Wifi error log for Bookworm?

In one of the threads about wifi trouble somebody mentioned that turning off avahi-daemon seemed to help. Trying it with a usb-wifi dongle connected both interfaces came up. It appears avahi has something to do with Apple hardware, so I don't think it'll be missed

Removing the usb-wifi dongle seemed to prevent the internal wifi from working at least the one time it was tried.

Near as I can tell, the Pi5 searches for APs even when configured not to do so.

I still don't understand, but there's a workaround.

Thanks to all for reading and helping!

bob prohaska

But a lot of technology does improve over time...

try looking in :

/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections

You should be able to delete the appropriate unwanted wifi connection

You can use nmcli to restrict a given SSID to just 2.4

But the first rule of troubleshooting is "check the last change made".

Thanks for writing,

bob prohaska

Avahi is the name of an open-source software suite that implements the “Zeroconf” protocol suite

They are all text files. You can even edit them, if you want.

All that remains is Stuart's smile? 8-)

Perhaps I'm being unfair blaming avashi for my trouble, but wifi began working better the moment it was turned off. For now, wlan0 still seems non-functional, but wlan1 (a very old Ralink usb-wifi dongle) picked up and held a connection.

One puzzle is when to reboot after upgrades, which are presented at irregular and sometimes annyingly frequent intervals. I've thought that reboots are required only after a kernel replacement but have seen no clear guidance.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

This is why I wasn't happy about Raspbian moving from dhcpcd to Network Manager. Quite often my Linux Laptops which use Network Manager decide they would like to try WiFi networks other than the one I've chosen, that's easily fixed via the gui, but not what you want on headless systems.

You could try disabling the NetworkManager service, and reinstalling dhcpcd so the WiFi is only selected by the contents of the wpa_supplicant.conf file. It worked fine for everything before Bookworm.

---druck

You could use nmcli to control it.

dhcpcd is not needed: systemd-networkd contains a pretty good DHCP client when properly configured.

Jettison NetworkManager, just stop and disable it, after creating the systemd-networkd configuration files.

You need to create a .network file:

# /etc/systemd/network/30-wired.network

The [DHCP] section is optional, to give instructions to the DHCP server.

The name in Name= must match the name which is set to the interface. Systemd tends to mutilate it with PCI bus address or MAC address, to help separate multiple Ethernets. It is possible to turn off the name change, e.g. for USB interfaces on Raspberry Pi by symlinking the file 73-usb-net-by-mac.link -> /dev/null

The configuration files reside in /etc/systemd/network/

Were the unwanted wifi explorations immediate and consistent, or more delayed and random? I ask because the recent wifi problems all happened somewhat (~1 day) after an upgrade where I didn't immediately reboot the Pi5 thinking it unnecessary. The system reports "updates available" at rather frequent intervals and I'm starting to wonder if it's wise to reboot after every update promptly.

It seems wiser to learn how to live with Bookworm sooner rather than later. Up to now RasPiOS has been trouble-free to the point that I know very little about it. Trying to second-guess the developers is likely to end badly, at least when I'm the one doing the guessing 8-)

Thanks for writing,

bob prohaska

yeah. I learn long ago that in the end its easier to learn the new s*it that at leats is sorta supported.

So network manager it is.

If you can log in to a headless system which isn't connecting to the Wifi.

---druck

I have no desire to give any more control of my systems to the systemd virus.

---druck

Seemingly random.

The maturity of Raspbian's Bookworm is there yet. I had to jump to it for my new Pi 5 machines, and I've also got it on a Pi 4 for reference, but the older headless machines are staying on Bullseye until some of the problems have been ironed out.

---druck

A Raspberry Pi still has a built-in Ethernet interface, doesn’t it?

Give people a way out of their pain, some people prefer the pain.

Why? Answers on a postcard, please.