Raspberry Pi 3 Wifi Setup

[real_ale]

How do i setup the wifi on RPi 3

[jamesh]

It should 'just work'.

Click on the wireless icon top right on desktop, should give a list of access points, log in.

[fruitoftheloom]

How do i setup the wifi on RPi 3

Install the latest release of Raspbian Jessie Operating System, without this the RPi 3B is just hardware.

The Desktop Interface has a Network Icon on the Task Bar, no different to when installing Raspbian Jessie on any other RPi.

If you already have an SD Card with Raspbian Jessie or any other Operating System it will need to be update/upgrade to make it compatible..

[real_ale]

Updated and Wifi working

[Infernosys]

I got my RPi3 board today and have successfully switched my Raspbian OS from the old RPi2, but want remove my USB WiFi-Dongle and use the on-board WiFi for hosting an access point.

I have updated using "apt-get update", "apt-get dist-upgrade" and "rpi-update".

But it seems, that the kernel not find the hardware.

"ifconfig -a" shows me only the eth0 and wlan0 (USB dongle) devices.

The kernel modules brcmfmac and brcmutil are loaded, I think they have something to do with the build-in WLAN device.

But how can I enable it ?

The kernel.log gives me also no hint, how the build-in WLAN device can be enabled.

[topguy]

You have unplugged the USB-wifi I assume ? Or do you need it to access the device ?

If its unplugged and you still see a wlan0 then it should be the built-in device.

[fruitoftheloom]

I got my RPi3 board today and have successfully switched my Raspbian OS from the old RPi2, but want remove my USB WiFi-Dongle and use the on-board WiFi for hosting an access point.

I have updated using "apt-get update", "apt-get dist-upgrade" and "rpi-update".

But it seems, that the kernel not find the hardware.

"ifconfig -a" shows me only the eth0 and wlan0 (USB dongle) devices.

The kernel modules brcmfmac and brcmutil are loaded, I think they have something to do with the build-in WLAN device.

But how can I enable it ?

The kernel.log gives me also no hint, how the build-in WLAN device can be enabled.

rpi-update is not required nowadays, unless to fix a specific issue, it loads a Testing Kernel. Updated Stable Kernel / Firmware are installed via update / upgrade....

[Infernosys]

I found the solution. The files brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt and brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin where missing in /lib/firmware/brcm.

[alexsh1]

I found the solution. The files brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt and brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin where missing in /lib/firmware/brcm.

The Wifi on RPi3 has got a bug so I'd advise to use wired connection for the time being until an update is pushed.

[jamesh]

I found the solution. The files brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt and brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin where missing in /lib/firmware/brcm.

The Wifi on RPi3 has got a bug so I'd advise to use wired connection for the time being until an update is pushed.

Really? Haven't sen that report yet..

[fruitoftheloom]

I found the solution. The files brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt and brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin where missing in /lib/firmware/brcm.

The Wifi on RPi3 has got a bug so I'd advise to use wired connection for the time being until an update is pushed.

Really? Haven't sen that report yet..

I set up my RPi 3B today and Wireless worked no issues in a fresh Standalone Jessie install

[TideMan]

I set up my RPi 3B today and Wireless worked no issues in a fresh Standalone Jessie install

I'm waiting (patiently ) for my RPi 3B and was intending to clone Jessie from my RPi 2 (after update/upgrade) onto a new micro SD card.
Is it preferable to download a fresh Jessie? It's 1.3 GB, which eats into my bandwidth.

[DougieLawson]

I set up my RPi 3B today and Wireless worked no issues in a fresh Standalone Jessie install

I'm waiting (patiently ) for my RPi 3B and was intending to clone Jessie from my RPi 2 (after update/upgrade) onto a new micro SD card.
Is it preferable to download a fresh Jessie? It's 1.3 GB, which eats into my bandwidth.

Go with a fresh download if you have NOOBS.
Go with sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade & clone if it's plain Raspbian (no NOOBS).

[dchao99]

I found the solution. The files brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt and brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin where missing in /lib/firmware/brcm.

The Wifi on RPi3 has got a bug so I'd advise to use wired connection for the time being until an update is pushed.

Make sure wireless power management is off by:

Code: Select all

sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off

[garlicbready]

With the newer kernel's iwconfig has been replaced with iw
so this will be instead

iw dev wlan0 set power_save off

[hdtodd]

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 Wifi Setup

by Infernosys » Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:14 pm

I found the solution. The files brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt and brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin where missing in /lib/firmware/brcm.
Quote fruitoftheloom

I've run into the same problem ... no sign of wlan0. Where did you find those files so that you could add them to /lib/firmware/brcm ?

I'm running 4.1.19-v7+ #852 , upgraded over many iterations, and don't have NOOBS installed. I found that iw wasn't installed, and now the 43430 files are missing. I'm guessing that the upgrading process has neglected some of the components needed for the new hardware (wifi and bluetooth). Does that seem right? Is there an apt-get command that will pull all those things in if you're moving from Pi-2 to Pi-3?

[NormanDunbar]

Evening All,

iw dev wlan0 set power_save off

Is this just to stop the WiFi from going in to power save mode and losing the connection after while by any chance? Just wondering.

Thanks.

Cheers,
Norm.

[rweinkauf]

I'm glad I ran across this, my Pi 3 has been losing its wifi connection after a period of inactivity. Looks like the WiFi was going to sleep and I couldn't access it via VNC.

Fixed.
Rich

[hdtodd]

Re: Raspberry Pi 3 Wifi Setup

by Infernosys » Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:14 pm

I found the solution. The files brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt and brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin where missing in /lib/firmware/brcm.
Quote fruitoftheloom

I've run into the same problem ... no sign of wlan0. Where did you find those files so that you could add them to /lib/firmware/brcm ?

I'm running 4.1.19-v7+ #852 , upgraded over many iterations, and don't have NOOBS installed. I found that iw wasn't installed, and now the 43430 files are missing. I'm guessing that the upgrading process has neglected some of the components needed for the new hardware (wifi and bluetooth). Does that seem right? Is there an apt-get command that will pull all those things in if you're moving from Pi-2 to Pi-3?

Found it; for those having the same problem, the 43430 files are here in github:
https://github.com/RPi-Distro/firmware- ... 80211/brcm

Downloaded and installed them in /lib/firmware/brcm , rebooted; wlan0 was listed by ifconfig but didn't have an IP address; assigned a static IP to that MAC address in my router table, did the "iw power" command, rebooted, and it was running (I had used an external dongle on this SD image previously, so it knew about the network password, etc.).

Still not comfortable that I've got all the required software components. While starting with a working image saved me a BUNCH of time getting my Pi-3 up and running, I'm afraid I'll continue to stumble upon things that don't work as they should because I didn't install from scratch. But it's worth trying it out for a while.

[jmhunter]

For those folks using the 'lite' Raspbian image without the GUI - can anybody share an example config file that would allow a Pi 3 to act as a wireless client to connect to an existing wireless network (or indeed an example config file to act as an AP)?

I appreciate the GUI tools probably set things up automatically, but I'd rather just edit /etc/network/interfaces or whichever file(s), instead of having to install a GUI.

I already have 'iw dev wlan0 set power_save off' in /etc/rc.local

[pete_l]

I found the solution. The files brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt and brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin where missing in /lib/firmware/brcm.

Yes. I've just installed 2016-02-26-raspbian-jessie.img on a brand new RPi-3 and it failed to start the WiFi.

The two files you mentioned were present in the release, but had different sizes:

• -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 368957 Feb 25 06:47 brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1108 Feb 25 06:47 brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt

Downloading the two from the repository gave me these two:

• -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32075 Mar 18 15:40 brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45011 Mar 18 15:40 brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt

but they still don't bring up the WiFi.

These two files in the repo are shown as being 22 days old, while the others are 7 months old.
There does seem to be more wrong with the WiFi configuration than just this.

*** Update:
I scrubbed the image off the microSD card and re-dd'd it from my host.
1.) Resize the partition using the rpi-config utility. This seems to be mandatory as 4GB simply isn't large enough to perform any updates (the "as delivered" filesystem has just over 100MB free).
2.) apt-get update and apt-get upgrade
(I found that rpi-update fails, with a zero-length gzip file)
3.) use the rpi-config utility to set the WiFi country, time zone, etc.
4.) use rpi-config to add all the disabled interfaces (not sure if this is relevant)
5.) turn off power_save mode on the Wifi interface (see above)
6.) reboot

Now I have a wlan0 device and the Wifi config utility (2 blue squares) on the desktop. Clicking this recogises all my APs
Note: no need to pull any missing files from a repo.

[DougieLawson]

You need to update that 2012-02-26 image with some later fixes.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo reboot

Or start again with the new 2016-03-18 image.

[SmokingPi]

I am new to Raspberry and recently purchased a Raspberry Pi 3 and 7" touch screen and 2.5 amp power supply. I have been going insane trying to keep a WiFi connection. It seems like nothing is working to get and keep a reliable WiFi connection. It just appears to work sometimes and sometimes not. I am even swapping 2 32 GB SD Cards which both have Noobs installed. I have edited the etc/network/interfaces and /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf with so many different forum recommended wlan0 configs that my head is spinning.
How do I get this crazy WiFi on the RaspPi 3 tamed to simply do it's intended purpose in life? I am using an Apple Airport Extreme A/C wireless with two Apple Airport Time Capsules (A/C)'s both extending the Extreme's wireless network. I have a very modestly sized single floor dwelling and I have enough WiFi signal for a large warehouse. What is going on with this Pi 3 WiFi?
Thanks for any help.

Update: I went back to the default settings and I changed two of my wireless routers, which are extending the network, to use WPA from WPA2 and now I have had a reliable 70% signal strength connection even after several RaspPi reboots. But, I do not like that I need to reduce my security.

Resolved... Finally.

[LarsJensen]

I am using 2016-03-18 Jessie Lite and WiFi is no where to be found.
Was this release of PI 3 a bit premature?

[TromboneBernie]

Yesterday I had the same problem and I found, that my router was on channel 13. The actual Jessy release seems to support wifi only up to channel 11. I switched to channel 8 and it worked.

hth Bernie