BeagleBone Black USB to Wifi connectivity not working after first time connecting to network

Hello everyone, I am very stuck with getting the USB to wifi functionality working on my BBB. I have gotten to work three times - once each on three different networks. This leads me to believe that something may be changing from the first connection to a given network to the second, but this could also not be the case.

I followed the steps here (Connecting a BeagleBone Black to the Internet over USB | Paul Bupe, Jr) to configure the BBB route and dns nameserver, and I changed the network sharing settings and network settings for the BBB and the networks I have tested this with in Network Connections within Windows. I was able to successfully ping google.com as well as download the python serial library, but as I said the wifi was seemingly only working upon initial connection to a given network.

Additionally, I noticed that the “Unidentified Network” associated with my BBB connection now shows “No Internet”, whereas when the connections were working it displayed “Connected”

When I ping 192.168.7.1 to test the connection between computer and BBB, I get data, but pinging any external site (ie ping google.com) does not work, instead I get the error message “temporary failure in name resolution”

I am very stuck and as far as I know, this is the only way I can get my BBBs connected to the internet, so any help would be appreciated!

this means that your not able to reach your DNS server.

it is always helpful for those assisting your diagnosis to provide what image you are running on the BBB … like this:
gomer@bbb42:~$ uname -a
Linux bbb42 4.14.71-ti-r80 #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Oct 5 23:50:11 UTC 2018 armv7l GNU/Linux
gomer@bbb42:~$

what are the contents of /etc/resolv.conf when you get this message? is it what are coded in /etc/network/interfaces when you get the “temporary failure in name resolution” message? is it blank? if it is blank, check if connman is running, like this:

gomer@bbb42:~$ ps -ef | grep connman
root 1038 1 0 Mar05 ? 00:00:01 /usr/sbin/connmand -n --nodnsproxy
gomer 27051 26304 0 12:41 pts/6 00:00:00 grep connman
gomer@bbb42:~$ ^C

connman will interfere with the contents of /etc/resolv.conf … this may be your problem. try manually editing the contents of /etc/resolv.conf
gomer@bbb42:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf

Generated by Connection Manager

nameserver 192.168.11.13
nameserver 207.58.129.219
gomer@bbb42:~$

if this fixes the problem and you can now ping www.google.com, it will be temporary. you have two options at this point:

  • use connman INSTEAD of /etc/network/interfaces
  • disable connman to keep it from clobbering /etc/resolv.conf

good luck
gomer

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