WI-FI Failure to Launch in PI 3

[kkaiser]

At this point we've all read hundreds if not thousands of lines of well meaning folks trying to resolve the wi-fi issues on the PI 3. Most of the posts I've seen are all too complicated in the issues, settings and solutions. So I'm trying to make this one a bit easier.

My onboard WI-FI on my PI 3 doesn't work.

1) lsmod:
Module Size Used by
rfcomm 33778 4
bnep 10340 2
hci_uart 17943 1
btbcm 5929 1 hci_uart
bluetooth 326105 25 bnep,btbcm,hci_uart,rfcomm
brcmfmac 186599 0
brcmutil 5661 1 brcmfmac
cfg80211 427855 1 brcmfmac
snd_bcm2835 20511 1
rfkill 16037 4 cfg80211,bluetooth
sg 18319 0
snd_pcm 75698 1 snd_bcm2835
snd_timer 19160 1 snd_pcm
snd 51844 5 snd_bcm2835,snd_timer,snd_pcm
bcm2835_gpiomem 3040 0
bcm2835_wdt 3225 0
joydev 9024 0
evdev 11396 4
uio_pdrv_genirq 3164 0
uio 8000 1 uio_pdrv_genirq
i2c_dev 5859 0
fuse 83461 3
ipv6 347530 91

2) ifconfig -a:
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr b8:27:eb:fc:82:a5
inet6 addr: fe80::7bd7:b22:1700:5a96/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:1 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:60 (60.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

3) sudo iwlist wlan0 scan | grep ESSID
ESSID:"KaiserKlan Guest"
ESSID:"KaiserKlan Network"
ESSID:"TC8715DA9"
ESSID:"DIRECT-38-HP Officejet 5740"
ESSID:"APHU1"
ESSID:"NETGEAR34"
ESSID:""

4) In the GUI nothing shows up when you click on the icon.
5) When you hover on the icon it says; wlan0: Not associated
6) I'm running Jessie, current (updated today) version
7) NO: and external wi-fi dongle does not work either
8) I have three Raspberry PI 3's, wi-fi does not work in any of them.

So the big question is, what should I do next? I'm guessing the RPi folks don't want to chime in with a solution, or to even admit there is an issue.

[epoch1970]

Well wifi seems to work, hardware and driver.
What seems to be missing is your configuration input (password, ssid). Then the wifi interface will "associate".
I'm not using the GUI so I can't help you there.

[klricks]

Make sure you:
-Set the WIFI county code in config tool [Menu] --> [Preferences]
-Are not using a hidden SSID.
-Are using WPA2 (not WEP)
-Have 2.4GHz or mixed configured (not 5GHz only)
-Try a different channel 11 or less.
-Have DHCP enabled with enough addresses in the pool.

[kkaiser]

klricks thanks for the simple to the point questions.
First, this is a new Apple Airport Extreme running version 7.7.7
Country code is set to the USA
SSID is not hidden
WPA/WPA2 Personal
2 and 5Ghz
I had the channel on automatic, I've moved 2.4Ghz to channel 1 for trials, 5Ghz is on automatic
DHCP is enabled

Obviously this router has a lot of other options, but so far nothing I've changed has made any difference.

[kkaiser]

My spa_supplicant.conf is as below;

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

network={
ssid="Keith Kaiser\xE2\x80\x99s iPhone (2)"
psk=mypassword
proto=RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=TKIP
auth_alg=OPEN
}

network={
ssid="KaiserKlan Network"
psk=mypassword
proto=RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=TKIP
auth_alg=OPEN
}

[klricks]

Make sure encryption matches. If the router is set to AES then try:
pairwise=CCMP

Try a simple SSID. I don't know about the punctuation?

This is my wpa_.............

Code: Select all

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

network={
        ssid="mySSID"
        psk="mypass"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

[kkaiser]

Mine now says

Code: Select all

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

network={
        ssid="KaiserKlan Network"
        psk=mypassword
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

sudo if down wlan0 produces:
if down: interface wlan0 not configured

[klricks]

Mine now says

Code: Select all

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

network={
        ssid="KaiserKlan Network"
        psk=mypassword
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

sudo if down wlan0 produces:
if down: interface wlan0 not configured

Do you have the " in psk="mypassword"

Taking a step back.... Your and all your neighbors SSID's should be showing in the list when you left mouse click on the network ICON even before the wpa_supplicant file is configured.

[kkaiser]

The only thing in the list when you left mouse click on the network ICON is:
No wireless interfaces found

[kkaiser]

Hovering over the ICON has an interesting line:

wlan0: Disassociated from KaiserKlan Network


My network name is 'KaiserKlan Network'

Does this mean I'm making some progress?

[klricks]

Hovering over the ICON has an interesting line:

wlan0: Disassociated from KaiserKlan Network


My network name is 'KaiserKlan Network'

Does this mean I'm making some progress?

I get that message when I have the wrong passphrase set. I intentionally set the wrong pass to 12345678 when I want to turn off WIFI as I mostly use wired connection though it does not seem to make any difference if both wired and WIFI are running concurrently.

[kkaiser]

In this blog http://forum.siduction.org/index.php?topic=2509.0 the very first line said:
"solution:
simple remove all inline comments in /etc/network/interfaces"

I edited /etc/network/interfaces to remove commented lines. But only lines that started with # inside a definition.

After saving the GUI changed from two monitors to the wi-fi symbol.

wlan0: Configured 192.168.1.192/24 This is very cool. Only problem is I had defined a static IP of 192.168.1.155 in the interfaces file. So how did it end up as ...192?

OK so on re-editing interfaces, I've removed all the code to make a static IP. Then I rebooted the Pi, it came up and wi-fi connected at the 192 IP address. And I've tested it by disconnecting the Ethernet cable.

I'm left with the question mark of what exactly did I do to fix it?

[klricks]

I don't know but you should never have been messing with interfaces file in Jessie. Mine is working with the #'s in.
To set static you RIGHT mouse click on the network/WIFI icon.

Instead of static I prefer to do IP to MAC reservations in the router via DHCP. That way the router always gives the same IP of your choice with no config changes in the RPi.

Note that you will need to set different IP's for the wired and WIFI. If you have wired IP the same as WIFI then if the network cable is unplugged and fails, the router may fall back and give the next IP from the DHCP pool to the WIFI instead. BTDT

May be the same with static setup as well? I never tried it...

[kkaiser]

Questions:
1) If I click on the ICON and then the network being used I get a box "Pre Shared Key", what is that?
2) I tried using my iPhone as a hotspot. I can see it in the list, but how do I put the password in. I tried putting it in the "Pre Shared Key" but that didn't work.

3) I want to be able to take the Pi with me, and use whatever wi-fi is available.

Thanks for all you've helped me with.

[klricks]

Questions:
1) If I click on the ICON and then the network being used I get a box "Pre Shared Key", what is that?

That is the WIFI passphrase or password and is what ends up in the psk=" " line in wpa_supplicant.conf.

2) I tried using my iPhone as a hotspot. I can see it in the list, but how do I put the password in. I tried putting it in the "Pre Shared Key" but that didn't work.

3) I want to be able to take the Pi with me, and use whatever wi-fi is available.

Thanks for all you've helped me with.

I don't know how to make the hotspot work? Google knows......
If it does a captive portal like the guest account on my router then you just open a browser and then attempt to go to any web site. The password prompt will then pop up in the web browser......