Cant connect to wifi New update, hubpiwi board

skrapps914

@mitu Reporting back

Tried to set the country with sudo iw reg set <COUNTRY_CODE> and got this
alt text

then went back, and again, deleted the wpa_supplicant.conf and recreated it
alt text

**tried to connect, and didn't work, so i went back again to localisation, and got this
alt text

won't connect. seems like a bug or something?

mitu

The wpa_supplicant.conf seems ok, the command is not, it should be:

sudo iw reg set US

<COUNTRY_CODE> was meant as a placeholder, you need to remove the < >.

skrapps914

@mitu ok, went back and tried that. it let me set it, didn't connect, and it won't save upon reboot.
seems like a bug.

alt text

and after Rebooting
alt text

mitu

Try reproducing the error with the latest Raspberry Pi OS Lite.
If the WiFi works, then you can install RetroPie manually over it - see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Manual-Installation/. If the WiFi doesn't work, then try reporting it in the Raspi OS forum at https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=66.

skrapps914

@mitu thanks, i'll give it a shot and report back

skrapps914

@mitu Ok, so i installed raspberry pi os lite.
upon booting, it gives me usb device descriptor error, and on the desktop it says no wireless lan interfaces found. but the usb hub seems to all be working, i have peripherals attached to it, keyboard, controller, and mouse and all work. just seems like an issue with wifi

skrapps914

@mitu hey just in case youre interested, ive figured it out. it indeed was a driver issue
=i'm not sure if the driver was removed, or forgotten in the update? but the driver was the issue, i did searches, was able to track the drivers down, figured out how to install them, and everything works perfectly now.

so its definitely the case of either the driver missing in the 4.7.13 update, or a glitch. copied the driver file 8188eu-5.4.72-v8-1356.tar.gz to the boot section, extracted it to its own directory, installed..and BOOM..everything works a charm now

mitu

@skrapps914 said in Cant connect to wifi New update, hubpiwi board:

so its definitely the case of either the driver missing in the 4.7.13 update, or a glitch.

As explained before, it's not a RetroPie issue - but a regression in the Linux kernel as shipped with Raspbery Pi OS. I think this issue is similar to your problem or [this forum topic]*https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=246587).

copied the driver file 8188eu-5.4.72-v8-1356.tar.gz to the boot section, extracted it to its own directory, installed..and BOOM..everything works a charm now

That's good, except that you'll get the same problem if/when you upgrade your system and the kernel version will be upgraded - currently is at 5.10.17. Keep an eye on http://downloads.fars-robotics.net/wifi-drivers/8188eu-drivers/ if you intend to upgrade, it looks like the drivers are updated and kept in-sync with the Linux kernel included in Raspberry Pi OS.

skrapps914

@mitu i'm on 4.7.14 retropie image now. everything is working. if the drivers dont work again when a new upgrade is released, i'll just have to install an older driver again. not a big deal. just glad its working.

petermeigs

I see this topic is quite old but I had this problem as well. Perhaps adding it here will help others find it more easily. My hubpiwi stopped working when I upgraded my raspberry pi zero (no W) with the hubwipi to raspbian bulleye. The thing I finally stumbled on to was to add wext to the wpa_supplicant options. Here are the details with thanks to those who wrote this up:

https://www.linuxbabe.com/debian/connect-to-wi-fi-from-terminal-on-debian-wpa-supplicant

The following is needed for hubwipi using rtl8188EUS
lsusb ->
ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter

You can get the wifi working from the command line using this:

sudo wpa_supplicant -B -D wext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Unfortunately, it will be gone after a reboot. To get it to start at boot time see (with my thanks here as well)

https://superuser.com/questions/1434621/set-wpa-supplicant-default-driver-on-startup

Here is what worked for me: To the end of the file /etc/dhcpcd.conf. add:

interface wlan0                                    
env ifwireless=1              
env wpa_supplicant_driver=wext

Your interface name may be different from wlan0. Running the command

ip addr

will tell you the name.

I have tried this on other raspberry pi zero w's and adding the "wext" did not seem to bother them. I did not do too much testing here so I only add the wext when I need it.

One of the notes I saw warned that the network speed of the rtl8188eus was low and I experienced this as well but it was sufficient for my purpose and let me update the OS on the rpi zero with the hubwipi.

I hope this helps someone searching for how to get the hubwifi to work again with a newer Raspian OS release.