Hi
Since applying the latest updates to 21.02 on the 26/11/2021 the inbuilt Wi-Fi has stopped working. See below, has anyone else had a similar problem? Until yesterday it worked fine.
How did you apply updates? Did you use opkg upgrade?
Upgrading packages (via the CLI opkg upgrade command or the LuCI Upgrade... button) can result in major problems. It is generally highly discouraged, unless you know what you are doing or if there is specific instruction to do so.
I used LuCI as normal and have never had any issues before, if it causes problems why do they appear as upgrades and why is there an option to upgrade?
Does that mean you did use the upgrade packages feature? The reason it can cause issues is described in the link above, but it is worth saying that it doesn’t always cause problems, which is why you may not have experienced this before. However, upgrading packages is a risky operation and should only be used when necessary.
As to why the option is there: I can’t speak to the history here, but there are times when package upgrades are useful and safe, especially where dependencies are not tied to kernel versions and such. so the feature exists to enable users to do those upgrades easily. But the system does not have appropriate protections to prevent failures based on kernel version dependencies and other such issues.
if you ssh into the pi and run dmesg (preferably shortly after booting the pi) , you'll probably see something in the output that helps
dmesg shows this
[ 8.547953] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered blocking state
[ 8.553232] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered disabled state
[ 8.558642] device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
[ 8.564673] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered blocking state
[ 8.569914] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered forwarding state
[ 9.539806] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): br-lan: link becomes ready
[ 10.175651] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
[ 10.183451] r8152 1-1.2:1.0 eth1: carrier on
[ 10.847520] br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entered blocking state
[ 10.852882] br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entered disabled state
[ 10.858420] device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
[ 10.927908] device wlan0 left promiscuous mode
[ 10.932458] br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entered disabled state
Nothing further is shown
Going back to my question/warning about upgrading packages… if you did this, you will be best served by taking a backup and then starting over with a fresh install. Erase the card, install a fresh image, install any user-installed packages you need, and restore your backup. Don’t upgrade any packages unless you actually need to.
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