Raspberry Pi 4 Volumio Not Working Hot Spot Not Appearing on Wireless List

Just FYI: I did receive a note from Volumio support, suggesting that I might have used a beta download. Sadly, I’m having this problem with the stable release, 2.907. If anyone has suggestions, I’d love to hear them. I can’t wait to get started with Volumio.

When logged in as volumio, ifconfig returns information about eth0 and lo, but wlan0 or wlan1 do not appear.

When I have a hardwired connection to the ethernet port, I am able to ping outside ip addresses from the Pi, suggesting that the network adapter is working, but volumio.local does not appear anywhere on my network.

Perhaps something in the startup should be enabling the wlanX? I dunno.

BTW: The WiFi is working properly on my Pi when booting with the standard release software.

When connected by ethernet, go to the appropriate IP address & setup your wifi from there … you may need to set the actual IP address (as seen from your router, for example) rather than using ‘volumio.local’.

Thanks for the show of support, dvo and chsims1. Without a wired network, the IP address is self-assigned. With a wired net (on my RPi 400 unit), I can get an IP address, but no wireless device appears.

The intended use is on a Pi Zero W (no hard ethernet). I did place the SD card with Volumio 2.907 into the SD slot on my Pi Zero, but that also fails to create a visible hot spot.

sofar i could find out the Rpi 400 does have wireless :
Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless LAN

// https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-400/specifications/

I can get an IP address, but no wireless device appears.

Have you enabled and set up wifi from the UI settings on your RPi400? What exactly do you mean by “no wireless device appears”?

chsims1: When I open up my WiFi settings on my computer or phone, I do not see a volumio network. My understanding is that Volumio is supposed to create its own wireless network when it books.

When I say that no wireless device appears, I mean that when I log in to the Pi, and enter ifconfig, no wlan device appears. I believe that this is telling me that the OS doesn’t detect a wireless device.

dvo: Yes, I decided to bring up volumio for the first time on my RPi 400 because it does have a built-in wireless adapter, as well as a wired ethernet port. I had hoped that this would be the most reliable configuration from which to start.

Thank you both for trying to help here.

If Volumio doesn’t find a wired network, and doesn’t have details of a wifi connection then yes it will start a wireless hotpoint. In your case, your device will receive a dhcp address (as you point out) over the LAN. You then need to go to wireless settings and find your home wifi ssid or enter the details manually if hidden. Volumio will then set up a wifi connection for you … it’s details should be shown along with those for the wired connection (make sure you refresh, and give it sufficient time for the network settings to be changed. It may even be necessary to reboot).

I have the same problems with my Pi 400 :frowning:

Reread post #13 carefully.

I cannot get a WiFi Hotspot signal on Volumio installation, either with an Ethernet cable plugged in or without one. I have a new RPi 4B 2GB (so it has internal WiFi capability at 5 and 2.4 GHz), a new 64GB SD card, and have tried flashing with Belena Etcher and the RPi installation app. I’ve tried turning off the 5Gz wifi signal to leave the 2.4Ghz WiFi signal from my Eero router (connected to a Virgin 3.0 Hub in the UK). I currently do not have a screen for the RPi but the red light shows and yellow light flashes occasionally. When the Ethnernet cable is attached both green and yellow lights turn on but do not flash - so I guess there is a connection but no data exchange. I’m using the latest image version of Volumio and I’ve tried going back to a V2. I’ve tried the start up and flashing many times and no results. I’ve tried different SD cards. I’ve installed the Volumio app on both IoS and Android devices, but neither find the Volumio signal. I’ve tried adding the volumio.local and the IP address in a Firefox browse but it times out. I’ve read the github Quick Start Guide and have trawled the chatrooms but nothing I’ve tried works.
After all this, I still have no way of finding the Volumio hotspot, so cannot proceed with the set up.
Am a complete novice on Rpi - I can follow clear instructions and diagnosis but useless when it comes to Linux or coding.
Any suggestions please?
E.g. Is there any other way I can connect the RPi a laptop to complete the set up? Do I need to find a screen to see the script as a it boots up?
Thanks in advance.

You don’t need a screen keyboard…
The easiest way is to plug ethernet cable on Rpi and boot. The use the android app to find volumio or use a scanner app such as ‘fing’ to find it, or maybe your router to show all devices connected.
The connect to volumio using the IP address you found.
But, with a fresh install you should see the hotspot. Search available WiFi networks around you.

Thanks for the suggestion balbuze - I can see the devices from the app connected to my eero router. I’ve added Fing as well, which confirms that the RPi is not sending out a hotspot signal, whether the Ethernet cable is connected or not.This might possibly be an issue with the RPi itself - it is new out of the box. Is there any other way I can check the normal function of the RPI itself, independently of Volumio?

You have to check WiFi networks available from WiFi settings on your smartphone. Not from Fing, as it returns devices connected on the known network.
But if you can access volumio, why don’t you configure WiFi settings to use it. Hotspot goal is to help configuration when no eth is available.

Thanks again for speedy response. I understand I am looking for a wifi hotspot from the RPi, when I start up Volumio for the first time. However this is not visible, either with or without an Ethernet cable, so I cannot access Volumio and proceed with the setup.
I have just installed Raspbian aon another SD card and managed to operate it via a VNC, following Tomshardware instructions. This involved adding a SSH file and another file my home wifi SSID/Pw details to files in the root folder of the SD card, then connecting the RPi to my laptop via an Ethernet cable and controlling it from there. Hence, I think I’ve proved the board and wifi antenna work, and that the problem likely lies with the Volumio installation software. What I did is way over my head - I just followed instructions.
Am wondering if there is something similar I can do to force Volumio to be visible?

Any clues why Volumio hotspot does not show on boot up?

I’ve got two Windows laptops, a desktop running Ubuntu, an Android and an IoS mobile. Nothing on any of them. With with an Ethernet cable or just by itself. I’ve re-flashed and re-booted umpteen times.

@balbuze I appreciate your help above, but so far nothing has worked.

Far from a 10 minute set up, Volumio has so far given me 20 hours of frustrating trial and error and I’ve made zero progress.

I don’t think the hotspot will show up if you plug in network cable, just connect via ip and perform the setup.

I haven’t tested, but i guess it could be possible that if you had cable plugged when the system booted for first time, it won’t launch the hotspot on successive attempts anymore.

Shutdown the pi.
Plug in network cable.
Power pi.
Use fing or alternative to find the IP address from your home network.
Connect via IP from the browser and finish the setup.

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Thanks @Joni_Salminen Sorry for the pause in comms - I’ve now got myself a HDMI cable and monitor and can see the script when I boot it up. See photo pasted below.

I don’t understand what is going on - and hoping someone on this board will be able to interpret, eg “start4.elf is not compatible” and “This board requires newer software”. It’s clear it was not reaching first base all along.

To repeat from my posts above - this is a brand new RPi and SD card. I’ve flashed using Balena Etcher and the RPi SD flash on Windows. At the end of the process it ejects the card and says one of the two partitions needs reformatting - I have simply removed the card and inserted it in the RPi, plugged in the Power cable.

image

Sounds like you have the V1.5 version of the Pi4, which does indeed need a new version of the kernel. This is fixed on today’s software update.

Update v3.198

FIXES

  • Latest PI kernel for PI4 1.5 compatibility
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Oh my…that looks like a problem analysis and a solution! Thanks so much for this.

Just skimmed through the thread Volumio not working on Raspberry Pi 4 rev 1.5 board - start4.elf not compatible - #42 by Bartleby

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Up and Running! Thanks all for suggestions and eventual solution. Now on to learning my way around Volumio and enjoying some sounds.

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