Hi *.*,
There's a RPi zero w (1W) and a RPi zero 2w (2W). Both can boot from the same (not a clone, physically the identical) SD-card. But (there always is a but) the 1W has WLAN, the 2W doesn't have.
Has anybody an idea what's the difference? Or how can I investigate why one has a WLAN connection, and the other has not.
BTW: it is not an issue with the DHCP server. The 2W doesn't even send DHCP requests.
TIA, Stefan
Sounds unlikely, but MAC address different?
Have you updated the firmware? I think there have been some pin-related changes for the 2W, which may affect the way the wifi is connected. If you're using an old SD card image that may be the problem.
sudo rpi-update
should handle that.
Theo
The Z2W has a slightly different wifi chip, so you need an absolutely up-to-date RaspiOS 32-bit. (Not sure if the driver is in the 64-bit version yet; that's still in beta.) Both these commands are essential, in this order:
sudo apt update sudo apt -y full-upgrade
then shut down and pop the card into the Z2W.
MAC addresses should be different. Two different WLAN chips. But as I wrote: there are no DHCP requests from W2.
Bye, Stefan
does raspbian bind the WLAN interface to the physical MAC address?
Yes, of course, that's why I thought it unlikely. If it were me, I would try a completely fresh card with a minimal standard Raspberry Pi OS. I think the wireless /has/ changed, but I would be amazed if the Wi-Fi were non functional. You might also try reconfiguring the Wi-Fi from the desktop (on a slightly bigger OS).
Be sure your OS and firmware are up-to-date, as others have suggested.
I think so, but am not sure, as I'm not sure what your question exactly means. "ip addr" shows the interface wlan0 with a MAC. But the interface is down.
In syslog there's a message which says that wlan0 can't get a carrier. I think that's the root cause. But why can't it get a carrier?
Bye, Stefan
I did this before inserting the card the first time into the Z2W.
Bye, Stefan
The OS has been updated before testing the Z2W using "sudo apt update ; sudo apt dist-upgrade". I think that should also update the firmware. But if not: How can I rpi-update without network? rpi-update complains about missing network.
TIA, Stefan
some distros (not really talking about PIs) when they first see e.g. eth0 will check the MAC addr, and then store that association, if you remove the disk/SD and boot a different computer, they'll see a different MAC addr and may associate it with e.g. eth1, as a different NIC.
sounds like MAC address isn't your issue then.
I'd test a brand new install of latest o/s to make sure the WLAN hardware is working.
The SD was freshly installed (RaspOS from 2021-05-xx), then "apt update; apt dist-upgrade". I tried a rpi-update on the Pi zero W. That brought 2 new files in /boot: bcm2710-rpi-zero-2[-w].dtb.
Unfortunately that didn't make the trick. WLAN still not working.
Bye, Stefan
You said you switch the card between 2 zeros. Which MAC is it dispalying?
1 or 2? Does the MAC change when you switch pi? Or is somethinge cached?
Surely the firmware needed for an officially released board is in the general release software? In the very early days of Raspberry Pi you needed rpi-update for any firmware update but now the standard "apt upgrade" also delivers new firmware and the official advice has shifted to: never ever use rpi-update unless you know exactly what issue you're having, how rpi-update attempts to solve it, and that it may well break your install.
It may well be, but unless you do an image build, it may well not be incorporated into the current kernel.
At one point a kernel upgrade destroyed my wifi - the broadcomm driver for that kernel release were not supplied with it.
My guess is you have to force a kernel rebuild.
seems like 'dracut -f' is what you need to run on the new system ...
try an apt upgrade now...
You probly need to force a kernel rebuild and new initramfs and install it.
Might be easy to downgrade kernel and upgrade it.
Already done several times; no changes.
Why?
Loaded modules are cfg80211, brcmfmac and brcmutil. MAC addresses between zero W and zero 2 W differ.
TIA, Stefan
The fix for the 'remembering' of network interfaces is usually to delete a file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules There's no harm in deleting it to see if it fixes the problem.
(this is particularly fun when your password is stored on the network so you need an active network to login, but you need to delete the file to make the network work)
Theo
I may have missed seeing you mention it, but have you looked in the system logs to see what, if anything, they show about initialising wifi?
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