Tried all solutions: No Wifi Connection

[ManicalEngineer]

I recently started to set up my raspberry pi 2, I can't get the wifi to work no matter what I do.
I've followed the directions on setting it up from both the GUI and from the command line.
The wifi adapter appears to be working fine, shows up when I run lsusb, detects networks but when ever I attempt to connect to my network it just doesn't work regardless of which technique I use.

I have used this dongle on a previous raspberry pi project with a B+ and it worked fine. If I can't get wifi to work on this one then my project is dead in the water.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[FTrevorGowen]

Which particular dongle? Can you post the output of lsusb and usb-devices? What else (if anything) have you plugged in to the USB ports and have you enabled the higher USB current setting (ie. max_usb_current=1 in config.txt) Did you (need to) do that with the B+? What version of (which) O.S. are you using? (Eg. the output of uname -a perhaps)
Trev.

[ManicalEngineer]

Which particular dongle? Can you post the output of lsusb and usb-devices? What else (if anything) have you plugged in to the USB ports and have you enabled the higher USB current setting (ie. max_usb_current=1 in config.txt) Did you (need to) do that with the B+? What version of (which) O.S. are you using? (Eg. the output of uname -a perhaps)
Trev.

Thanks for your reply
The dongle I'm using is a realtek dongle
I have a wireless mouse & a usb keyboard plugged in via USB as well as the Wifi dongle
I have not enabled the higher USB current setting
I am using the most current version of the raspbian OS available from raspberry pi

If its still needed I will post the output of lsusb & uname later this evening (currently at work)

[ManicalEngineer]

Okay so I can't post the complete output of those commands because the pictures are too big for the forum and I can't get the pi connected to the Internet. But I checked my answers from earlier and they are correct is there additional information you were looking for?

[FTrevorGowen]

Okay so I can't post the complete output of those commands because the pictures are too big for the forum and I can't get the pi connected to the Internet. But I checked my answers from earlier and they are correct is there additional information you were looking for?

For the benefit of those that know more about specific WiFi dongles (than me) the extra info. w.r.t. model type, chipset, driver (trying to be used) and current (MxPwr) requirements may provide a clue or two. For example, I'm aware from other threads that at least one dongle of the "same" model type has changed chipsets/driver at least once.
Trev.

[GTR2Fan]

Okay so I can't post the complete output of those commands because the pictures are too big for the forum...

You could upload the pictures elsewhere and post a link to them here. I usually copy photos to Google Drive then provide a public link from there.

[ManicalEngineer]

Okay so I re-flashed my SD card with Ubuntu to see if that made a difference, it did, after some research I found other posts which indicate that when they changed OS's from Wheezy to Jessie that they had connection issues, which leads me to believe its a flaw in the raspbian-jessie OS.

Here is the output of lsusb:

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Bus 001 Device 006: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n WLAN Adapter
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:c31c Logitech, Inc. Keyboard K120
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. SMC9514 Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

and the output of usb-devices

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T:  Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=480 MxCh= 1
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0002 Rev=04.01
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 4.1.15-v7+ dwc_otg_hcd
S:  Product=DWC OTG Controller
S:  SerialNumber=3f980000.usb
C:  #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=0mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub

T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  2 Spd=480 MxCh= 5
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=02 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0424 ProdID=9514 Rev=02.00
C:  #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=2mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 1 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=02 Driver=hub

T:  Bus=01 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  3 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0424 ProdID=ec00 Rev=02.00
C:  #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=2mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=00 Prot=ff Driver=smsc95xx

T:  Bus=01 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=01 Cnt=02 Dev#=  4 Spd=1.5 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=046d ProdID=c31c Rev=64.00
S:  Manufacturer=Logitech
S:  Product=USB Keyboard
C:  #Ifs= 2 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=90mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID  ) Sub=01 Prot=01 Driver=usbhid
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=usbhid

T:  Bus=01 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=02 Cnt=03 Dev#=  5 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0bda ProdID=8176 Rev=02.00
S:  Manufacturer=Realtek
S:  Product=802.11n WLAN Adapter
S:  SerialNumber=00e04c000001
C:  #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=500mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 4 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=rtl8192cu

T:  Bus=01 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=04 Cnt=04 Dev#=  6 Spd=12  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=046d ProdID=c52b Rev=12.01
S:  Manufacturer=Logitech
S:  Product=USB Receiver
C:  #Ifs= 3 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=98mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID  ) Sub=01 Prot=01 Driver=usbhid
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID  ) Sub=01 Prot=02 Driver=usbhid
I:  If#= 2 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=usbhid

Thanks for your assistance. even though I have the RPI running with Ubuntu Mate I'd really prefer to use Raspbian because I'd like to make use of the tools that come packaged with it.

[NormanDunbar]

Evening,

I found other posts which indicate that when they changed OS's from Wheezy to Jessie that they had connection issues, which leads me to believe its a flaw in the raspbian-jessie OS.

Possibly not. Jessie changed the way networking worked and was configured over how it was done with Wheezy. I had a similar problem when I upgraded. I believe, but don't quote me, that it's down to one particular package, the name if which escapes me right now. (I'm in bed!)

Anyway, I got it working on two pi 2s and a Pi Zero, and I documented it on my blog for my own uture reference. You might find it helpful, perhaps.

http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/blog/201 ... ifi-setup/

HTH.

Oh, that package was called raspberrypi-net-mods”.


Cheers,
Norm.

[ManicalEngineer]

Norm,

Thanks for the recommendation, I followed the process in your blog but still wasn't able to get my wifi operational. Its frustrating that they'd change something that worked fine...

Thanks,

Sean

[stderr]

The wifi adapter appears to be working fine, shows up when I run lsusb, detects networks but when ever I attempt to connect to my network it just doesn't work regardless of w

Does it connect to open networks? If it doesn't, this is likely a different problem to someone who can connect to open networks but not ones that are secure in various ways.

You'll need to divide solving this into a process that you take step by step, unless it just suddenly fixes itself, which always makes me sad because I'm really keen on finding and following through on a process. Doing that tends to be more repeatable.

[ManicalEngineer]

The wifi adapter appears to be working fine, shows up when I run lsusb, detects networks but when ever I attempt to connect to my network it just doesn't work regardless of w

Does it connect to open networks? If it doesn't, this is likely a different problem to someone who can connect to open networks but not ones that are secure in various ways.

You'll need to divide solving this into a process that you take step by step, unless it just suddenly fixes itself, which always makes me sad because I'm really keen on finding and following through on a process. Doing that tends to be more repeatable.

I don't currently have access to an open network at the moment. Tomorrow after work I can open it up.

So for sake of argument lets say that works, I can't leave the network open what is the next step in this journey?

[NormanDunbar]

Evening,

Hmm, strange that it doesn't work for you. Did you put /etc/network/interfaces back to a default set of settings? I assume so.

Do you see anything in /var/log/messages or when using dmesg|tail -50 when you plug in the dongle and when you try to connect?

Do you have a non pi computer to test the dongle in?

Do you have wpa supplicant installed? Configured? An open wireless access point is not a good thing these days.

Cheers,
Norm.

[ManicalEngineer]

Evening,

Hmm, strange that it doesn't work for you. Did you put /etc/network/interfaces back to a default set of settings? I assume so.

Do you see anything in /var/log/messages or when using dmesg|tail -50 when you plug in the dongle and when you try to connect?

Do you have a non pi computer to test the dongle in?

Do you have wpa supplicant installed? Configured? An open wireless access point is not a good thing these days.

Cheers,
Norm.

Norm,

I started with a fresh install of Raspbian-Jessie.
I didn't look in the log, but I do know that the dongle works, I flashed Ubuntu Mate to another SD card and things work fine with that.
WPA Supplicant is in the appropriate folder, like I said I started with a fresh install, so everything is "default"

I did notice while looking at my router settings that the security is WEP, I know a little about Pi's and computers, but I'm not sure how that effects this issue.

Thanks,

Sean

[dgordon42]

I think WEP security is the problem. WEP security is easy to crack, and was replaced by WPA security many years ago.
See this post on how to configure the wpa_supplicant.conf file to work with WEP security.

Hope this helps,
Dave.

[FTrevorGowen]

I think WEP security is the problem. WEP security is easy to crack, and was replaced by WPA security many years ago.
See this post on how to configure the wpa_supplicant.conf file to work with WEP security.
Hope this helps,
Dave.

You may be right, that's consistent with my dongles working O.K. with a WPA based router. I've never tried them with my oldest, WEP-based router, which is "piggy-backed" onto the main one to give improved "coverage upstairs".
Trev.

[stderr]

I don't currently have access to an open network at the moment. Tomorrow after work I can open it up.

Often you can find an open network that will at least let you connect. It used to be that home users left them open but then everything but some coffee seller offering Free Wifi for their customers was locked down with something. If it's locked with anything including WEP, you shouldn't attempt connecting because someone might call that "hacking".

Now if you are in an area where some internet provider has hijacked their own customers' wifi modems to put hotspots all over the place, you can test by just connecting there. If you don't have an account, you can't go further, but this will prove you can connect.

Put a program like wifi analizer on your smartphone so you can see what is going on with the wifi signal near your system. Connect with the smart phone right there or a bit further away to make sure that is good to go.

So for sake of argument lets say that works, I can't leave the network open what is the next step in this journey?

Of course you shouldn't leave your system open, those hackers will probably hack you. Or someone trying to figure out why their pi won't connect might connect for a few seconds.

If you know the problem is security, then you can focus on the wpa_supplicant and your router to see what is going on. If you do that before you know you can even connect, you'll never get anywhere because you'll be working on the wrong thing.

There is a command line program called wpa_cli that will allow you to interactively work with your wifi system to try to figure out what is going on. The default for the configuration of wpa_supplicant is in the /etc/wpa_supplicant directory. That file is usually called wpa_supplicant.conf

You could directly access your wifi dongle and make changes but if wpa_supplicant is running, it likly will mess around with things. These programs include iwlist and iwconfig

You want to avoid using WEP because it has been broken and is even shown being cracked on TV shows and in movies. I was looking at the website for aircrack-ng yesterday and they had some examples. I think you also want to use the most powerful security mechanism that all your devices can use. You don't want extra ways to break into your router. You should also turn off all the autoconfiguration options that the router has because I'm pretty sure those too have all been broken.

A long password that mixes together numbers, letters that are caps and small and other symbols that are allowed is important. Don't just put *one* number and *one* cap letter, this hilariously reduces the strength of your password if the attacker knows you are doing it since there are fewer symbols and numbers than letters. It's not the case here, but there are systems that *require* at least one of those various character types. Of course most people use just one of each....

[ManicalEngineer]

stderr,

Thanks for the reply. I live in a fairly rural place, with out physically taking my pi out of the house I don't have access to an open wifi network. The hardware works fine, I've confirmed that.

I'm not really willing to change the security for a couple of reasons, mainly - the cable company owns the router. The other is because I'm lazy and I don't want to fix the connection issues it will cause with the 10 or so devices in my home, but mainly because I don't own the router.

Dave gave a recommendation/fix that I will try the next time I get a chance to work with the Pi. At some point I will be setting up my own router and giving the cable company back theirs.

Thanks everyone!!

[NormanDunbar]

Good luck!

Cheers,
Norm.

[NormanDunbar]

Greetings.

Hopefully you have managed to get online with your Pi. However, I've been playing around with a new Pi and found that I managed to mess up myself - even following my own instructions. It turned out that in the various config files, I have spaces before and after a couple of '=' signs, this is a bad thing. I had it in mt wpa_supplicant.conf file and the wlan0 netw would not come up.

When I tried to

Code: Select all

sudo ifup wlan0

I got a message saying that wpa_supplicant had failed to start with error 1. It appears that this is only a visible error when starting the interface manually. I replaced two occurrences of

Code: Select all

interface = {

with

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interface={

and the interface came up with no errors on the next

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sudo ifup wlan0

and on reboot.

Just in case this is affecting anyone else.


Cheers,
Norm.

[ManicalEngineer]

Norm,
Funny enough, I haven't gotten online, but I have managed to get connected to the router. I run ifconfig, and get an IP address but it doesn't seam right (198.168.0.10). When I check from the router side, I can see the Pi's MAC, but no IP is listed. I have no idea where to go from here.

Again I appreciate the help and comments from everyone, I'm learning new things which is great!

Thanks,

Sean

[stderr]

Norm,
Funny enough, I haven't gotten online, but I have managed to get connected to the router. I run ifconfig, and get an IP address but it doesn't seam right (198.168.0.10). When I check from the router side, I can see the Pi's MAC, but no IP is listed. I have no idea where to go from here.

If you have the wifi part figured out, now you should figure out the local network itself. Why are you getting an odd ip address on the pi? Is it dhcp to the router? If it is, are other devices getting their ip within the same odd network? If they are not and you are doing your pi ip static, then perhaps you typed in the ip wrong. The first question now is what subnet do the other devices including the router, everything that works now, what do they think it is? If it's 192.168.0.0/24 and the pi thinks that it is 198.168.0.0/24, then obviously a change is in order. Type:

sudo ifconfig eth0:new 192.168.0.153 up

Then ping the ip of the router and other devices as:

sudo ping routerIP

(sudo shouldn't be needed with ping but there is a bug in some versions of Jessie where it won't work otherwise)
If you have an android phone connected to the router, you can use a program like fing to find all the ip addresses that are available on your local network within the subnet that it is in.

If you can now ping the router, then ping a google dns ip using its ip number and not name:

sudo ping 8.8.8.8

The above probably won't work because your default route isn't likely correct:

sudo route

which should point the default to the router's ip. Fix this with:

sudo route del default
sudo route add default gw routerIP

Then try again with the ping:

sudo ping 8.8.8.8

Once that works, type:

cat /etc/resolv.conf

and see if that includes a nameserver that makes sense, namely the 8.8.8.8 or some other such thing.

None of these changes will stick on a reboot but if you can get this to work, then you can make them permanent.

[NormanDunbar]

Greetings,

Funnily enough, I too had the problem of a seemingly random IP address being assigned to my WiFi only yesterday! I have two dongles, one official Raspberry Pi one, white, and a cheap and nasty one from Amazon or Ebay - I can't remember - which has a RaLink chipset. Details as follows with both plugged in to my laptop:

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$ lsusb
...
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a5c:bd1e Broadcom Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 148f:5370 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT5370 Wireless Adapter
...

You don't get much info for the official one then! I had to remove it to be sure that was all there was.

Anyway, long story short, I have two Pi 2's one old, one new with 4 cores, both have been running WiFi only with either dongle. There was no special setup required for the RT5370 one which some old Blogs etc state that you must have - `firmware-ralink` package is required it seems. Mine says it's already up to date.

After a long needed `apt-get update && apt-get upgrade`, neither Pi would work with the Ralink dongle, but would happily work with the official Pi one. Hmm.

After much investigation and checking my own blog for Jessie details - all was fine, and bringing my original Pi 1 (256 Mb RAM) out of retirement running Wheezy, I found that while none of the Pis could use the Ralink dongle, it was definitely up and running as an `iwlist wlan0 scan` command found both my home and office WiFi networks. Hmmm.

There was a very dim blue LED on the dongle, not as bright as I remember. So I tested it in my Linux Mint laptop. It worked. However, the power level it reported for the two WiFi networks was about 50 or 60% down on what the laptop saw.

The solution? Plug the Ralink dongle into the powered USB hub and it just works! That's the case on the two Pi 2s and obviously, the Pi Zero. As for the old Pi 1, well, it didn't work with either dongle until it was plugged into the powered USB hub too, so definitely a power issue there. I was using the same power supply to power the Pis and the USB hub so it does cope, but not, it seems, with the WiFi dongle in the Pi's USB socket. I also run a wireless keyboard and mouse, so that was in the Pi's USB socket as well. Maybe the combination was just too much - especially as the network and the USB are run by the same chip.

Do you have a powered USB hub you can try? It seems that some dongles draw a lot more power from the USB than others and this causes no end of problems.


Cheers,
Norm.

[ManicalEngineer]

More progress!! Yay!

in my /etc/network/interfaces file

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# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)

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

# Include files from /etc/network/interfaces.d:
source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual


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

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

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iface wlan0 inet manual

to

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iface wlan0 inet dhcp

However still not all the way there! I can SSH in to the pi on my local network, the IP makes sense, I can ping 8.8.8.8 and the router IP successfully BUT I can't to anything through a typical web address via the browser. Also apt-get fails when trying to access web addresses.

Once again thanks to everyone for your insights and help I really appreciate it!

Sean

PS UPDATE

I solved it, up and running

used the

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sudo cat /etc/resolve.conf

and things are all good,

Thank you to everyone for your help!!

[stderr]

However still not all the way there! I can SSH in to the pi on my local network, the IP makes sense, I can ping 8.8.8.8 and the router IP successfully BUT I can't to anything through a typical web address via the browser. Also apt-get fails when trying to access web addresses.

When you are at that point, you have a connection outside your network, you usually just need the /etc/resolv.conf working. Make sure there is a sane name server in there:

nameserver 8.8.8.8

Note that just changing it probably won't stick because it is being set elsewhere but you should be able to test this and apt-get should work unless something is wrong in that set up. I would make the above change and test there and in a browser.

[NormanDunbar]

Evening.

It sounds like you are getting an IP address from your router now. The "manual" option requires editing /etc/dhcpcd.conf to assign a static IP, default route and nameserver which will get copied out to /etc/resolv.conf etc as required.

Still, you only need a static IP if you need to connect to the Pi remotely for any reason. Or there's that "zero conf" thing too.

Good luck.


Cheers,
Norm.