Wifi lost after dist-upgrade on rpi4B rev 1.5

[rkarlsba]

I just got this rpi4 2GB rev 1.5 and it works well, or did, until I did a dist-upgrade and it lost contact with wifi altogether. It seems it's a driver issue - I can't even iwlist wlan0 scan or up the nic. I tried to upgrade firmware, but it didn't help anything. I've tried to reinstall several times (since it's not in use yet) and have reproduced the error all of those times. It goes like this (the fourth, the fift):

• Put 2022-01-28-raspios-bullseye-arm64-lite.img on an sd card.
• Touch /boot/ssh and setup /boot/wpa_supplicant.conf, add enable_uart=1 to config.txt (the latter only for debugging, it reproduces well without it, but I don't have anything with hdmi here).
• Boot the OS, set new password.
• Check networking - it all works (only tested on 2.4GHz - 5GHz didn't seem to work). I got valid IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
• run 'apt update && apt full-upgrade'
  (the minor flaw)
• Reboot
  (and the major lift)
• And check network settings. Nothing on the wifi. NIC is down.
  (The baffled king composing Hallelujah)

The firmware was a tad old, so I upgraded to the latest firmware from Thu 10 Mar 2022 11:57:12 AM UTC and it didn't help anything.

PS: There's a line in dmesg that might be relevant, but I'm not sure: cfg80211: loaded regulatory.db is malformed or signature is missing/invalid

[yutayu]

[ 28.364825] ieee80211 phy0: brcmf_cfg80211_start_ap: Set Channel failed: chspec=4108, -52
uname -r
5.15.30-v7l+

This also happens at 32bit.
No SSID releases.

[pelwell]

Starting with a clean download of the 64-bit RPi-OS and running sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade didn't cause any problems on a rev 1.2 Pi 4B.

Can anyone experiencing this issue post:

1. the initial OS version - 32 vs 64, Lite vs Normal vs Full, image date if known,
2. the upgrade method - dist-upgdate, full-upgrade,
3. the output of tail /proc/cpuinfo,
4. the whole of dmesg shortly after boot,
5. the WLAN channel and country code (as @ghollingworth asks)?

[ghollingworth]

Also what channel/country are you selecting?

[rkarlsba]

Starting with a clean download of the 64-bit RPi-OS and running sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade didn't cause any problems on a rev 1.2 Pi 4B.

It does on rev 1.5

Can anyone experiencing this issue post:

1. the initial OS version - 32 vs 64, Lite vs Normal vs Full, image date if known,

Last I checked, the kernel is the same for all of these, and I used 2022-01-28-raspios-bullseye-arm64-lite.img and as yutayu says, it's the same on 32bit.

2. the upgrade method - `dist-upgdate`, `full-upgrade`,

If you look at the code, dist-upgrade is just an alias for full-upgrade. And I have tried them both - same result.

3. the output of `tail /proc/cpuinfo`,

I guess you're looking for these

Hardware : BCM2835
Revision : b03115
Serial : 100000004dc89f36
Model : Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5

4. the whole of `dmesg` shortly after boot?

https://paste.debian.net/1236251/

[rkarlsba]

Also what channel/country are you selecting?

It was set to NO, since I'm in Norway, and that has worked well on other pis. I've tried SE and UK as well with the same result.

[rkarlsba]

Also what channel/country are you selecting?

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=NO

network={
        ssid="mynet"
        psk="mypw"
}

[pelwell]

There is nothing obviously wrong in your kernel log. How about iwlist channel and iwconfig?

[rkarlsba]

root@raspberrypi:~# iwlist channel
lo        no frequency information.

eth0      no frequency information.

wlan0     32 channels in total; available frequencies :
          Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
          Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
          Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
          Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
          Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
          Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
          Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
          Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
          Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
          Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
          Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
          Channel 12 : 2.467 GHz
          Channel 13 : 2.472 GHz
          Channel 14 : 2.484 GHz
          Channel 34 : 5.17 GHz
          Channel 36 : 5.18 GHz
          Channel 38 : 5.19 GHz
          Channel 40 : 5.2 GHz
          Channel 42 : 5.21 GHz
          Channel 44 : 5.22 GHz
          Channel 46 : 5.23 GHz
          Channel 48 : 5.24 GHz
          Channel 52 : 5.26 GHz
          Channel 56 : 5.28 GHz
          Channel 60 : 5.3 GHz
          Channel 64 : 5.32 GHz
          Channel 100 : 5.5 GHz
          Channel 104 : 5.52 GHz
          Channel 108 : 5.54 GHz
          Channel 112 : 5.56 GHz
          Channel 116 : 5.58 GHz
          Channel 120 : 5.6 GHz
root@raspberrypi:~# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=31 dBm
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on

root@raspberrypi:~#

[rkarlsba]

root@raspberrypi:~# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether e4:5f:01:9e:fd:83 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether e4:5f:01:9e:fd:84 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
root@raspberrypi:~#

[yutayu]

• the initial OS version - 32 vs 64, Lite vs Normal vs Full, image date if known,
  32bit,Normal,1-28
  uname -a
  Linux raspberrypi 5.15.30-v7l+ #1536 SMP Mon Mar 28 13:51:42 BST 2022 armv7l GNU/Linux

• the upgrade method - dist-upgdate, full-upgrade,
  full-upgrade
• the output of tail /proc/cpuinfo,
  tail /proc/cpuinfo
  CPU implementer : 0x41
  CPU architecture: 7
  CPU variant : 0x0
  CPU part : 0xd08
  CPU revision : 3

Hardware : BCM2711
Revision : c03112
Serial : 10000000c2ebe06a
Model : Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.2

• the whole of dmesg shortly after boot,
  log.txt

• the WLAN channel and country code (as @ghollingworth asks)?
  13
  JP

[pelwell]

It's also working on a rev 1.4 (I haven't located a 1.5 yet, but honestly there should be no difference in this regard) 32-bit system set to NO. It connects to 2.4 and 5 bands.

[yutayu]

Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: Configuration file: /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->COUNTRY_UPDATE
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: Using interface wlan0 with hwaddr dc:a6:32:89:fb:be and ssid >
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi kernel: ieee80211 phy0: brcmf_cfg80211_start_ap: Set Channel failed: chspec=>
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: Failed to set beacon parameters
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: wlan0: Could not connect to kernel driver
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: Interface initialization failed
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: wlan0: interface state COUNTRY_UPDATE->DISABLED
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: wlan0: AP-DISABLED
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: wlan0: Unable to setup interface.
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: wlan0: interface state DISABLED->DISABLED
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: wlan0: AP-DISABLED
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-TERMINATING
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan0 wasn't started
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi hostapd[6840]: nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi sudo[6836]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Mar 31 18:42:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: hostapd.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/F>

[pelwell]

Installing and enabling hostapd is a non-standard configuration and should always be mentioned in bug reports. However, I think @rkarlsba is not using hostapd - am I right?

[yutayu]

I changed wifi channel 13 to 11 and it works.

[pelwell]

@rkarlsba As part of the investigation, what is your current WLAN channel and (if you can) does changing it help?

[pelwell]

To see if this failure is as the result of the kernel change, you can revert to a 5.10 kernel with sudo rpi-update 770ca2c2.

[rkarlsba]

@pelwell It was at channel 12. I moved it to channel 10 and now it works. Thanks :)

I'm using openwrt, meaning hostapd, it seems

[rkarlsba]

And yes, I can confirm that rolling back to 5.10 "fixes" this.

[pelwell]

Thanks - that should be enough to work on for now.

[rkarlsba]

oh - btw - no errors in the kernel log about regulatory.db in 5.10

[rkarlsba]

5.15 gave me these

Mar 29 18:43:01 pi kernel: [ 5.119194] cfg80211: Loading compiled-in X.509 certificates for regulatory database
Mar 29 18:43:01 pi kernel: [ 5.154400] cfg80211: loaded regulatory.db is malformed or signature is missing/invalid

[pelwell]

I can reproduce the issue here - the 5.15 kernel seems to be restricting WiFi to the lowest common denominator of channels 1-11.

[rkarlsba]

…which looks like a bad regulatory.db ;)

[pelwell]

Yes, probably, but in my experiences it's better not to jump to conclusions.

[rkarlsba]

I was guessing, not concluding ;)

[pelwell]

Would you care to guess what the solution is?

[rkarlsba]

Replace regulatory.db with a valid file, one that 5.15 can accept

[XECDesign]

FWIW, I'm seeing the loaded regulatory.db is malformed or signature is missing/invalid message on 5.10 as well on my pi400, running pios arm64. Might be a red herring.

[popcornmix]

The fix for this issue was in the file drivers/net/wireless/broadcom/brcm80211/brcmfmac/cfg80211.c, so the bug and fix were brcm80211 specific. Create a new issue for a bug with some other hardware.