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I have a raspberry pi 3 that I was using as hostspot. Today I booted it and the wlan0 interface is gone when typing 

ip a

When doing raspi-config and try to configure a wireless interface, I receive the message:

No wireless interface found

I downloaded a new image of Raspbian and copied it into my SD card but still I can only see eth0. I also updated the firmware with:

sudo rpi-update

And rebooted but still, just eth0.

When I check my connected USB devices I see 4:

  • SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter,
  • SMC9514 Hub,
  • Linux Foundation root hub,
  • Keyboard

Shouldn't there be a 5th one pointing to the wlan device? Any idea what else I could check? Is perhaps my wlan chip broken?

Here is my dmesg: https://pastebin.com/k3uaJUrh

Here is my dtc: https://pastebin.com/cgWYfFjy

After checking this useful thread, it seems it is really broken ==> https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=171482&sid=f7e7e556a7b52d9af452012f3d8d3aa4

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  • Do you find with journalctl -b why the wlan0 interface isn't detected?
    – Ingo
    Oct 24, 2019 at 12:54
  • Nope. Can you point me to a line or a word that I should pay attention to please? By skimming through the output I don't see anything relevant
    – mbuil
    Oct 24, 2019 at 13:07
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    Run sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade -y that will get new firmware for the WiFi chip. Try downloading a fresh copy of plain Raspbian or plain Raspbian Lite, write that to a new SDCard and boot it. Does WiFi work with a fresh start?
    – Dougie
    Oct 24, 2019 at 13:19
  • Search for brcmfmac when viewing journalctl. This is the wifi driver and it loads the firmware.
    – Ingo
    Oct 24, 2019 at 13:23
  • journalctl -b | grep brcmfmac shows nothing. The closest is btuart[313]: Flash firmware /lib/firmware/brcm/BCM43430A1.hcd but I don't know if it has anything to do with it
    – mbuil
    Oct 24, 2019 at 13:38

3 Answers 3

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2

AFAIK the WiFi adapter on RPi 3 is not on USB bus but on SDIO bus, same as the SD card. Therefore the earliest dmesg message proving its presence is 

mmc1: new high speed SDIO card at address 0001

One of the possible failure messages is

mmc1: error -110 whilst initialising SDIO card

If you get this message, or there is no mention of mmc1 at all, this typically means a hardware problem which cannot be resolved in software. You'll have to get a new board.

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  • Thanks for the information! dmesg does not show much about mmc. Here is my dmesg (note I added a 4G Dongle to get internet connectivity): pastebin.com/k3uaJUrh
    – mbuil
    Oct 24, 2019 at 14:18
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"In normal circumstances there is NEVER a need to run rpi-update as it always gets you to the leading edge firmware and kernel and because that may be a testing version it could leave your RPi unbootable". https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=916911#p916911 Even the rpi-update documentation now warns "Even on Raspbian you should only use this with a good reason. This gets you the latest bleeding edge kernel/firmware."

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install --reinstall raspberrypi-bootloader raspberrypi-kernel will put it back to the latest supported kernel/bootcode.

Then if you still have problems ask with detail of what you have done

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3
  • Done and still nothing.
    – mbuil
    Oct 24, 2019 at 11:16
  • It was working yesterday. I powered it on today and the wlan0 interface is gone, no idea why. Between the moment where it worked until the moment where it did not, I haven't typed any command or did anything. That is why I am suspecting that perhaps the wlan got broken, when checking my USB bus, I see 4 devices: a SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter, a SMC9514 Hub, a Linux Foundation root hub and the Keyboard. Does that mean my wifi is broken?
    – mbuil
    Oct 24, 2019 at 11:18
  • @mbuil Please edit your question and add the additional information from the comment to it.
    – Ingo
    Oct 24, 2019 at 12:50
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No interface found means your wifi_supplicant service is somehow down. Start it and if it doesn't work flash you r sdcard again withe the latest buster(or whatever you want) release.

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