Hi all,
With the release of 2024.04, we ran into a regression with WPA3. The subsequent patch series fixed this, but it took quite some sorcery to do so.
While investigating the issue, it became clear that this was not ‘my fault’: there was an issue with the firmware of the WiFi chipset on the Raspberrry Pi.
The WiFi chipset on the Raspberry Pi needs a) a driver: a piece of software that makes it possible to ‘drive’ the chipset. In other words, tell it what it needs to do. However, the chipset itself is a small piece of software on its own: its firmware. This firmware is, unlike the driver, not open source. It is used by the manufacturer to control the chip(set) at a very low level without exposing its inner workings. This is mainly done to keep nosy people (like competitors) away.
This means that setting up a wireless connection is a complex process requiring several software components to work together. And this is where things started to fall apart: the original WiFi chip on the Raspberry Pi came from Broadcom (as is the rest of the Pi chipset). However, the Broadcom division that made the WiFi chip was sold to Cypress in 2016. That already caused quite some difficulties (different strategies for Linux, for example), but in the end, it was manageable. Manageable but messy. However, in 2020, Cypress was subsequently sold to Infineon. And Infineon, like other chip manufacturers, doesn’t know how to play ‘nice’ with the open-source community. However, stuff kept on working because of a lot of work behind the scenes.
Recently, this all fell apart: with the latest stable Linux kernel, there are now multiple versions of the firmware available, all with different functionality: some working and some not. This resulted in the issues for RoPieee, which I solved in a way that I don’t want (and is bad for RoPieee), namely, reversing to an older kernel and older firmware with different combinations for the different Pi models.
Long story short: I did this to help out users that had a connection issue and could no longer use RoPieee. In the last patch release 2024.04.2, it’s working ‘like before,’ but:
In the next release (presumably 2024.06) RoPieee will no longer support WPA3 with the on-board WiFi.
WPA3 support is only broken for the Raspberry Pi’s onboard chip: if you use an external USB WiFi dongle, you can continue to use WPA3.
I’ve answered a few questions that might pop up:
So, with the next update, will my unit become inaccessible?
No, it will not. With the last release (2024.04.2), RoPieee gained a new feature that makes it possible to ‘inhibit’ an update. This means that if an update is available and your current connection uses WPA3, RoPieee will show a message stating that the update is inhibited: you cannot update before you change your connection.
But but, I must use WPA3
Then please buy an external dongle.
Does this mean RoPieee will not support WPA3, like ‘forever’?
If the firmware (and driver) mess is somehow resolved in the future, support might be added again. But only if the solution is durable.
I hope you all understand why I must make this decision moving forward.
Have a great weekend!
Regards Harry