Pi Zero W WiFi Initialisation Issues

[fraser macmillan]

Hi guys, just wondering if anyone has come across the correct method to install and boot motioneye on a pi zero w using the wpa_supplicant.conf approach? 

I've followed every piece of advice on this board but nothing seems to work. My main problem seems to be that I cannot convince the pi to connect to my wifi on a fresh boot with wpa_supplicant.conf additional file. Any guidance would be appreciated, feel like I'm running in circles.

Thanks :)

[Calin Crisan]

Have you checked https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/wiki/Troubleshooting#wireless-connection-problems and https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/wiki/Wifi-Preconfiguration?

[adriaan]

Hi,

I had a problem with wpa_supplicant.conf once. It appeared to be a missing newline after the last '}'. So when you edit that text file make sure you press Enter after the last '}' character. Hope this helps.

[Steve Meltz]

I am having the same problem, and just got a brand new PiZero thinking the wifi module might be bad. Every time I boot it says it is looking for a wired connection.

[Steve Meltz]

Want to add that I reflashed the same card with Jessie Stretch, and the WifI worked. So I reflashed with Motion, added the wpa_supplicant.conf and still no joy.

[Steve Meltz]

Any ideas anyone?? Why would a pizeroW that the wifi works under Raspian not have Wifi function when using the posted wpa_supplican.conf file? Is there an error in the file. I am using motioneyeos-raspberrypi-20170329.img.gz   as this is the same version as my functioning pizero. Are there different version PizeroW's out there?

Thanks...

[Calin Crisan]

Can we see your wpa_supplicant.conf file? Also, have you tried connecting a monitor and see what it has to say about the wifi connection at startup.

[Steve Meltz]

Hi Calin, thanks for getting back to me. I am adding three attachments. The first is my redacted wpa_supplicant.conf from Notepad++, the second is a photo of the boot process, and the third is a screenshot of a directory of the SDcard.  Thanks for any advice.

Steve

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[adriaan]

Make sure that after the last '}' character (7D in hexadecimal) in wpa_supplicant.conf there is a new line character (hexadecimal 0A). It helped me.

[Calin Crisan]

Your boot log indicates that the system doesn't even try to initialize the wifi connection. This is most likely due to the fact that you have placed wpa_supplicant.conf on your boot partition after the first boot. You need to either rewrite the OS image from scratch, placing the wpa_supplicant.conf and the do a first boot, or you can edit your wpa_supplicant.conf from the linux partition (impossible from Windows unless you install some drivers).

[Steve Meltz]

Calin and adriaan: first, I always rewrite and place wpa-supplicant.conf on the boot partition before first boot and second I tried adding the line feed after the last }. It still does not try to initialize wifi. It does the same thing on two piZeroW's. Is the following a possibility; thinking that the wifi on the boards had gone bad, I flashed Stretch onto the SD card. After they booted successfully into Raspian with the wifi functioning, I updated the firmware which I had done in the past. Is there a possibility that this broke the wifi for Motioneye (although it still runs under Raspian)?

Steve

On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 3:08 AM, Calin Crisan <ccr...@gmail.com> wrote:

Your boot log indicates that the system doesn't even try to initialize the wifi connection. This is most likely due to the fact that you have placed wpa_supplicant.conf on your boot partition after the first boot. You need to either rewrite the OS image from scratch, placing the wpa_supplicant.conf and the do a first boot, or you can edit your wpa_supplicant.conf from the linux partition (impossible from Windows unless you install some drivers).

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[Calin Crisan]

Your wifi does not seem to be broken. The fact that motionEyeOS doesn't say anything about wifi indicates that it does not detect a wpa_supplicant.conf file with a valid SSID. It may be due to the 8 spaces that you have in front of (most of) the lines in your wpa_supplicant.conf.

[Steve Meltz]

Calin..I made sure there are no spaces. This still does not work.

Steve

On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 9:26 AM, Calin Crisan <ccr...@gmail.com> wrote:

Your wifi does not seem to be broken. The fact that motionEyeOS doesn't say anything about wifi indicates that it does not detect a wpa_supplicant.conf file with a valid SSID. It may be due to the 8 spaces that you have in front of (most of) the lines in your wpa_supplicant.conf.

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[Steve Meltz]

This AM I tried the following: reflashed the SD card, did not add wpa_supplicant.conf, and put the card in my model B. All I get is the "rainbow" screen; it does not boot.

Steve

[adriaan]

Hey Steve, note thta there are different motioneyeos images for different raspberry pi boards. In case you took the Zero W image and did put it in anoher type of pi board.

[Steve Meltz]

Adriaan:  Perhaps I did not follow the correct procedure. Under the troubleshooting for the PizeroW, it describes booting on a model B and setting up the wifi that way. So should I use the image for a B not for a PizeroW, boot that on the B and set up the wifi? Will the Pizero boot off of that SD card even though a different image was on it the first time?

Steve

On Sat, Dec 9, 2017 at 2:24 AM, adriaan <aad....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey Steve, note thta there are different motioneyeos images for different raspberry pi boards. In case you took the Zero W image and did put it in anoher type of pi board.

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[adriaan]

Steve,

Would you be so kind to tell us how you prepare an micro SD card, step by step.

 Are you using Linux or Windows to prepare the sd card?

 Which procedure or software?

 At what time do you add the wpa_supplicant.conf file? 

How do you add it and where is it placed?  

And one more thing to check. After using an sd card once it contains more than one partition. That caused me some headache because the next time I wanted to put an image on it, it just did not fit. In that case the various partitions on the sd card need to be removed first.

[adriaan]

And one more thing, just to be sure. After writing the motioneysos.img to a sdcard, TWO partitions have been created. The wpa_supplicant.conf file must be placed in the boot partition (the one with files like bootcode.bin, start.elf etc...)

On Saturday, December 9, 2017 at 6:47:15 PM UTC+1, Steve Meltz wrote:

Adriaan:  Perhaps I did not follow the correct procedure. Under the troubleshooting for the PizeroW, it describes booting on a model B and setting up the wifi that way. So should I use the image for a B not for a PizeroW, boot that on the B and set up the wifi? Will the Pizero boot off of that SD card even though a different image was on it the first time?

Steve

On Sat, Dec 9, 2017 at 2:24 AM, adriaan <aad....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey Steve, note thta there are different motioneyeos images for different raspberry pi boards. In case you took the Zero W image and did put it in anoher type of pi board.

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[Steve Meltz]

Adriaan and Calin: Here is what I tried numerous times:

1. Format card with SD Formatter program (I use Windows)

2. Flash motioneyeos image onto card with Win32 DiskImager

3. Add blank text file renamed to wpa_supplicant.conf in root directory

4. Open the blank .conf file and copy/paste wpa_supplicant.conf from website to Notepad++ in Unix mode

5. Change SSID, country code, and Password in Notepad++

4. Save modified file back to SD card.

5. Eject card, place in PiZeroW and reboot...only looks for wired connection as previously stated.

In other words, I followed all the steps on the WiFi Preconfiguration page.

Saying all that, I played around most of yesterday afternoon (I consider it fun, not frustration!!) and was finally successful by doing the following:

1. Reformat card and flash Raspian stretch Lite onto card

2. Place card in PiZeroW (with USB dongle for a keyboard) and boot.

3. Use sudo raspi_config to turn on camera and SSH, set time zone, select keyboard, turn on wifi and enter SSID and password. Reboot.

4. Do an update and upgrade to the software (I elected NOT to update firmware).

5. Followed Calin's instructions to "Install on Raspian". I found the easiest way to do this is to SSH from my desktop (wifi is now working) using Putty and copy/paste from the website to Putty. This process

    takes about 1/2 hour (the pip install motioneye command takes about 10 minutes by itself), but no worries.

6. Reboot and it works!

The only changes/downsides to all this are:

1. Instead of just entering the IP address on my browser I now have to enter something like 192.168.11.30:8765

2. Not all of the tools are there as if I was able to use motioneye itself. The PiZeroW is now acting like a server. Just wish I had "Expert Settings", "shutdown and reboot", and control over contrast, etc.

But I have my cameras back! I noticed on GitHub that others have similar problems with their PiZeroW's. I would be happy to volunteer as a beta tester for any ideas you may have.

Thanks, Steve

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[Steve Meltz]

One mistake in previous: in step 3 of what I had unsuccessfully tried I said "root" directory....I meant "boot" directory.

[adriaan]

Concrats!

[Steve Meltz]

Hi...just a follow up:

I decided to try another approach with a spare PiZeroW and camera:

I put Ubuntu on a USB stick and did the SD card install that way. I used Gedit to add wpa_supplicant.conf
This booted right up and all was well. The hitch now is after I changed some settings using the MotionEye GUI (resolution, camera ID, etc.) and rebooted the only menu item I can see now is the attached.

Thanks, Steve

[Steven Meltz]

Please Ignore the previous...I figured it out...my bad!!

Steve

[jhussa...@gmail.com]

Hello Steve!

Will you, please, give more info with step by step instructions how you solved this issue?

I have the same problem and could not make it work so far.

Thanks.

Javed

[Adrien]

I think he was connected as user and not admin.
Is it your case ?

[Bob Findlay]

My guess would be that your file doesn't have unix line endings?  Without you posting what's in your file, we can't really help much!