---3a
}

I also had another WPA network entry in there and whenever I restarted networking it connected that WiFi.
So I used the network icon to select the other Wifi (WEP) and then a dialog for entering the key popped up and it failed to connect.
Guess what?
When I opened the conf file my wep key was again surrounded by the " quotes!
What I did was this:
1) In the conf file I mangled the WPA key by adding xxx in the end
2) After saving it I restarted networking

And now it does connect to my WEP WiFi!

Isn't there a way in the networking dialog to disconnect from a WiFi network?
I have found that once connected it won't disconnect except by activating another network and entering a false key...
There should really be a way to actively disconnect the WiFi network!

[MrEngman]

You can disconnect a network, in this case wlan0, with the command

Code: Select all

sudo ifdown wlan0

.

And then bring it back up with

Code: Select all

sudo ifup wlan0

MrEngman

[Bosse_B]

That is not what I wanted...
It is not the WiFi itself that should be disabled but a specific network.
Say you are in a place with 4 different WiFi networks.
You want to connect to a specific one so you select it and enter the passphrase.
Now you find that this is not the one you intended so you want to disconnect from it and start over with the next candidate.
There is no way in the GUI to disconnect or "forget" that connection like there is on my Android phone.
So the only option is to select the candidate network and enter its passphrase in the dialog.
This presumably will result in the system switching WiFi networks, but now the passphrase for the first one is still there so when we switch on/off the Wifi like you described then the first network will most likely be connected rather than the last one.

I had to set an erroneous passphrase into the entry for the WPA network in order to make the WiFi connect to the WEP network, otherwise it would all the time connect to the WPA and I could not connect to WEP because the dialog adds quotes to the wep key in the conf file and that makes the key invalid....

So when I have two or more networks in range, which have all been configured with valid keys, how can I select the one to connect to without rewriting the connection key? And thus destroying the WEP network connectivity?