WiFi Issue with Volumio 3

Volumio Community Forums
#1

I have a Raspberry Pi 4 and seem to always have issues with wifi, specifically my network will disappear from Volumio. Had the issue with Volumio 2 and now with 3. Everytime it happens, a reboot doesn’t fix it. I have to use a wired connection to be able to load Volumio again. At that point, it sees the wifi network and I have to login again. And on 3, I have to first login to the 2.4G network in order for Volumio to see the 5G network. I know it’s a Volumio issue because it’s doesn’t happen if I use RoPieeeXL.

I’ve been using Volumio 3 for 2 days and I’ve already had to use my 25 ft Ethernet cable 3 times to get it back up and running on wifi. This is also the reason I stopped using Volumio 2 and started using RoPieeeXL. I don’t want to go back to RoPieeeXL. I did have a static IP assigned but went back to automatic IP. That didn’t solve the issue. Anybody have an idea as to what the issue could possibly be?

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#2

Is your Pi in a metal case? Mine was reducing the wifi signal. I occasionally have the same problem and hard rebooting my router (switch off, count to ten, power on) fixes it.

#3

Rebooting the router doesn’t help. This isn’t an issue of a weak signal. I will be listening to music and it will stop in the middle of a song and I can’t connect to Volumio thru wifi. Whenever this happens, I have to use the wired connection to be able to access Volumio.

#4

The wifi network also disappears if my Pi is rebooted. Have to use the wired connection to get it back up and running.

#5

If you have a usb wifi dongle, you could check if it was a case of the case shielding … or remove the RPi from the case. It certainly sounds like network signal, but you need to rule that out first.

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#6

Not using a dongle and it’s not a signal issue because I have no wifi issues when using RoPieeeXL. My Pi is probably only 20 ft from the router on the same floor in the house.

#7

Which country are you situated in? i,e what is your WiFi regulatory domain?

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#8

I’m in the US. As for the regulatory domain, I don’t know that. Is there some file I need to tweak?

#9

Just updated to 3.175. Wifi definitely doesn’t survive a reboot and the issue of having to first login to the 2.4G network in order for the 5G network to show up

#10

Sent a log after doing a reboot. Hopefully, there is something in there to help fix the Issue of wifi disappearing after a reboot

#11

@Brian2001 This is what I finally did to fix this. First I renamed my 2.4G SSID to NAME2, keeping the 5G as NAME.

Then I created a file in /boot using
sudo nano /boot/wpa_supplicant.conf

In that file I put:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=[your country code - 2 letters, caps, mine is NL for Netherlands]

network={
ssid=“your 5G SSID”
psk=“your wifi password”
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Then save the file and reboot. Remember the quote marks for ssid (wifi name) and psk (password).

#12

Did you have both network’s named the same before?

I’m asking since that is known to cause issues with some devices, for example Chromecast. And from how you explain it, it might have been the case before.

#13

@Joni_Salminen Yes, they had the same name before, but I don’t use Chromecast. It will probably work without renaming the 2.4G network - the Pi seems to find the right network quicker with the wpa_supplicant set. Maybe it’s the country code that helps.

#14

Chromecast was just an example, as i have one and can verify it does not like that. There sure are more devices with same proplem.

I advice very strongly that no one should ever give same SSID to 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks, because sooner or later you will have a device which does not work reliable in such scenario.

E: Looking at the wireless stuff on Volumio code, everything references to SSID and not BSSID which could be used to distinquish the 5ghz and 2.4ghz network with same name, perhaps this is the issue it cant find the network? @volumio

#15

@SimonE I will try what you suggested after work today

#16

Wifi in the Pi is not very strong, so my solution was to connect the Pi by cable to a mesh network repeater. That way it is wired all the time. I recently got the TP-Link Deco M5. There were 3 units in the box for the tv room, living room, office. I connected the Pi and my NAS to the same unit in the living room. The whole setup runs really fast, and more reliably. The web UI is noticably snappier too. It’s not a cheap approach, though was quite simple to set up. In the future, I will connect 2 more Pi’s later to the TV room and office for a solid multi-room setup.

#17

@SimonE Thanks for the tip! My 5G network was recognized without having to use a wired connection or having to login first to the 2.4G network