Internal WiFi status?

[acruhl]

Is anyone working on getting the internal WiFi and bluetooth supported? I'm not much of a developer but I can probably test something.

It's been a really long time and no updates. Do I need to synch against some other source than the one that the PineTab 2 shipped with? Am I missing something?

Thanks.

[rqkeating]

I see folks talking about their work on WiFi over on the PIne64 Discord group. There is nothing available for us (non-programer types) yet. The focus has been on WiFi and I have not read anything about Bluetooth work.

[moobythegoldensock]

The driver is here:

https://gitlab.com/TuxThePenguin0/bes2600

[lockedpotato]

The driver is here:

https://gitlab.com/TuxThePenguin0/bes2600

Four months later. Before I buy one of these, any update on the wifi driver? Looks like the last commit was two months ago.

EDIT: Did some further digging. Looks like it was fixed in 6.5.0-okpine. Wiki needs to be updated.

[explit]

The driver is here:

https://gitlab.com/TuxThePenguin0/bes2600

Four months later. Before I buy one of these, any update on the wifi driver? Looks like the last commit was two months ago.

EDIT: Did some further digging. Looks like it was fixed in 6.5.0-okpine. Wiki needs to be updated.

I doubt we will ever see the working driver here.
Writing drivers is a complex process, and this driver is mess (also the wifi chip is mess). The guy who started working on the driver lost interest 4 month ago.
Till now, nobody else joined the project to write a new driver from scratch.

[Corfromleuven]

The driver is here:

https://gitlab.com/TuxThePenguin0/bes2600

Four months later. Before I buy one of these, any update on the wifi driver? Looks like the last commit was two months ago.

EDIT: Did some further digging. Looks like it was fixed in 6.5.0-okpine. Wiki needs to be updated.

I doubt we will ever see the working driver here.
Writing drivers is a complex process, and this driver is mess (also the wifi chip is mess). The guy who started working on the driver lost interest 4 month ago.
Till now, nobody else joined the project to write a new driver from scratch.

So this basically means the Pinetab2 will be useless junk for those who purchased it (meaning me)? I mean you even can't use wifi over USB here. And if I have understood it rightly, the last updates even crashed the existing wifi over android connection. Or should we hope Mobian comes up with the goods once and for all?

[explit]

The driver is here:

https://gitlab.com/TuxThePenguin0/bes2600

Four months later. Before I buy one of these, any update on the wifi driver? Looks like the last commit was two months ago.

EDIT: Did some further digging. Looks like it was fixed in 6.5.0-okpine. Wiki needs to be updated.

I doubt we will ever see the working driver here.
Writing drivers is a complex process, and this driver is mess (also the wifi chip is mess). The guy who started working on the driver lost interest 4 month ago.
Till now, nobody else joined the project to write a new driver from scratch.

So this basically means the Pinetab2 will be useless junk for those who purchased it (meaning me)? I mean you even can't use wifi over USB here. And if I have understood it rightly, the last updates even crashed the existing wifi over android connection. Or should we hope Mobian comes up with the goods once and for all?

USB over Wifi works out of the box (for me). Even the last update changed nothing (again: for me).
It depends which USB over Wifi you use, the most have Realtek or Mediatek chipset.
I use AVM Fritz!WLAN USB 860 AC Stick, https://avm.de/produkte/wlan-mesh/fritzw...ck-ac-860/ and i am very happy with it.


I also bought 180 degree USB C to USB A Adapter, so that my USB Stick is connected behind the tablet. I don't even see it, while using.
https://www.amazon.com/Degree-Angled-Typ...77&sr=8-19



For the bes2600 wifi driver, one guy found out, how to force the bes2600 driver, not to generate random MAC-Adresses.
Check this thread:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=18513

The driver can be compiled and is somehow usable, but slow and unstable. I doubt this situation will ever change.

[diederik]

I mean you even can't use wifi over USB here. And if I have understood it rightly, the last updates even crashed the existing wifi over android connection. Or should we hope Mobian comes up with the goods once and for all?

I have 2 wifi adapters (connected via a USB-A to USB-C adapter) and they both work.
https://linux-hardware.org/?id=usb:0846-9055
https://linux-hardware.org/?id=usb:0bda-8179

If the driver for the wifi adapter is in the upstream kernel and your kernel has the kernel module enabled*, it'll work OOTB.
Other wifi adapters with a Linux driver which isn't in the upstream kernel can be made to work (usually), but it's a bit more involved.

And generally: with the latest software, you get the latest features, but also the latest bugs.
Luckily they often times also get fixed at some point, but things can and will break from time to time.

*) This is often the problem with Mobian's kernels

[fretinator]

I use an Edimax single-channel USB N adapter. Works fine.

[u974615]

This process of developing a working WiFi driver/kernel module seems a bit strange to me. Should it be more in collaboration with the Linux project and with a plain main board, not in a final form factor?
https://gitlab.com/TuxThePenguin0/bes2600

Wouldn't it be easier for someone to convince the original source code ( Bestechnic?, BES? ) to work with The Linux Foundation and get the code distributed with the Linux kernel releases. Or work with Software Freedom Conservancy and release it fully under the GPL v2, which Segfaults's GitLab repo seemed to be working toward: https://gitlab.com/TuxThePenguin0/bes2600. And figure out the proper channels and format to package and distribute the kernel module.

I gather another issue is the WiFi chipset really doesn't support the latest WiFi protocols... AC?

It is sad really, I have a PineBook Pro with Tow-Boot installed to the SPI and booting Debian Workstation (GNOME3) and it works well enough [even the WiFi and Bluetooth] to continue using a Linux Graphical Shell. More RAM, touchscreen, and detachable keyboard would be nice upgrades. these are much better form factors than the Raspberry Pi 5. Yet, the Raspberry Pi 5 has a Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Arm Cortex A76 processor and up to 8GB of RAM.