Raspberry Pi 3B+ no wifi interfaces when setting up for first time

Question

I have followed the instructions to create my SD card and boot it on my Pi. When creating the SD card I have added the ssh and wpa_supplicant files. During the initial installation at no time am I asked to enter the wifi country. When system is booted it states "no wireless interfaces found". I then go to Raspberry Pi Configuration to enter country but the box is dimmed and I am unable to change it.

I then did sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

This showed me that the information I had entered into the wpa_supplicant.conf when creating the SD card was there.

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

network={
    ssid="xxxxxx"
    psk="xxxxxx"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

This did not solve problem so did further reading and on another post found a different content fo the wpa_supplicant.conf file.

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

network={
    ssid=" 2.4GHz WiFi xxxxxx"
    psk="2.4GHz WPA/WPA2 xxxxxx"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Again this has not worked and I am still getting "no wireless interfaces found"

I have a connection when using Ethernet cable.

It appears that the Country Code for wifi must be entered, is there any other way to enter this?

Answer 1

Suggestions to track down WIFI issues on raspbian stretch

If WPA2 is used, we need to check for wpa_supplicant service.

You can check the config /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf

country=DE
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
    ssid="KBBL"
    psk="abcdef01234567890123456789"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

You can run systemctl | grep wpa to see if a wpa-supplicant service is running:

  [email protected]     loaded active running   WPA supplicant daemon (interface-specific version)                

You can run sudo iwconfig wlan0 to see the current wifi status:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"KBBL RXTX"  
      Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.58 GHz  Access Point: 24:65:11:89:84:79   
      Bit Rate=121.5 Mb/s   Tx-Power=31 dBm   
      Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
      Encryption key:off
      Power Management:on
      Link Quality=53/70  Signal level=-57 dBm  
      Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
      Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

You can run sudo ifconfig wlan0 to see if an IP Addr has been assigned to the wifi interface:

wlan0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
    inet 192.168.178.86  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.178.255
    ether b8:27:eb:0c:d8:21  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
    RX packets 8  bytes 1842 (1.7 KiB)
    RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
    TX packets 11  bytes 1601 (1.5 KiB)
    TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0