Enabling wifi

[c4tich]

I need help with enabling wifi. I connected the module and I made sure it was correctly connected, I'm using xubuntu xenial and ethernet works ok. Pine can't seem to be able to find any wireless signals. How do I configure the wifi module?

[MarkHaysHarris777]

If you come to the chat site, use hexchat client, at irc.pine64.xyz:6667 we can talk about it better...

... what does :

sudo ifconfig

show? (wlan0, wlan1, rename4, other)


marcus

[c4tich]

If you come to the chat site, use hexchat client, at irc.pine64.xyz:6667 we can talk about it better...

... what does :

sudo ifconfig

show?   (wlan0, wlan1, rename4, other)


marcus

Hi Marcus, thanks for your reply. ifconfig shows me eth0 and lo. Additionally, iwconfig shows me eth0, sit0, lo, all of which say "no wireless extensions". This shouldn't be important, but I issued those commands via ssh.

[pfeerick]

Hi Marcus, thanks for your reply. ifconfig shows me eth0 and lo. Additionally, iwconfig shows me eth0, sit0, lo, all of which say "no wireless extensions". This shouldn't be important, but I issued those commands via ssh.

For comparision to your setup, isuing 'sudo iwconfig' on my setup (also via SSH, but on debian instead of ubuntu) gets me:

Code:

pfeerick@pine64:~$ sudo iwconfig
eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Anembo (Billion)"  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Access Point: 60:03:47:07:7D:85
          Bit Rate:150 Mb/s   Sensitivity:0/0
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:****-****-****-****-****-****-****-****   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=-63 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

dummy0    no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan1     unassociated  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Sensitivity:0/0
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/100  Signal level=0 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

I take it you're running the pine64 headless - ie. sans X11/GUI interface? Just means you can't use the nice easy GUI config tools. You probably need to add some stuff to the /etc/network/interfaces file. For mine, I have 

Code:

# The wireless interface
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

# Disable Secondary Wireless Lan (8723bs Has Two Interfaces)
iface wlan1 inet manual

and in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf I have

Code:

network={
ssid="Wireless Network Name"
psk="network-password"
proto=RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP
auth_alg=OPEN
}

I'd set those two files up for your config, and then reboot, and see what happens. Otherwise, after creating the appropriate entries in /etc/network/interfaces, you should be able to start it up by going 'sudo ifup wlan0' (to start up wlan0).

[c4tich]

Hi Marcus, thanks for your reply. ifconfig shows me eth0 and lo. Additionally, iwconfig shows me eth0, sit0, lo, all of which say "no wireless extensions". This shouldn't be important, but I issued those commands via ssh.

For comparision to your setup, isuing 'sudo iwconfig' on my setup (also via SSH, but on debian instead of ubuntu) gets me:

Code:

pfeerick@pine64:~$ sudo iwconfig
eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Anembo (Billion)"  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Access Point: 60:03:47:07:7D:85
          Bit Rate:150 Mb/s   Sensitivity:0/0
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:****-****-****-****-****-****-****-****   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=-63 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

dummy0    no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan1     unassociated  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Sensitivity:0/0
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/100  Signal level=0 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

I take it you're running the pine64 headless - ie. sans X11/GUI interface? Just means you can't use the nice easy GUI config tools. You probably need to add some stuff to the /etc/network/interfaces file. For mine, I have 

Code:

# The wireless interface
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

# Disable Secondary Wireless Lan (8723bs Has Two Interfaces)
iface wlan1 inet manual

and in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf I have

Code:

network={
ssid="Wireless Network Name"
psk="network-password"
proto=RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP
auth_alg=OPEN
}

I'd set those two files up for your config, and then reboot, and see what happens. Otherwise, after creating the appropriate entries in /etc/network/interfaces, you should be able to start it up by going 'sudo ifup wlan0' (to start up wlan0).

I made the proposed changes and it doesn't work, the command sudo iwconfig wlan0 gives the following output

Code:

wpa_supplicant: /sbin/wpa_supplicant daemon failed to start
run-parts: /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant exited with return code 1
Failed to bring up wlan0.

[MarkHaysHarris777]

Something is wrong, it should just work...

... where did you get your image, and how did you make the SD card?

[c4tich]

Something is wrong, it should just work...

... where did you get your image, and how did you make the SD card?

I downloaded from https://www.pine64.com/downloads, concretely I used this one: Ubuntu Linux Image [20160501] based on Longsleep build, updated by Pine64

Regarding to the method of creation of the bootable disk, I cd'ed to the directory where the uncompressed image was and issued the following command:
[url=https://www.pine64.com/downloads][/url]

Code:

sudo dd if=xubuntu-xenial-20160501-longsleep-pine64-8GB.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M

I even searched in the terminal history for the very exact command, but as I'm able to boot and install an ssh server, I assumed the disk creation was just ok.

[pfeerick]

Something is wrong, it should just work...

... where did you get your image, and how did you make the SD card?

I downloaded from https://www.pine64.com/downloads, concretely I used this one: Ubuntu Linux Image [20160501] based on Longsleep build, updated by Pine64

Regarding to the method of creation of the bootable disk, I cd'ed to the directory where the uncompressed image was and issued the following command:
[url=https://www.pine64.com/downloads][/url]

Code:

sudo dd if=xubuntu-xenial-20160501-longsleep-pine64-8GB.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M

I even searched in the terminal history for the very exact command, but as I'm able to boot and install an ssh server, I assumed the disk creation was just ok.

hm... indeed something fishy is going on.

Since it is booting, it sounds like the image was written fine, but something is not configured correctly..

Can you run uname -a so we can get the kernel version (I believe the current kernel version is 3.10.102 #7, so you should get something like the below output), and regardless of the result, you should probably update your uboot and kernel as there has been a fewupdates since the 1st of May, so that might also fix the issue...

Code:

Linux pine64 3.10.102-0-pine64-longsleep #7 SMP PREEMPT Fri Jun 17 21:30:48 CEST 2016 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Update like this (as root, not sudo!) on any of longsleeps images:

Code:

bash <(curl -s [url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image/master/simpleimage/platform-scripts/pine64_update_uboot.sh]https://raw.githubusercontent.com/longsl...e_uboot.sh[/url])
bash <(curl -s [url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image/master/simpleimage/platform-scripts/pine64_update_kernel.sh]https://raw.githubusercontent.com/longsl..._kernel.sh[/url])

[hawk]

For comparision to your setup, isuing 'sudo iwconfig' on my setup (also via SSH, but on debian instead of ubuntu) gets me:

Code:

pfeerick@pine64:~$ sudo iwconfig
eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Anembo (Billion)"  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Access Point: 60:03:47:07:7D:85
          Bit Rate:150 Mb/s   Sensitivity:0/0
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:****-****-****-****-****-****-****-****   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=-63 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

dummy0    no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan1     unassociated  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Sensitivity:0/0
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/100  Signal level=0 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

I take it you're running the pine64 headless - ie. sans X11/GUI interface? Just means you can't use the nice easy GUI config tools. You probably need to add some stuff to the /etc/network/interfaces file. For mine, I have 

Code:

# The wireless interface
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

# Disable Secondary Wireless Lan (8723bs Has Two Interfaces)
iface wlan1 inet manual

and in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf I have

Code:

network={
ssid="Wireless Network Name"
psk="network-password"
proto=RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP
auth_alg=OPEN
}

I'd set those two files up for your config, and then reboot, and see what happens. Otherwise, after creating the appropriate entries in /etc/network/interfaces, you should be able to start it up by going 'sudo ifup wlan0' (to start up wlan0).

I am using debian also and followed your instructions in your reply to other member and now my Pine is on my wireless network. Thanks for providing instructions to get it working.

hawk

[pfeerick]

I made the proposed changes and it doesn't work, the command sudo iwconfig wlan0 gives the following output

Code:

wpa_supplicant: /sbin/wpa_supplicant daemon failed to start
run-parts: /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant exited with return code 1
Failed to bring up wlan0.

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner c4tich. I'm assuming you didn't make any progress as you didn't come back with a suitably joyous response

Sounds more like it's something wrong with the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file. Double check that it is formatted correct, and there aren't any missing quotation marks or braces - they are always in matching pairs - one to open and one to close. 

Otherwise, try a simpler version of it with just the network ssid and psk.

Code:

network={
ssid="Wireless Network Name"
psk="network-password"
}

Also, so you get any response'sudo iwconfig'? Does it at least indicate that the wireless module is functioning?

@hawk: Glad you got your wireless up and running, it certainly makes life easier when you can use wifi instead of wired connections!