Raspberry Pi OS • Not getting an ip address over WiFi/ can’t ssh

I’m using a custom image of a legacy release and having an issue where it’s not connecting to WiFi and getting an ip address so I can ssh into it.

I create a blank ssh file in boot like normal, along with a wpa_supplicant.conf file with my ssid and password, as follows:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US

network={
ssid="NETWORK NAME"
psk="NETWORK PASSWORD"
}

I looked at the config file in boot and noticed the person who created the image turned off BT and WiFi, so I figured that was it and delete those. Still, no luck.

I accessed the install from a linux box, and looked in /etc/wpa_supplicant and there was already a wpa_supplicant.conf file that the creator put there with dummy ssid and pwd to be filled in, with the only other difference to the above code being country was GB instead of US. So, I changed that and put in my ssid and pwd, put it back in the rpi and still nothing.

The last thing I tried was deleting that .conf file and leaving it just in /boot to see if it would grab it and move it over, but that didn’t work either.

Is there something else I’m missing that could be causing this to not recognize my ssid and assign an ip address? If I use the legacy os direct from rpi instead of this custom one it works fine, so there must be some tweak somewhere I’m not aware of.

Statistics: Posted by jp44 — Sun Dec 07, 2025 11:52 am

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