Basic WLAN config just does not work

[Switch123456789]

Heyhey,

I am trying to get Alpine running headless on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (I do not own hdmi-cables). I followed all the available official guides and also some 3rd party guides. But no matter what I do, the Pi never connects to my WLAN.

I copied headless.apkovl.tar.gz to /mnt/PIBOOT-partition & ran wpa_passphrase 'REDACTED' 'REDACTED' > /mnt/PIBOOT/wpa_supplicant.conf. AFAICT that's all that needs to be done.

I tried it with and without the country-code & the password in clear-text in the .conf-file.
I tried flashing the Alpine image from different sources (Pi Imager & manual download).
My SSID & password are rather simple and do not have special characters or anything like that.
It just does not work. I have devices with Android, OpenBeken, ESPHome, Linux & Windows. they all connect with no problems. Even the Pi connects if setup with DietPi.

Since the setup requires only these 2 steps, I don't understand how I can mess anything up here :(

Any help would be appreciated.

[macmpi]

Hi, thanks for feedback.
I'm using it on many devices, including PiZero2W: so we should be able to sort that out...

How did you generate the boot SD media?
Which alpine image are you using, which headless.apkovl.tar.gz version (I assume you also verified sha512 hash)?
Is SD partitioned as single FAT16 (or FAT32) partition?
Have you checked SD partition is not damaged (with gnome disks or al)?
Can you list output of ls -la /mnt/PIBOOT
How about simply editing wpa_supplicant.conf manually out of sample file, with any linux capable text editor?

On PiZero2W you may also enable (very convenient) gadget mode: if you connect PI via USB to a PC/Mac host (serial console or ethernet), you may log-in locally, and this may help figuring-out whats-up on wifi side with system running...

[Switch123456789]

Hey, thank you for you help!

I just answered all your questions and checked out everything before I noticed that some other devices that ARE connected to my network do not show up in my routers interface. It looks like a recent firmware-update introduced that bug, because this never happened before. 🤦 🤦 🤦 🤦 🤦 🤦

It's a 300€ Fritz!Box 5690 Pro, it's so silly and annoying 😆 I am sorry for wasting your time! I am using this brand for over 10 years and never would've thought this could be an issue. Also because the device-list is directly tied to the DHCP and the DHCP successfully gave an IP to the Pi.

Nevertheless, it's good to know about the gadget-mode. Thanks again! And.... sorry again!

[macmpi]

No worries: good to know you have it sorted-out.
I see your are doing HA stuff: FWIW, there is a unattended.sh install script in the repo to easily craft a minimal HA container setup that works on those tiny PiZero2W. 😉

Feel free to close when done.

[Switch123456789]

Oi, good to know. Home Assistant on a 500MB RAM device sounds rough 😄 I'm impressed that this is even possible.

Maybe I will create my own script for sendspin sometime. I am using it on Alpine and I love the quick boot compared to debian based OS'.