Cannot connect RetroPie to Wi-Fi OR Bluetooth

[JoeyAW]

Hello everybody! I recently discovered my old Raspberry Pi. It connected to Wi-Fi, and played games from many different consoles. However, upon discovering that it was on Raspbian stretch and was no longer supported, I decided to do a clean install and start over on a recent version of RetroPie, now on Raspbian Buster.

It was then that I realized something got messed up.

I do not have a usb keyboard, so I enabled ssh and connected with my laptop. I tried connecting a Bluetooth keyboard-something that had worked before the update-only to find that now it stopped working! I now get the error “ An error occurred connecting to the Bluetooth device
(Creating device failed:org-bluez.Error-AuthenticationCanceled:Authentication
Canceled)” instead of the normal keyboard authorization. I have tried removing the keyboard and rebooting, all to no avail.

Even worse, my Wi-Fi won’t connect either! It connected just fine on stretch, but it won’t connect on buster. I tried resetting my network, moving the device to another room, and nothing worked. I can’t even install packages, or update the setup script!
I enter the password with the controller using the new on-screen keyboard, and it says connecting. After a few minutes it says “Unable to connect to network [Network name].

I can access the terminal from ssh. I just don’t have a keyboard.

I have a Kintaro Super Kuma 9000 case which runs Raspberry Pi 3.

I have flashed my SD again, but it didn’t work. I tried both installing directly from Raspberry Pi etcher and BalenaEtcher, but it made no difference.

I would like to resolve the Wi-Fi first, and then the Bluetooth! The Wi-Fi is more important.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

Edit: I forgot to mention that I can connect it to my laptop with an Ethernet cable and a shared connection.

[xerozkeel]

@JoeyAW First of all, I’d recommend you to try to get a wired keyboard and start with a fresh new image. The wired keyboard will remove all the possible variables that could be messing the initial configurations. From there, press f4 and run Raspi-config from the CLI so that way you don’t even have to set up a controller.

Keep in mind that the wifi is blocked until you select a country.

[mitu]

On buster, you need to set the Country first (via raspi-config), before configuring the Wi-Fi.

Try adding that info in a wap_supplicant.conf file - see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Wifi/#connecting-to-wifi-without-a-keyboard_1 and then check if the BT radio gets enabled also to connect your keyboard.

[JoeyAW]

@mitu I have tried connecting with a config file, however I will give it another shot.

Also what do you mean by the Bluetooth radio?

[JoeyAW]

@xerozkeel I have tried selecting the country, but to no avail. I did just start with a new flash, but I do not have an available usb keyboard. I might try booting a Wi-Fi file from a config again, to see if that works.

[JoeyAW]

@mitu I got no result. It still isn’t connected to the internet after unplugging the Ethernet, making the file and booting it. It still says to set my Wi-Fi country after turning it on.

[mitu]

@JoeyAW If you're connected via Ethernet, the Wi-Fi isn't started, so any configurations should be tested on Wi-Fi only.

[JoeyAW]

@mitu I always unplug it from Ethernet and it does not do anything. Even after editing the config file it still says my country isn’t specified. I think I’m gonna try installing raspberry pi OS and seeing if that connects. It it doesn’t, I might have accidentally physically damaged my board. Is that possible? One time before I installed it I attempted to slide in the SD card, but accidentally slid it into the case and onto the board. Could that have damaged the Wi-Fi?

[mitu]

@JoeyAW said in Cannot connect RetroPie to Wi-Fi OR Bluetooth:

Could that have damaged the Wi-Fi?

Unlikely.

[JoeyAW]

@mitu Ok, is there anything else I could try or is it just done?

[JoeyAW]

@mitu So I flashed raspberry os onto another sd card. Same problem, unable to connect to network.

[mitu]

@JoeyAW Can you post the dmesg output from the system on pastebin.com ?

[JoeyAW]

@mitu I fixed it! There was a problem with the Wi-Fi links around the house, as i was in the back room. It appears that the keyboard has a problem, so that is probably fine as I connected a ps3 controller via Bluetooth. Thank you!