Wifi only works when Ethernet is plugged in

Help and Support Help
1

Hi, this appears several times in Volumio help forums, but I’ve tried all the potential solutions I’ve found without resolution. I’m attempting to use Volumio via wifi on an RPi3 in a place where an ethernet cable is not practical to use. Suggestions?

I am attempting to install Volumio using this setup:

  • Volumio image volumio-2.296-2017-10-18-pi.img (downloaded today)
  • Raspberry pi3 using built-in wifi
  • Hifi Berry DAC+ (Volumio detects and enables it flawlessly)
  • 64gb SD card (most of it is wasted but it’s what I have available

With a fresh install of Volumio, I plug the pi into ethernet and use the web configuration to use the UI to configure wifi.

Here’s what I’ve identified:

  • RPi3 is about 1 meter from the router (wrt1900ac), so distance isn’t the issue
  • Wifi works (after web UI configuration) when eth0 is plugged in.
  • Wifi immediately stops working when eth0 is disconnected.
  • Wifi immediately starts working again when eth0 is reconnected.
  • eth0 is 192.168.1.101 (router assigns this IP via DHCP to the eth0 mac address)
  • wlan0 is 192.168.1.100 (same as eth0 - assigned via DHCP)
  • router config has isolate=0, so one wifi antenna can talk with another
  • I’ve attempted to connect to wifi from another device connected to the router on the same antenna and also from a PC connected via ethernet
  • I’ve reinstalled the image on the SD card several times
  • I’ve installed RuneAudio on the same RPi3, and wifi works without ethernet present using the most recent RuneAudio image (except that image is from early 2016 and Volumio is still developed and maintained)
  • In a previous installation of the image, I removed eth0 entirely from /etc/network/interfaces because of a previous forum post (by Thijs_Rallye » Sun Nov 20 2016 17:48). It did not resolve the problem.
  • Note: although ifconfig (below) shows two unique MAC addresses for eth0 and wlan0, a pass by SoftPerfect Network Scanner shows 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.101 have the same MAC address. Maybe that’s a clue? I’m not sure how that can be since ifconfig shows 2 different MAC addresses…??
  • I installed a wifi dongle (Edimax), and its MAC address seems to take priority over the built-in wifi. That said, unplugging ethernet still kills wifi.
    There doesn’t appear to be a way for me to specify which wifi card to use.

ifconfig:

volumio@Volumio:~$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr b8:27:eb:c6:6a:aa
          inet addr:192.168.1.101  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:5795 errors:0 dropped:2 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2699 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1034119 (1009.8 KiB)  TX bytes:1981786 (1.8 MiB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:9563 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:9563 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1
          RX bytes:921648 (900.0 KiB)  TX bytes:921648 (900.0 KiB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr b8:27:eb:93:33:ff
          inet addr:192.168.1.100  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:35 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:206 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:3578 (3.4 KiB)  TX bytes:43505 (42.4 KiB)

volumio@Volumio:~$

ip link:

volumio@volumio:~$ ip link 1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1 link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether b8:27:eb:c6:6a:aa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000 link/ether b8:27:eb:93:33:ff brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

/etc/network/interfaces (unaltered via ssh in this installation, but I’ve tried modifying interfaces in previous image installations):

[code]volumio@Volumio:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual[/code]

wpa_supplicant:

volumio@Volumio:~$ cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant network={ scan_ssid=1 ssid="WirelessRouter" psk="bigdogseatbigcats" priority=1 }

2

I was fighting something that sounds similar. I think what I did that fixed it was turning both the wifi and the lan back to auto IP and just leave it up to the router. I think maybe I had both the pi and the router trying to assign the same ip. However I was fiddling a lot, so maybe that wasn’t what fixed it.

I also have a custom DNS enabled as per advice here. 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Now that I’m typing this I think I ended up with both wifi and lan on at the same time with different IPs. I don’t remember if I fixed that or forgot about it.

3

I have both already set up on the pi to accept what the DHCP server gives the pi. I have the router’s DHCP server assigning a specific IP based on the MAC address.

Sounds similar - I’ve been working on this for several hours now.

I already have Google DNS set and use 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as the custom DNS at the router level. It’s better than most ISP’s default DNS.

It still seems odd to me that the network scanner sees the same MAC address associated with two IPs. However, the router somehow knows how to distinguish the MAC addresses and assign the appropriate IP based on it. I wonder if that’s a clue someone here could use to solve the riddle.

4

Sorry. I already exceeded my knowledge. If you haven’t heard better, I’ll try to dig into mine this weekend and see what else I can figure out.

5

I have a similiar problem, but with the x86 version. Did you guys found a workaround for this?

6

No, not yet. Still happy to try thoughts/suggestions/ideas.

7

After ethernet is physically disconnected, all connection to the pi immediately stops. After physically reconnecting, connection to the pi resumes (on both ips - eth0 and wlan0).

I’ve connected directly to the pi using HDMI/keyboard. It turns out that wifi is still connected and active, it just stops accepting connections. I can verify the connection by sudo ping google.com (have to sudo because I guess the volumio account doesn’t have persmissions). Also, sudo ping volumio.org doesn’t work, but volumio.com does.

This means it isn’t the network connectivity - it’s something with how Volumio listens to the ports.

8

When you disconnect the ethernet, does the hotspot start up?

9

I believe that is the default option, but once you run the initial Volumio script and modify wifi to connect to your router, that stops. I can access the internet when connected directly (via keyboard and HDMI cable), so I’m connected to my router’s wifi channel, not the internal Volumio wifi hotspot.

Are there previous versions available for me to try? I notice a couple other posts of people complaining about the current version (including one person who upgraded and no longer has access to Volumio as a result).

Thanks!

10

I’m not sure that’s right. I think all of mine default back to hotspot if the router goes down.

11

It seems you’re asking two different things. The question I answered was:

My conundrum with Volumio now is that I want intentionally to disconnect ethernet and, instead of wired networking, I want to use wifi. I want to use the same wifi connection that all my other apps are on. I don’t want to have to disconnect from my home network, then connect to the Volumio hotspot, each time I want to control Volumio.

Are you saying the only way to control Volumio via wifi is though the hotspot? (If so:)Why does Volumio, in its initialization script, ask for my SSID and password for my home network?

Now you’re making a different observation:

Instead of asking about disconnecting ethernet from my pi, you’re asking if I’ve turned off my router. I haven’t tested taking my router offline. I want my router (and SSID) to stay up when using Volumio. If one of Volumio’s requirements is for me to take my router offline, that’s a tough decision for me to adopt Volumio.

Instead, chances are higher that I’ve misunderstood your thoughts. I apologize if I’m misunderstanding. Please rephrase your thought, and perhaps I’ll figure it out the second time.

Thanks!

12

Sorry for clouding things. You are right. It is supposed to work and generally does through the wifi or lan. It connects and any device on the network can then access and control it.

I was asking about the hotspot because when mine was doing weird things, when I unplugged the ethernet and lost wifi, the hotspot did not come back on and I had no way to access it. I ended up reflashing the card each time. Your figuring out that wifi was still active just not connecting caught my eye. I’m wondering if that’s what mine was doing too.

Mine is currently down while the cabinets my music lives in are completed, so I can’t go check things now either.

Hopefully someone who understands this more than I do will jump in with better answers for you.

Mike

13

I fixed this issue for my setup (Pi B+, Edimax EW-7811UTC WiFi + Mr Engman’s driver, default router DNS, fixed IP addresses for ethernet and WiFi) by simply turning off the hotspot. The WiFi needs longer to connect than the delay before the hotspot starts.

14

Strange things happening with Allo + Volumio combination all the time. Yesterday Volumio wi-fi access to hotspot did not show up in my computer (hotspot stick blue light still blinking). No access to dac. I changed hotspot stick to different USB interface and it worked again! I put memory stick to the previous USB interface - hotspot disappeared again. And came back when I put the memory stick to another interface.

I have been testing different hi-res files with Allo, using memory stick. The strange thing was that when I have added new .dff files Volumio does not show them at all in library. Still it shows the same music files if they are wav files. And it shows also older .dff files. Really strange.

Andy

15

Hey!

Anything new here? It’s only the f***ing second time I used my brand new volumio raspi + allo boss and it already isn’t working.
It’s really frustrating. The strange thing is: apart from the fact that I can only connect to wifi, if the ethernet cable is plugged in, I can only connect to the GUI if I type the ip-address in my browser. If I try to connect to volumio.local it fails.
Any help is much appreciated.

More strange observation I forgot to mention:
Even if the ethernet is not plugged in, I can see volumio wifi connected on the configuration webinterface of my router. Also since I have these connection problem, my computer also has occasional problems connecting to wifi. It’s fine if I turn off the wifi on my macbook and turn it on again but still…

16

Basically, the wifi connection works well in Volumio, so I’ve been using it that way for years.
It is well known that the RPI3 wifi connection is not outstanding. I use an external USB Wifi stick on my main Volumio (RPI2), which is a good alternative for a better connection. On a test system (RPI3) I use the onboard wifi with the problems described above.
Can it be that the Wifi connection in this place is generally very weak?

17

Thanks for your reply. Today I tried it again and every f***ing thing worked like a charm and I have no clue why. The only thing I have changed and not tested until today was that I assigned a static IP addess to my raspi (192.168.1.61). Now everything works as it should. I’m really confused, but also happy that I can finally listen to music.

Best regards, Klaus