Connecting Raspberry Pi Zero (not W) to the Internet

Tuyen D. Le December 11, 2020 [Raspberry-Pi] #Pi-Zero

Raspi Zero (not W) have neither Wi-Fi nor Ethernet, so how could update the raspbian distro?

Well, you can create a virtual Ethernet interface. This method is tested on Window 10, you could get the same idea when using Linux/Mac computer.

Updated June 15, 2023

If you have an USB WiFi dongle (TP-Link-WN725N Nano USB Wifi like I have), the process is much more simpler.

Fisrt, downloading raspberry pi OS (kernel 5.10+) is required, for example 2023-05-03-raspios-buster-armhf-lite

Second, a small configuration needs to be added (thanks to MBing/install_wlan_dongle.sh)

STEP 1: Setup wifi settings

# Add wifi settings
sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

# Search for `auto wlan0` at the start, if it's not there, add it and keep the file open
# Make sure it knows where to find the wpa config
# Add these lines to the bottom of the same file:

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

STEP 2: Connect to wifi

sudo vi /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
# The file `wpa_supplicant.conf` might already exist and might have some lines, add these below:

network={
  ssid="YOUR_NETWORK_NAME"
  psk="YOUR_NETWORK_PASSWORD"
  proto=RSN
  key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
  pairwise=CCMP
  auth_alg=OPEN
}

# Replace `YOUR_NETWORK_NAME` & `YOUR_NETWORK_PASSWORD` with your own credentials.

# Reboot and connect
sudo reboot

# To test after reboot if your wifi is working, you can open the browser or go to the terminal
ifconfig -a
# This will now have an ip-address next to `wlan0` which you can use for ssh or whatever.

Preparing

I am testing 2022-01-28-raspios-bullseye-armhf-lite image version.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 5.10.92+ #1514 Mon Jan 17 17:35:21 GMT 2022 armv6l GNU/Linux
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /proc/device-tree/model
Raspberry Pi Zero Rev 1.3

The network topology I'm going to deploy it as follows.

Pi Zero Internet

1. Update cmdline.txt and config.txt settings

This method is using libcomposite, so you need to include libcomposite in the modules-load directive as the following. For other methods, please visit gbaman/HowToOTG.md.

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# cat /boot/cmdline.txt
console=serial0,115200 console=tty1 root=PARTUUID=22e47bc0-02 rootfstype=ext4 fsck.repair=yes rootwait modules-load=dwc2,libcomposite

Add dtoverlay=dwc2 at the end of /boot/config.txt

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# cat /boot/config.txt
#
# Omitted
#
[cm4]
# Enable host mode on the 2711 built-in XHCI USB controller.
# This line should be removed if the legacy DWC2 controller is required
# (e.g. for USB device mode) or if USB support is not required.
otg_mode=1

[all]

[pi4]
# Run as fast as firmware / board allows
arm_boost=1

[all]
# Enable UART
enable_uart=1
dtoverlay=dwc2

2. Script to create a virtual UDC ethernet interface

The script below will create a virtual UDC ethernet interface.

{{< alert icon="👉" text="In order to make Pi Zero to become plug-and-play as much as possible, I am faking IBM Corporation RNDIS Driver on Window because of lacking the Linux Driver on the Window 7. If you are using MacOS/Linux, you should change OS_CONFIG to macos/linux accordingly." />}}

#!/bin/sh
#
# Thanks to
#   wismna: http://github.com/wismna/raspberry-pi/hackpi
#   RoganDawes: https://github.com/RoganDawes/P4wnP1

# https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/usbcon/enumeration-of-the-composite-parent-device
# https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/usbcon/usb-common-class-generic-parent-driver

OS_CONFIG="window"
IP_SELF="192.168.137.2"
IP_HOST="192.168.137.1"

MAC_HOST="48:6f:73:74:50:43" # "Mac address for host PC"
MAC_SELF="42:61:64:55:53:42" # "MAC address for PiZero"
CONFIG=/sys/kernel/config/usb_gadget/PiZero

mkdir -p "$CONFIG"
cd "$CONFIG" || exit 1


# 0x04b3 = 1203
# {
#     "name": "IBM Corporation",
#     "field_vid": "1203"
# },
case $OS_CONFIG in
  window)
    # wismna hack for Window
    # IBM Corporation RNDIS Driver will be loaded
    echo 0x04b3 > idVendor
    echo 0x4010 > idProduct
    ;;
  *)
    echo 0x1d6b > idVendor   # Linux Foundation
    echo 0x0104 > idProduct  # Multifunction Composite Gadget
    ;;

esac

echo 0x0100 > bcdDevice
echo 0x0200 > bcdUSB

# Mandatory for Multiple Gadgets
echo 0xEF > bDeviceClass
echo 0x02 > bDeviceSubClass
echo 0x01 > bDeviceProtocol
echo 0x40 > bMaxPacketSize0

mkdir -p strings/0x409
mkdir -p configs/c.1/strings/0x409
echo 100000000d2386db         > strings/0x409/serialnumber
echo "PiZero Project" > strings/0x409/manufacturer
echo "PiZero "              > strings/0x409/product
echo 250                      > configs/c.1/MaxPower
echo "PiZero"               > configs/c.1/strings/0x409/configuration

config_acm(){
  mkdir -p functions/acm.usb0
  ln -s functions/acm.usb0 configs/c.1/acm.usb0
}

# Ethernet Adapter
#-------------------------------------------
config_rndis () {
  mkdir -p functions/rndis.usb0
  echo $MAC_HOST > functions/rndis.usb0/host_addr
  echo $MAC_SELF > functions/rndis.usb0/dev_addr

  mkdir -p os_desc
  echo "0x80"     > configs/c.1/bmAttributes
  echo "1"        > os_desc/use
  echo "0xbc"     > os_desc/b_vendor_code
  echo "MSFT100"  > os_desc/qw_sign

  mkdir -p functions/rndis.usb0/os_desc/interface.rndis
  echo "RNDIS"    > functions/rndis.usb0/os_desc/interface.rndis/compatible_id
  echo "5162001"  > functions/rndis.usb0/os_desc/interface.rndis/sub_compatible_id

  ln -s functions/rndis.usb0 configs/c.1/
  ln -s configs/c.1/ os_desc
}

config_ecm () {
  mkdir -p functions/ecm.usb0
  echo $MAC_HOST > functions/ecm.usb0/host_addr
  echo $MAC_SELF > functions/ecm.usb0/dev_addr
  ln -s functions/ecm.usb0 configs/c.1/
}

case $OS_CONFIG in
  window)
    config_rndis
    ;;
  macos | linux)
    config_ecm
    ;;
  *)
    config_acm
    ;;
esac

udevadm settle -t 5 || :
ls /sys/class/udc > UDC
ifconfig usb0 $IP_SELF netmask 255.255.255.252 up
route add -net default gw $IP_HOST

{{< alert icon="👉" text="I am using 192.168.137.2 address because when I enable Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on my Wi-Fi adapter, the second NIC get shared Internet will get 192.168.137.1 as you can see in the following steps. You should change the IP address accordingly to your situation." />}}

Save the file as runme.sh, and don't forget to change its permission to executable file.

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# chmod +x runme.sh

In order to get the script run at boot up, one simple way is adding this script into rc.local. See more ways to do this at How to Run a Raspberry Pi Program on Startup.

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# cat /etc/rc.local
#!/bin/sh -e
#
# Omitted
#
# Print the IP address
_IP=$(hostname -I) || true
if [ "$_IP" ]; then
  printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"
fi

/home/pi/runme.sh &

exit 0

If you want to ssh to your PiZero, you could enable SSHD for later use.

sudo systemctl enable ssh
sudo systemctl start ssh

It is time to reboot your PI to apply these settings.

Go to Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections. If everything is good, you should see a new Ethernet Adapter (i.e., Ethernet 4 in my case).

Window IP setting

Now, you need to share the Internet from your main NIC to the new created NIC by PiZero.

Window network sharing

Right click on NIC icon choose Properties, go to Properties one more and then Sharing tab.
Check the Allow Other Network Users ... check box.
Under Home networking connection, choose the new NIC (i.e., Ethernet 4 in my case)
Click OK

You will see a pop-up states that Ethernet 4 IP address will be changed to 19.268.137.1. That is why I used this IP address in the above runme.sh script.

Window setting IP

Try to connect from your PC to your Pi Zero. I am using SSH to connect because I already enabled SSHD service on PiZero.

C:\Windows\system32>ssh pi@192.168.137.2
The authenticity of host '192.168.137.2 (192.168.137.2)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:LxSEz/DS/6u6EQQWI+rr.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.137.2' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
pi@192.168.137.2's password:
Linux raspberrypi 5.10.92+ #1514 Mon Jan 17 17:35:21 GMT 2022 armv6l

pi@raspberrypi:~ $
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ping google.com
PING google.com (216.58.207.206) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from arn11s04-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.207.206): icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=16.7 ms
64 bytes from arn11s04-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.207.206): icmp_seq=2 ttl=58 time=16.4 ms
^C
--- google.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1002ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 16.397/16.525/16.654/0.128 ms

In case you have problem with the DNS, try to change the DNS server on PiZero by editing /etc/resolv.conf file.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Generated by resolvconf
nameserver 8.8.8.8

{{< alert icon="👉" text="If it doesn't work, disable antivirus/firewall programs in your computer and try again. You may also need to disable and enable network sharing in your Window computer several times until it works." />}}

Done! Now you could use the Internet on your Pi Zero.

4. References

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