Raspberry Pi 3B WLAN Interface not found

Question

I have a problem where my Raspberry Pi 3B (v. 1.2, official board) cannot use its onboard WLAN capability. The onboard WiFi used to connect to the Internet without issue perhaps a year ago.

However, when I picked up the device a few months ago, I failed to do this. This may have happened because I played with the configuration, because of an update or simply because it lay around for too long - I cannot remember what I did last time it worked. Now it is as if the WLAN chip never even existed, as I am unable to find the interface anywhere on the device.

• The "usual" connection icon in the GUI toolbar shows "No wireless interface found" when clicked
• ifconfig -a returns the eth0 and lo interfaces
• lsusb shows an ethernet adapter, an SMC9514 Hub and a root hub as the devices 003, 002 and 001 respectively
• Perhaps relevant: Additional devices are recognized as 005 and higher - 004 is skipped
• dmesg | grep brcmfmac returns nothing

I tried setting a WiFi country code. The raspi-config GUI allows me to select one, but does not save the choice. sudo raspi-config and trying to set a country code errors out with "No wireless interface found". Manually editing /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf to add country=de has no effect.

This issue persists through fresh installs of Raspbian, as I tried the last version of Raspbian Stretch (2018年06月27日) as well as an older Raspbian Jessie build (2016年03月18日). The full apt-get update, apt-get upgrade and apt-upgrade-dist cycle (with Internet connection provided through USB tethering) does not have any effect on the problem.

I would have thought that the WiFi chip is broken, but what leads me to hope that it is not is the fact that I can use Bluetooth connections without issue, which uses the same chip.

For reference, I posted this issue at https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=215049&p=1374120 a while ago, but with no luck. I am re-posting it here with added new findings in the hope that someone might know a solution, or at least steps to further troubleshoot it.

Edit: sudo wpa_cli status returns "Failed to connect to non-global ctrl_ifname: (nil) error: Not a directory". Additionally, here is the full dmesg output after boot:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ dmesg
[ 0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0
[ 0.000000] Linux version 4.14.70-v7+ (dc4@dc4-XPS13-9333) (gcc version 4.9.3 (crosstool-NG crosstool-ng-1.22.0-88-g8460611)) #1144 SMP Tue Sep 18 17:34:46 BST 2018
[ 0.000000] CPU: ARMv7 Processor [410fd034] revision 4 (ARMv7), cr=10c5383d
[ 0.000000] CPU: div instructions available: patching division code
[ 0.000000] CPU: PIPT / VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT aliasing instruction cache
[ 0.000000] OF: fdt: Machine model: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2
[ 0.000000] Memory policy: Data cache writealloc
[ 0.000000] cma: Reserved 8 MiB at 0x3ac00000
[ 0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 242688
[ 0.000000] free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat 80c84f80, node_mem_map ba39f000
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 2133 pages used for memmap
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 0 pages reserved
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 242688 pages, LIFO batch:31
[ 0.000000] percpu: Embedded 17 pages/cpu @ba348000 s38720 r8192 d22720 u69632
[ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: s38720 r8192 d22720 u69632 alloc=17*4096
[ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0 [0] 1 [0] 2 [0] 3 
[ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 240555
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: 8250.nr_uarts=0 bcm2708_fb.fbwidth=800 bcm2708_fb.fbheight=480 bcm2708_fb.fbswap=1 vc_mem.mem_base=0x3ec00000 vc_mem.mem_size=0x40000000 dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline fsck.repair=yes rootwait quiet splash plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles
[ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Memory: 940228K/970752K available (7168K kernel code, 575K rwdata, 2076K rodata, 1024K init, 706K bss, 22332K reserved, 8192K cma-reserved)
[ 0.000000] Virtual kernel memory layout:
 vector : 0xffff0000 - 0xffff1000 ( 4 kB)
 fixmap : 0xffc00000 - 0xfff00000 (3072 kB)
 vmalloc : 0xbb800000 - 0xff800000 (1088 MB)
 lowmem : 0x80000000 - 0xbb400000 ( 948 MB)
 modules : 0x7f000000 - 0x80000000 ( 16 MB)
 .text : 0x80008000 - 0x80800000 (8160 kB)
 .init : 0x80b00000 - 0x80c00000 (1024 kB)
 .data : 0x80c00000 - 0x80c8fe8c ( 576 kB)
 .bss : 0x80c96f10 - 0x80d478b0 ( 707 kB)
[ 0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=64, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=4, Nodes=1
[ 0.000000] ftrace: allocating 25276 entries in 75 pages
[ 0.000000] Hierarchical RCU implementation.
[ 0.000000] NR_IRQS: 16, nr_irqs: 16, preallocated irqs: 16
[ 0.000000] arch_timer: cp15 timer(s) running at 19.20MHz (phys).
[ 0.000000] clocksource: arch_sys_counter: mask: 0xffffffffffffff max_cycles: 0x46d987e47, max_idle_ns: 440795202767 ns
[ 0.000007] sched_clock: 56 bits at 19MHz, resolution 52ns, wraps every 4398046511078ns
[ 0.000018] Switching to timer-based delay loop, resolution 52ns
[ 0.000267] Console: colour dummy device 80x30
[ 0.000285] console [tty1] enabled
[ 0.000309] Calibrating delay loop (skipped), value calculated using timer frequency.. 38.40 BogoMIPS (lpj=192000)
[ 0.000324] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[ 0.000638] Mount-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[ 0.000652] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[ 0.001589] Disabling memory control group subsystem
[ 0.001663] CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
[ 0.002079] CPU0: thread -1, cpu 0, socket 0, mpidr 80000000
[ 0.002481] Setting up static identity map for 0x100000 - 0x10003c
[ 0.002601] Hierarchical SRCU implementation.
[ 0.003278] smp: Bringing up secondary CPUs ...
[ 0.004060] CPU1: thread -1, cpu 1, socket 0, mpidr 80000001
[ 0.004904] CPU2: thread -1, cpu 2, socket 0, mpidr 80000002
[ 0.005734] CPU3: thread -1, cpu 3, socket 0, mpidr 80000003
[ 0.005839] smp: Brought up 1 node, 4 CPUs
[ 0.005850] SMP: Total of 4 processors activated (153.60 BogoMIPS).
[ 0.005855] CPU: All CPU(s) started in HYP mode.
[ 0.005859] CPU: Virtualization extensions available.
[ 0.006737] devtmpfs: initialized
[ 0.017081] random: get_random_u32 called from bucket_table_alloc+0xfc/0x24c with crng_init=0
[ 0.017849] VFP support v0.3: implementor 41 architecture 3 part 40 variant 3 rev 4
[ 0.018067] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[ 0.018084] futex hash table entries: 1024 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[ 0.018643] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
[ 0.019381] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[ 0.022125] DMA: preallocated 1024 KiB pool for atomic coherent allocations
[ 0.026946] hw-breakpoint: found 5 (+1 reserved) breakpoint and 4 watchpoint registers.
[ 0.026954] hw-breakpoint: maximum watchpoint size is 8 bytes.
[ 0.027171] Serial: AMBA PL011 UART driver
[ 0.029007] bcm2835-mbox 3f00b880.mailbox: mailbox enabled
[ 0.029461] uart-pl011 3f201000.serial: could not find pctldev for node /soc/gpio@7e200000/uart0_pins, deferring probe
[ 0.061001] bcm2835-dma 3f007000.dma: DMA legacy API manager at bb813000, dmachans=0x1
[ 0.062388] SCSI subsystem initialized
[ 0.062605] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[ 0.062656] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[ 0.062748] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[ 0.070091] raspberrypi-firmware soc:firmware: Attached to firmware from 2018年09月10日 17:26
[ 0.071512] clocksource: Switched to clocksource arch_sys_counter
[ 0.148782] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.6.0
[ 0.148862] VFS: Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.149050] FS-Cache: Loaded
[ 0.149230] CacheFiles: Loaded
[ 0.157118] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[ 0.157840] TCP established hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[ 0.157950] TCP bind hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[ 0.158135] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 8192)
[ 0.158264] UDP hash table entries: 512 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.158309] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 512 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.158535] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[ 0.159000] RPC: Registered named UNIX socket transport module.
[ 0.159006] RPC: Registered udp transport module.
[ 0.159011] RPC: Registered tcp transport module.
[ 0.159016] RPC: Registered tcp NFSv4.1 backchannel transport module.
[ 0.160693] hw perfevents: enabled with armv7_cortex_a7 PMU driver, 7 counters available
[ 0.163426] workingset: timestamp_bits=14 max_order=18 bucket_order=4
[ 0.171259] FS-Cache: Netfs 'nfs' registered for caching
[ 0.171888] NFS: Registering the id_resolver key type
[ 0.171921] Key type id_resolver registered
[ 0.171926] Key type id_legacy registered
[ 0.171942] nfs4filelayout_init: NFSv4 File Layout Driver Registering...
[ 0.173857] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 251)
[ 0.173990] io scheduler noop registered
[ 0.173996] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[ 0.174266] io scheduler cfq registered
[ 0.174273] io scheduler mq-deadline registered
[ 0.174279] io scheduler kyber registered
[ 0.176998] BCM2708FB: allocated DMA memory fad10000
[ 0.177024] BCM2708FB: allocated DMA channel 0 @ bb813000
[ 0.188544] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 100x30
[ 0.196253] bcm2835-rng 3f104000.rng: hwrng registered
[ 0.196382] vc-mem: phys_addr:0x00000000 mem_base=0x3ec00000 mem_size:0x40000000(1024 MiB)
[ 0.196840] vc-sm: Videocore shared memory driver
[ 0.197107] gpiomem-bcm2835 3f200000.gpiomem: Initialised: Registers at 0x3f200000
[ 0.206534] brd: module loaded
[ 0.215167] loop: module loaded
[ 0.215180] Loading iSCSI transport class v2.0-870.
[ 0.215813] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed
[ 0.215916] usbcore: registered new interface driver lan78xx
[ 0.215969] usbcore: registered new interface driver smsc95xx
[ 0.215983] dwc_otg: version 3.00a 10-AUG-2012 (platform bus)
[ 0.243878] dwc_otg 3f980000.usb: base=0xf0980000
[ 0.401510] NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 80
[ 0.421510] NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 80
[ 0.441510] NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 80
[ 0.444085] Core Release: 2.80a
[ 0.444095] Setting default values for core params
[ 0.444125] Finished setting default values for core params
[ 0.644369] Using Buffer DMA mode
[ 0.644376] Periodic Transfer Interrupt Enhancement - disabled
[ 0.644381] Multiprocessor Interrupt Enhancement - disabled
[ 0.644387] OTG VER PARAM: 0, OTG VER FLAG: 0
[ 0.644402] Dedicated Tx FIFOs mode
[ 0.644772] WARN::dwc_otg_hcd_init:1046: FIQ DMA bounce buffers: virt = 0xbad04000 dma = 0xfad04000 len=9024
[ 0.644796] FIQ FSM acceleration enabled for :
 Non-periodic Split Transactions
 Periodic Split Transactions
 High-Speed Isochronous Endpoints
 Interrupt/Control Split Transaction hack enabled
[ 0.644803] dwc_otg: Microframe scheduler enabled
[ 0.644850] WARN::hcd_init_fiq:459: FIQ on core 1 at 0x805e96c0
[ 0.644861] WARN::hcd_init_fiq:460: FIQ ASM at 0x805e9a28 length 36
[ 0.644874] WARN::hcd_init_fiq:486: MPHI regs_base at 0xf0006000
[ 0.644923] dwc_otg 3f980000.usb: DWC OTG Controller
[ 0.644954] dwc_otg 3f980000.usb: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[ 0.644985] dwc_otg 3f980000.usb: irq 62, io mem 0x00000000
[ 0.645030] Init: Port Power? op_state=1
[ 0.645035] Init: Power Port (0)
[ 0.645235] usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[ 0.645246] usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[ 0.645254] usb usb1: Product: DWC OTG Controller
[ 0.645262] usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 4.14.70-v7+ dwc_otg_hcd
[ 0.645270] usb usb1: SerialNumber: 3f980000.usb
[ 0.645863] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 0.645901] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[ 0.646394] dwc_otg: FIQ enabled
[ 0.646399] dwc_otg: NAK holdoff enabled
[ 0.646404] dwc_otg: FIQ split-transaction FSM enabled
[ 0.646414] Module dwc_common_port init
[ 0.646630] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 0.646798] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[ 0.646867] IR NEC protocol handler initialized
[ 0.646872] IR RC5(x/sz) protocol handler initialized
[ 0.646877] IR RC6 protocol handler initialized
[ 0.646882] IR JVC protocol handler initialized
[ 0.646887] IR Sony protocol handler initialized
[ 0.646892] IR SANYO protocol handler initialized
[ 0.646898] IR Sharp protocol handler initialized
[ 0.646903] IR MCE Keyboard/mouse protocol handler initialized
[ 0.646908] IR XMP protocol handler initialized
[ 0.647593] bcm2835-wdt 3f100000.watchdog: Broadcom BCM2835 watchdog timer
[ 0.647850] bcm2835-cpufreq: min=600000 max=1200000
[ 0.648201] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
[ 0.648206] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
[ 0.648555] mmc-bcm2835 3f300000.mmc: could not get clk, deferring probe
[ 0.648875] sdhost-bcm2835 3f202000.mmc: could not get clk, deferring probe
[ 0.648968] sdhci-pltfm: SDHCI platform and OF driver helper
[ 0.650340] ledtrig-cpu: registered to indicate activity on CPUs
[ 0.650509] hidraw: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina
[ 0.650657] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 0.650662] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[ 0.651389] vchiq: vchiq_init_state: slot_zero = bad80000, is_master = 0
[ 0.652813] [vc_sm_connected_init]: start
[ 0.661540] [vc_sm_connected_init]: end - returning 0
[ 0.662150] Initializing XFRM netlink socket
[ 0.662173] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[ 0.662270] Key type dns_resolver registered
[ 0.662805] Registering SWP/SWPB emulation handler
[ 0.663355] registered taskstats version 1
[ 0.669184] uart-pl011 3f201000.serial: cts_event_workaround enabled
[ 0.669253] 3f201000.serial: ttyAMA0 at MMIO 0x3f201000 (irq = 87, base_baud = 0) is a PL011 rev2
[ 0.670939] mmc-bcm2835 3f300000.mmc: mmc_debug:0 mmc_debug2:0
[ 0.670948] mmc-bcm2835 3f300000.mmc: DMA channel allocated
[ 0.722143] sdhost: log_buf @ bad07000 (fad07000)
[ 0.801533] mmc0: sdhost-bcm2835 loaded - DMA enabled (>1)
[ 0.802522] of_cfs_init
[ 0.802610] of_cfs_init: OK
[ 0.803187] Waiting for root device /dev/mmcblk0p2...
[ 0.841506] NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 202
[ 0.861654] Indeed it is in host mode hprt0 = 00021501
[ 0.881510] NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 80
[ 0.901510] NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 80
[ 0.921510] NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 80
[ 0.928994] mmc0: host does not support reading read-only switch, assuming write-enable
[ 0.931723] mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address 0007
[ 0.932171] mmcblk0: mmc0:0007 SL16G 14.5 GiB
[ 0.933572] mmcblk0: p1 p2
[ 0.947938] random: fast init done
[ 0.961505] NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 282
[ 0.961555] NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 282
[ 0.961567] NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 282
[ 0.971256] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): INFO: recovery required on readonly filesystem
[ 0.971264] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): write access will be enabled during recovery
[ 0.990238] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): recovery complete
[ 1.071539] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using dwc_otg
[ 1.071679] Indeed it is in host mode hprt0 = 00001101
[ 1.311789] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=9514
[ 1.311800] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[ 1.312371] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1.312463] hub 1-1:1.0: 5 ports detected
[ 1.631539] usb 1-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using dwc_otg
[ 1.761768] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=ec00
[ 1.761780] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[ 1.764281] smsc95xx v1.0.6
[ 1.854800] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: register 'smsc95xx' at usb-3f980000.usb-1.1, smsc95xx USB 2.0 Ethernet, b8:27:eb:1c:f7:4d
[ 2.174043] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[ 2.174092] VFS: Mounted root (ext4 filesystem) readonly on device 179:2.
[ 2.175050] devtmpfs: mounted
[ 2.178009] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1024K
[ 2.715914] systemd[1]: System time before build time, advancing clock.
[ 2.868929] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[ 2.870270] Segment Routing with IPv6
[ 2.881133] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[ 2.908981] random: systemd: uninitialized urandom read (16 bytes read)
[ 2.914492] systemd[1]: systemd 232 running in system mode. (+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +IMA +APPARMOR +SMACK +SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSETUP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +ACL +XZ +LZ4 +SECCOMP +BLKID +ELFUTILS +KMOD +IDN)
[ 2.915050] systemd[1]: Detected architecture arm.
[ 2.916426] systemd[1]: Set hostname to <raspberrypi>.
[ 2.945442] random: systemd: uninitialized urandom read (16 bytes read)
[ 2.968953] random: systemd-cryptse: uninitialized urandom read (16 bytes read)
[ 3.532407] systemd[1]: Listening on fsck to fsckd communication Socket.
[ 3.532869] systemd[1]: Listening on udev Kernel Socket.
[ 3.533612] systemd[1]: Created slice User and Session Slice.
[ 3.533905] systemd[1]: Listening on Syslog Socket.
[ 3.534216] systemd[1]: Listening on Journal Socket.
[ 3.534462] systemd[1]: Listening on RPCbind Server Activation Socket.
[ 3.535276] systemd[1]: Set up automount Arbitrary Executable File Formats File System Automount Point.
[ 3.678536] i2c /dev entries driver
[ 5.239131] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): re-mounted. Opts: (null)
[ 5.320627] systemd-journald[94]: Received request to flush runtime journal from PID 1
[ 5.792859] rpi-ft5406 rpi_ft5406: Probing device
[ 5.793578] input: FT5406 memory based driver as /devices/virtual/input/input0
[ 5.919667] snd_bcm2835: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[ 5.923405] bcm2835_alsa bcm2835_alsa: card created with 8 channels
[ 7.444100] uart-pl011 3f201000.serial: no DMA platform data
[ 7.893826] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: hardware isn't capable of remote wakeup
[ 7.894076] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 7.994052] Adding 102396k swap on /var/swap. Priority:-2 extents:3 across:1773568k SSFS
[ 10.391605] Under-voltage detected! (0x00050005)
[ 11.924074] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[ 11.924127] NET: Registered protocol family 31
[ 11.924131] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[ 11.924145] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[ 11.924153] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 11.924172] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[ 11.948075] Bluetooth: HCI UART driver ver 2.3
[ 11.948088] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol H4 registered
[ 11.948094] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Three-wire (H5) registered
[ 11.948297] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Broadcom registered
[ 12.358461] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[ 12.358475] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[ 12.358495] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
[ 12.427811] random: crng init done
[ 12.427826] random: 7 urandom warning(s) missed due to ratelimiting
[ 15.270375] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[ 15.270407] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[ 15.270429] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
[ 20.791726] Voltage normalised (0x00000000)
[ 21.982249] fuse init (API version 7.26)

• Jaromanda X: just after boot, what is the output of dmesg
• Jan Hus: Use "wpa_cli status" . It supposedly finds "first network."
• TheNik: @JaromandaX, I edited the post with the full dmesg output. Thank you for the advice.
• Ingo: Does sudo iw list give you any information?
• Huan: I have serval Raspberry Pi Zero W and I experienced losing my wlan0 many times. It simply looks like the chip was not working anymore (which works like a charm before and stops working all of a sudden). I don't know why yet.

Answer 1

I have two same "Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2" bought in a one batch and switching the SD card. On one the wlan0 is there, on the second, there is none. There is a HW glitch inside preventing the Wi-Fi to work.