Wifi issues

[jamesyboyjim]

Hey guys, I got a pi3 for Christmas and was excited to try out retropie. Install went smooth, I can copy roms over via USB no problem, my issue is wifi. It works when I first flash the image, I can see my network and connect to it no problem, download a theme or scrape some data, but then if I go into another text based menu or something, wifi stops working and will not show any ssids until I reflash the image. I've literally reflashed several times now I'm pulling my hair out.

St first I thought maybe I'd corrupted the image but it's doing it pretty much straight after install. During a reboot I see an error about not being able to start Bluetooth and eth something, it only shows that error after wifi has died.

Any ideas? Ethernet isn't an option unfortunately:(

[mrbwa1]

@jamesyboyjim Did you install Retropie yourself or download an image?

Also, Have you tried rebooting your router by change. Disconnects can be resolved by rebooting sometimes.

Also, whay kind of router is it? My older Linksys E3000 router doesn't play well with the Pi3, giving horrible transfer rates. Same thing with the XBOX Onw. I ended up using one of these plugged into the Pi ethernet for a while until I build a wireless bridge out of a different router: https://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7438RPn-Mini-Universal-Wireless/dp/B00PMCJ17Y/ref=pd_bxgy_147_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8Z2ES0ZWGBVAPECQR6HN

[jamesyboyjim]

I was flashing the latest retropie image from the website

It's a virgin superhub 2ac so it isn't the best, but it has been solid for me in fairness, I also stop being able to see any of the neighbours networks or any of my wifi direct devices so I don't think the issue is related to the router :(

Literally just now I reflashed my sd card, reconnected to the network tried downloading the simple theme, it's frozen at 32%. Now wifi doesn't work again. This image was flashed 5 minutes ago!

[mrbwa1]

@jamesyboyjim Yikes! Something does sound up. Sadly, the next best step would be try try connecting up wired to make sure it's not an issue with the OS/Pi itself, but that doesn't sound like an option for you.

I just did a quick Google search for "virgin superhub 2ac wifi issues raspberry pi" and looks like others are having issues with that router as well for some reason: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=154224

You may want to see if there is anywhere else you can take the Pi to test the wifi. I didn't really see an answer in that thread on how to get it working so it could be an issue Like I have.

[jamesyboyjim]

Maybe I'll have to just try and see if I can set it all up using a wired connection somehow then when wifi dies I'll just have to put up with it. I only mainly wanted a network connection for ssh / scraping data.

Just to rub salt in the wound though I was using my expensive corsair keyboard with the pi, well it's just fried it after locking up again. Perhaps this is a power issue I'm facing...

[mrbwa1]

@jamesyboyjim Look for one of the network extender/repeaters if you want or if you are in a real pinch, you can run an ethernet cable to a Windows laptop and then bridge it's ethernet and wireless connections: http://www.windowscentral.com/how-set-and-manage-network-bridge-connection-windows-10

It's kinda of funky to set up and then you have to put everything back to normal when you are done, but time might be your cheapest option. I have done it a few times before I had the extender thingy laying around for stuff that just needed network every once in a while (that one time an early Blu-Ray played needed a network firmware update).

[jamesyboyjim]

Thanks for your help, I'll pinch a long Ethernet cable from work tomorrow, run it temporarily up the stairs and see if I can get a wired network connection. Right now I'm just pretty down about my keyboard.

[batesman]

Just my two cents here...I think you'll find that wireless works fine in NOOBS / Raspian. However, wireless will work poorly in Retropie. There are some known issues with wifi in Retropie and the wireless driver is "suspect". I solved my wireless issues in Retropie by adding in one of these for 5 bucks.

http://tendacn.com/en/product/W311MI.html

[synack]

@batesman Retropie is a few scripts and optional packages on top of Raspbian, the wifi component is the same.

[herb_fargus]

@synack it is possible there are some extra drivers with the full Raspbian as retropie is built on Raspbian lite but that's just total conjecture on my part and I have no evidence to back that up. I would assume wifi stuff is handled at the kernel level anyhow

[batesman]

My observation was that using onboard wifi in Raspbian I didn't have packet loss. In RetroPie I did. I don't now that I am using the Tenda adapter. To me that indicates a driver issue.

[synack]

@herb_fargus Yeah the hardware initialization and driver definitely lives at the kernel level.

@batesman I don't doubt your experience, but I think that there were other factors at hand as the driver would be the same on both distributions (if they were using the same kernel version). In early-mid 2016, the Raspbian kernel was updated to remove power saving mode which was impacting wifi for several users. If you initially installed RetroPie back in Q1-Q2/2016, and then later installed Raspbian, it's possible that would be the culprit.

But I'll borrow @herb_fargus' comment -- this is conjecture. I'd welcome you to prove this to be untrue. :-)

[jamesyboyjim]

Pinched a long network cable from work today and have temporarily run it up the stairs, seems to be working fine over Ethernet. I have an old linksys router with ddwrt installed, I think maybe I'll have to try and turn it into a wireless switch so the pi can run through that. Very annoying but these things are sent to test us I suppose! I think out of curiosity I'll look into taking a backup of my image and try something else, as mentioned above to see if the wifi is just as weird running a different distro.

[mrbwa1]

@jamesyboyjim That's what I did with my a Linksys E1200 I picked up used for a couple dollars.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridged

My Xbox One tends to download updates in the 30-50 Mbit range and sometimes closer to 80 Mbit on a good day. Can't remember what speeds I get with the Pi3 as it basically hits the limitations of usb on the Pi, so I do often end up with kida sporadic file transfers because I'm trying to push data faster than the Pi can write it to the SD card.