It's not related to signal strength or wifi settings. It's an issue inside iwd or the broadcom driver or the way iwd interacts with the broadcom driver:
The solution with 2 WiFi networks kind of satisfies my needs at the moment as it will just switch after every boot. Of course only works because my router and my RasPi have good 2.4 and 5 GHz reception.
Ok, so I tried a different router and the problem is absolutely the same.
USB-wifi dongle with better antenna
It has nothing to do with the reception/signal strength.
BTW, did you tried with the same wifi source every times?
Actually, no. Since it works fine with Raspbian (which of course doesn't use iwd) the issue must be with iwd or the wifi firmware used by iwd/libreelec. But it is definitely something that I will try!
Well, I believe it just hasn't been viewed isolated and is instead mixed with other unrelated WiFi issues. What is clear: THIS problem only (but always!) occurs when there was no graceful shutdown (reboot or boot after shutdown), but never occurs when the system was shutdown properly, on at least the RPi4 platform.
It most likely affects everyone. It's just that many people went for cable as a workaround (or in general) and never noticed that their WiFi isn't working.
So yes, the overall user base that insists on using WiFi might be low, but it's most likely every WiFi user out there.
I'll try a different platform than RPi4 when I find the time.
I counted at least 30 people, and those are just the ones that spoke up about it. I wonder if iwd devs are actually aware about the issue. Furthermore, I can only find bug reports regarding LinreELEC, but I guess that is due to the small number of distributions having made the switch to iwd. Actually, I couldn't find any other that uses iwd by default.
So, since the issue is not magically going to disappear, I eventually found the time to capture the logs of iwd.
Here is the log where the autoconnect after a powerloss fails:
And here is the log where autoconnect works after reboot/graceful shutdown:
I don't think it's only affecting a few users as mentioned in this infamous thread: invalid wifi key
I see a lot of posts about this error, also a very long github issue: https://github.com/LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv/issues/7166
Fyi: Issue is also not resolved on the latest LE12-nightly.
Thanks. I can rule out poor signal strength as router and RPi4 are in direct vicinity of each other and also because the error is 100% reproducible and the workaround also works 100% of the time. Also both 2.4 and 5 GHz networks are affected. Once connection is established, there is no issue with it and I never had any dropouts/disconnects.
I'll post the full log but it'll take some time to redact as there's lots of sensitive information (neighboring WiFi stations in particular) contained within.
Can I somehow get the wireless stack to be more verbose in its output?
Of course I meant the key is NOT invalid. Unfortunately I cannot edit my post.
Edit: corrected.
Had a look at the journal now. Nothing obvious. iwd just fails telling me the key was invalid (which of course it is not as it works after the next boot). Unfortunately, only connmand is verbose, iwd not so much:
LibreELEC iwd[469]: event: connect-failed, status: 16
LibreELEC iwd[469]: event: state, old: connecting, new: disconnected
LibreELEC iwd[469]: event: state, old: disconnected, new: autoconnect_quick
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../plugins/iwd.c:cm_network_connect_cb() /net/connman/iwd/0/3/465249545a21426f78203735323020574f_psk connect failed: net.connman.iwd.Failed
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/network.c:connman_network_set_error() network 0xef27a60 error 3
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/service.c:__connman_service_indicate_error() service 0xef27cb0 error 7
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/service.c:set_error() service 0xef27cb0 (wifi_d83add53bde1_465249545a21426f78203735323020574f_managed_psk) error 7 (invalid-key)
LibreELEC connmand[651]: Interface wlan0 [ wifi ] error "invalid-key"
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/service.c:__connman_service_ipconfig_indicate_state() service 0xef27cb0 (wifi_d83add53bde1_465249545a21426f78203735323020574f_managed_psk) type 1 (IPv4) old state 3 (configuration) new state 7 (failure)
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/ipconfig.c:__connman_ipconfig_disable() ipconfig 0xef27ff0
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/ipconfig.c:__connman_ipconfig_unref_debug() 0xef27ff0 ref 2 by ../src/ipconfig.c:1998:__connman_ipconfig_disable()
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/service.c:service_indicate_state() service 0xef27cb0 (wifi_d83add53bde1_465249545a21426f78203735323020574f_managed_psk) old configuration - new failure/idle => failure
LibreELEC connmand[651]: Interface wlan0 [ wifi ] state is failure
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../plugins/vpn.c:vpn_disconnect_check()
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/session.c:service_state_changed() service 0xef27cb0 (wifi_d83add53bde1_465249545a21426f78203735323020574f_managed_psk) state 7
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/provider.c:provider_service_changed() service 0xef27cb0 wifi_d83add53bde1_465249545a21426f78203735323020574f_managed_psk state 7 index 3/-1
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/notifier.c:notify_idle_state() idle 1
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/manager.c:idle_state() idle 1
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/agent.c:connman_agent_report_error_full() agent (nil) sender (null) context 0xef27cb0 path -
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/service.c:service_save() service 0xef27cb0 (wifi_d83add53bde1_465249545a21426f78203735323020574f_managed_psk) new 0
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/ipconfig.c:__connman_ipconfig_save() ipconfig 0xef27ff0 identifier wifi_d83add53bde1_465249545a21426f78203735323020574f_managed_psk method dhcp
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/ipconfig.c:__connman_ipconfig_save() ipconfig 0xef280d0 identifier wifi_d83add53bde1_465249545a21426f78203735323020574f_managed_psk method off
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/service.c:service_list_sort() from service_indicate_state()
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/gateway.c:__connman_gateway_update()
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/gateway.c:gateway_data_debug() from __connman_gateway_update() default_gateway (nil)
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/gateway.c:__connman_gateway_update() updated4 0 updated6 0
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ipconfig state 7 ipconfig method 1
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/network.c:__connman_network_disconnect() network 0xef27a60
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/network.c:connman_network_set_associating() network 0xef27a60 associating 0
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/network.c:set_disconnected() service 0xef27cb0 ipv4 0xef27ff0 ipv6 0xef280d0
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/network.c:set_disconnected() method ipv4 4 ipv6 1
LibreELEC connmand[651]: ../src/dhcp.c:__connman_dhcp_stop() ipconfig_table 0xef10400 ipconfig 0xef27ff0
LibreELEC iwd[469]: event: state, old: autoconnect_full, new: disconnected
So, I didn't have time much to investigate in too much detail, yet. A quick "dmesg | grep brcm" didn't show any differences between working and non-working boot.
I thought to try and see if the problem disappears when switching from 5 GHz WiFi to 2.4 GHz WiFi, but no difference.
However, now having both 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi SSIDs set for auto-connect, I have a working workaround: after a "faulty" boot connecting to the previous WiFi will fail. However, now due to the second available WiFi, LE will connect to the other one and vice versa. So at least I'm left with working WiFi after each boot, no matter if faulty or not.
But WHY the connection to the previous WiFi fails, is still up for investigation when I have more time again.
Also keep in your mind, you aren't the single person who use an RPi3 with LE and wifi connection. So using the search function on this forum could help too.
Yeah, that's how I ended up in this thread! Although I am using RPi4.
So I pulled of the power and connected back after few seconds. The LE booted without any wifi issue...
And WiFi automatically connected to your AP after that?
You got till now from two people the advice to install an LE13 nightly build and try it. So if you don't have a cheap, at least 8GB SDcard and a hour for this
I will! But yeah, I actually don't have a spare card lying around :/.
ConnMan logs are somewhat human readable .. look for errors. Feel free to pastebin them somewhere (don't upload here please).
Will try looking at it! Always been a bit difficult for me figuring out where logfiles are with Kodi or LE in general. I also believe some state gets stuck for whatever weird reason.
I'm using almost same config, RPi3B, wifi
3B or 3B+? 3B uses a different WiFi chip (Broadcom BCM43438) than RPi3B+/RPi4 (both Cypress CYW43455). So that would also point to a driver-related issue.
Oh, did I make it clear enough that WiFi also works if I shut the RPi4 down before booting? So it's not EVERY cold boot, just cold boot after sudden power loss. Doesn't mean it can't be driver releated.
Hm, maybe both. (I have to add I am not so sure anymore about the behavior in 11.) Bc after cold boot it will also ask for the wifi password when I try to connect manually. However, as I said, after reboot it works fine again. So the password is still remembered. So it seems as if the system or ConnMan think that the authentication didn't work.
I also tried the suggested script but it can't fix all issues. First, the 'systemctl restart connman' does fix the underlying problem: after running this command I can (manually) reconnect to the WiFi without having to enter the password, but it doesn't do so automatically. So manually is the issue, bc now all services complain after boot that there were obviously 'errors in name resolution'.
I also tried putting the systemctl restart connman command to the autostart.sh script, but looks like the timing there isn't right. I can have it wait so that I at least can manually connect, but it won't do the auto connect, unfortunately (yes, auto connect is set to true!).
Probably I could adjust the script to connect to the specific wifi profile, but that would lock it to my specific wifi. Well, would be good enough workaround but ideally I'd like to at least identify the underlying root cause!
Nope, definitely not the antenna, or it wouldn't be so reproducible. It's only after cold boot. Never after reboot. 100%. RPi is next to the AP.
The problem exists since at least 11. Why would a nightly solve it? There's nothing in the changelogs.
How would using a cable solve a WiFi problem? I am not complaining about connectivity issues, but about a WiFi problem.
It's more likely a problem with iwd and/or the WiFi driver.
Same problem on RasPi 4 with LubreELEC 11 and 12. Instead of manually connecting after a blackout, what also works is just rebooting from LibreELEC. So that makes it clear that autoconnect is still enabled. It's just that the hard shutdown causes some problem.
