KNULLI won’t connect to Wi-Fi

Like many, I have fallen down the rabbit hole of retro gaming handhelds. I have amassed a small collection of mostly Anbernic devices. I’ve logged a decent amount of time on a few of them, but my favorite “game” is still setting them up with custom firmware and tinkering.

Already owning a Steam Deck (both LCD and OLED) and a Nintendo Switch (also, both LCD and OLED), I don’t really have much need for these devices. My Steam Deck is my daily driver for the most part, with my Switch coming into play for Nintendo exclusive titles.

The retro gaming devices tend to by my ride or die when I’m traveling, or for the rare situations where I actually need something pocketable. In terms of traveling, I like to pack light, so a cheap retro console, specifically in the clam shell variety reigns supreme.

Except when, I can’t get the damned thing to connect to Wi-Fi, that is.

While not a hard requirement, it is nice to have a Wi-Fi enabled device to allow for easy scraping or artwork and metadata. RetroAchievements is great and all, but post-setup, I usually don’t need or want Wi-Fi access. If nothing else, turning off Wi-Fi helps conserve battery life, which is crucial to using these devices on the go.

KNULLI Wi-Fi on the RG35XX SP

As mentioned, I do very much like a good clam shell device. Two of my all-time favorite portables are the Game Boy Advance SP and the Nintendo 3DS XL (RIP StreetPass and eShop).

While there’s a ton of buzz around the Miyoo Flip, I’m still waiting on reviews of the quality, and personally speaking, I’m not all that jazzed about the inclusion of analog controls. Also, I already own an Anbernic RG35XX SP, which I’ve barely logged any time on.

That said, over this holiday break, I’ve been getting my RG35XX SP battle ready for a spring trip we have planned. Part of that process was figuring out what the heck was going on with networking on the device.

I’ve had a bad device before, which is why I prefer to pay the Amazon tax to get easy returns. Fortunately, my issues were due to my security protocol and not the device itself. Initially I thought it was an issue with my 5 GHz network, but even my 2.4 GHz router gave me trouble.

I was able to see my network and I was able to presumably connect to the network. Unfortunately though, my Eero network never saw the device, and the device itself never secured an IP address.

Working with WPA2 / WPA3 protected networks

I don’t think my timing could have been better, as the latest release of KNULLI, code name Firefly, has an easy enough fix.

For reference, I was running MuOS prior KNULLI, and I thought Wi-Fi was working fine on there. To take it a step further, I was running KNULLI prior to MuOS and that also seemed to work fine. Unsure if I just got lucky or what the deal was with that.

So, to get things moving, you need to enable an experimental service that helps make KNULLI play nicer with WPA2 / WPA3 networks. While this helped me with my Anbernic RG35XX SP, it seems like it could help on other devices that are facing the same affliction.

To enable this setting:

• Press START from the main menu / list of consoles
• Navigate to SYSTEM SETTINGS and press A
• Navigate to ADVANCED > SERVICES and press A
• Go to WIRELESS_HYBRID_FIX and press A to enable it

At this point, I exited out and restarted the device, as it seemed like toggling Wi-Fi on and off wasn’t doing much. After a reboot though, I was successfully connected to my network and off to the races!