Wifi does not come up automatically

scip25 · January 12, 2025 at 11:10 AM

Howdy,

I am totally new to libre.elec. I installed it on a raspi 4. Since my wifi key is really long I have enabled SSH on the box and setup wifi using this howto: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/conf…n-libreelec-ssh. In order to do this I put the box into my office, where I have an ethernet port available. Wifi works very nice then.

But when I put the box back into the living room and connect it to the TV, then wifi doesn't work anymore, this message appears on the screen:

No I could possibly enter the key, but this would be a tedius task. So, why doesn't it come up with the readily configured wifi? Or does Kodi have somehow a different wifi setup than the OS below?

Many thanks in advance,

Tom

**chewitt** · January 12, 2025 at 12:31 PM

It's a long-running issue that impacts a small number of users. It is not RPi hardware specific. Things that may help:

Disabling fast-transition (FT) in access-point radio properties
Not using WPA3
Moving the device closer to the access-point to improve signal strength

It is probably an issue with iwd (as reverting to wpa_supplicant works around it) but it remains unresolved largely because nobody who can replicate the issue has code-level fault finding skills, and nobody among project staff or regular technical contributors with such skills can replicate the problem.

rtl8723bs: Invalid-key while connecting to wifi on LE12 · Issue #8731 · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv

This is a continuation of issue #7166 but for LE12. When running LibreELEC-H6.aarch64-12.0-nightly-20240312-d108ae1-pine-h64-model-b.img: I get invalid-key…

github.com

scip25 · January 17, 2025 at 4:51 PM

I managed to configure wifi via the libre.elec settings addon, which worked. Until now. I didn't change anything, it just says "invalid key". And now it's not working anymore, whatever I try.

Signal quality can't be the issue, the router is just 3 meters away. I have even created a guest network with a simpler key just to make sure it is easy to enter in the settings dialog in time.

I also connected the rasbpi with ethernet and tried to manually configure the wifi with iwd - this works:

Code

LibreELEC (official): 12.0.1 (RPi4.aarch64)
LibreELEC:~ # iwctl station list
                           Devices in Station Mode                            
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Name                  State            Scanning
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 wlan0                 disconnected              

LibreELEC:~ # iwctl station wlan0 show
                                Station: wlan0                                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Settable  Property              Value                                          
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Scanning              no                                               
           State                 disconnected                                    

LibreELEC:~ # iwctl station wlan0 get-networks
                              Available networks                              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Network name                      Security            Signal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     CIA-Station-OH                    psk                 ****    
     GITTA                             psk                 ****    

LibreELEC:~ # iwctl station wlan0 connect CIA-Station-OH
Type the network passphrase for CIA-Station-OH psk.
Passphrase: *********
LibreELEC:~ # iwctl station wlan0 show
                                Station: wlan0                                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Settable  Property              Value                                          
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Scanning              no                                               
           State                 connected                                        
           Connected network     CIA-Station-OH  
           IPv4 address          192.168.179.2                           
           ConnectedBss          aa:b5:8d:9f:3d:fa                                
           Frequency             5180                                             
           Channel               36                                               
           Security              WPA2-Personal                                    
           RSSI                  -64 dBm                                          
           TxBitrate             24000 Kbit/s                                     
           RxBitrate             6000 Kbit/s                                      

LibreELEC:~ # ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue qlen 1000
   link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
   inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
   inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute 
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP8000> mtu 1500 qdisc mq qlen 1000
   link/ether dc:a6:32:e2:96:db brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
   inet 192.168.178.27/24 brd 192.168.178.255 scope global eth0
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1456 qdisc fq_codel qlen 1000
   link/ether dc:a6:32:e2:96:dc brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
   inet 192.168.179.2/24 brd 192.168.179.255 scope global wlan0
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

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So, wifi in general works, the password is correct as well, it only doesn't work, when entered via the UI on the TV.

Oh, but now that I re-read you comment, when I am working on the raspi via LAN, then I take it into my office. This is the same room where the wifi router is located. So maybe it's a distance issue after all?

HarryH · January 17, 2025 at 5:07 PM

That's just a shot in the dark: Do you have some kind of special characters in your passphrase? Or maybe only a 'Y' <-> 'Z' issue from the difference between German (GUI) vs. English keyboard setting?

**chewitt** · January 18, 2025 at 5:16 AM

The issue has nothing to do with passphrase characters and it's definitely influenced by signal strength. The error message shown is probably the result of an error handling failure in iwd code. Instead of correctly catching the error and failing gracefully with a meaningful message you end up falling-through to a unintended wrong point in code and seeing "invalid key" instead.

scip25 · January 19, 2025 at 10:25 AM

Well, I added a little autostart.sh script where I log some wifi related stuff, and indeed, it doesn't receive anything when located in the living room.

Now that I've got this confirmed, I also understand why it's probably not working: the raspi is housed in an Argon One M.2 enclosure which is made of metal and probably blocks signals. So, I'll either install an ethernet cable to the location or buy a wifi usb-stick to solve the issue.

Wifi does not come up automatically

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