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I have the BeagleBone Black Wireless, and I have flashed Ubuntu 16.04 to it. I am trying to make the WiFi to work but have so far failed. I have already tried to modify the /etc/network/interfaces file by adding the following commands for wlan0, without any luck:

auto wlan0
   iface wlan0 inet static
   address 192.168.1.2
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   gateway 192.168.1.1
   wireless-mode ad-hoc
   wireless-essid BBB

In some forums, people suggest using connmanctl, however, there is no such preinstalled package in Ubuntu. Also I can’t download it to the BBBw, because its WiFi is not working. I tried connecting the BBBw to the internet via a usb connection with a PC, I edited this connection to “shared to other computers” but again, I had no Internet connection to the BBBw.

To sum up, my question is: Is there an easy way to make the WiFi of the BBBw (with Ubuntu) to work, without the need to use the connmanctl?

If not, any detailed information on how to install the connmanctl would be very much appreciated.

I am including the whole /etc/network/interfaces file, with the part that I added, which appears after the comment “The following lines for the wlan0 were added by me”.

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
# Example to keep MAC address between reboots
#hwaddress ether DE:AD:BE:EF:CA:FE

# The following lines for the wlan0 were added by me
# Ad-Hoc wifi
auto wlan0
   iface wlan0 inet static
   address 192.168.1.2
   netmask 255.255.25a5.0
   gateway 192.168.1.1
   wireless-mode ad-hoc
   wireless-essid BBB

##connman: ethX static config
#connmanctl services
#Using the appropriate ethernet service, tell connman to setup a static IP address for that service:
#sudo connmanctl config <service> --ipv4 manual <ip_addr> <netmask> <gateway> --nameservers <dns_server>

##connman: WiFi
#
#connmanctl
#connmanctl> tether wifi off
#connmanctl> enable wifi
#connmanctl> scan wifi
#connmanctl> services
#connmanctl> agent on
#connmanctl> connect wifi_*_managed_psk
#connmanctl> quit

# Ethernet/RNDIS gadget (g_ether)
# Used by: /opt/scripts/boot/autoconfigure_usb0.sh
iface usb0 inet static
    address 192.168.7.2
    netmask 255.255.255.252
    network 192.168.7.0
    gateway 192.168.7.1
David Foerster
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NickG
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  • Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Could you please [run the network diagnostics](//askubuntu.com/a/425205/175814) and [edit] your question to include a link to the result? The diagnostics will likely cover all options that may cause your issue. Thanks. – David Foerster Mar 11 '18 at 10:09
  • I have added the results you asked. – NickG Mar 13 '18 at 20:34
  • Uhm, there are a few commands missing on your Ubuntu installation that are normally there out of the box. Could you please install the packages `pciutils pcmciautils` and run the script again? Thanks. – David Foerster Mar 13 '18 at 22:04
  • Before doing what David suggested, check if BeagleBone actually has PCI bus support, do `ls /sys/bus/pci/` According to the book "Learning BeagleBone" by H.Yau this bus isn't supported on BeagleBone, but that book was released in 2014, so things may have changed. – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Mar 14 '18 at 00:44
  • I have an update to my problem. I tried 'ifconfing wlan0 up' and the result was this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0op218l2tixggez/wlan.png?dl=0. I was told to try to put in 'cd /lib/firmware/ti-connectivity' the following file 'sudo wget https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/plain/ti-connectivity/wl18xx-fw-4.bin', which I transferred to the BBBw via SSH. After that, the on-board Wi-Fi led opened, and i added a wlan0 reference to the interfaces file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lf6pi9ft2gssj5o/SCRNSHT_2.png?dl=0. – NickG Mar 18 '18 at 23:10
  • However I could not find the BBBw's wireless network that was supposed to be up, from any other device. I reran the network diagnostics, and I am posting the results: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cw4yh41mspbih0t/wireless-info_latest.txt?dl=0 – NickG Mar 18 '18 at 23:11
  • I ran a diagnostics script for Beagleboards named version.sh. Here are the results: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kimbj5ntao...on_sh.txt?dl=0 In line 10 it shows a warning about a firmware package not having been installed. – NickG Mar 20 '18 at 14:50
  • Good job ! Congratulations on resolving the issue – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy May 19 '18 at 23:48

1 Answers1

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I have found a way to make the WiFi of BBBw to work.

  1. Firstly add the following lines to the etc/network/interfaces file of the BBBw (you need to access it by another way, for example a serial connection with a laptop):

    auto wlan0
    iface wlan0 inet dhcp
    wpa-ssid yourSSID
    wpa-psk yourPass
  2. Reboot BBBw

  3. Then you have to update the firmware (thanks to jeremy31 for the info:https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2386780):

    sudo wget https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/plain/ti-connectivity/wl18xx-fw-4.bin

    copy the abovementioned .bin file to the lib/firmware/ti-connectivity directory of BBBw

  4. Reboot BBBw

After doing these you have to set up a connection to your linux PC for the BBBw to connect to. This connection should be "Shared to other computers", hotspot mode, WPA/WPA2 Personal, and have the SAME ssid as the one in the interfaces file.

After that your BBBw should be able to connect to your PC. If you want your BBBw to have internet access, you have to connect an ethernet cable to your PC. The "shared to other computers" hotspot connection will share the PC's ethernet internet to the BBBw.

More issues:

  • There is a good chance that, in order for the BBBw to connect to the PC's hotspot connection, you should not have the internet ethernet cable of the PC connected during the BBBw's boot (it is at boot time that BBBw tries to find a network to connect).
  • Wifi was still not working until the latest ubuntu armhf console image (i.e. the 2018-03-09 version) was flashed. I haven't managed to make the older 2018-02-09 version to work.
NickG
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