USB Wifi drivers avail in new kernel (3.10.101-0-pine64-longsleep)

[rahlquist]

Ok quick guide with some of the basics. I am using longlseeps kernel on debian. 

First make sure you have his latest kernel. To check you can issue;

Code:

uname -a

at a command prompt. If you dont see the kernel version in the subject of this post or higher then run the magic;

Code:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image/master/simpleimage/platform-scripts/pine64_update_uboot.sh)
bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image/master/simpleimage/platform-scripts/pine64_update_kernel.sh)

Info about this kernel is at http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?t...08#pid8808

Ok once you have the latest kernel, power down the pine, insert your USB device and power up.

Once you are able to login you should see if the device was detected either 

Code:

lsusb

or

dmesg

should show you some basic info on your device. If you see it, great lets move on to the next step.

Now try;

Code:

iwconfig

if for wlan0 you see anything other than;

Code:

wlan0      no wireless extensions.

Things are looking up. 

Next I will show you the changes I made to my /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf


Ok /etc/network/interfaces first, I added this to the existing file

Code:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface pine64 inet static
address 192.168.0.165
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.1

You can see I manually set the IP of my pine. You can do it with DHCP instead 

Code:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface pine64 inet dhcp

Note the change from wpa-roam to wpa-conf not sure why, but it works.

In the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf I have this;

Code:

network={
       ssid="dd-wrt_vap"
       psk="1234567890"
       proto=RSN
       key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
       pairwise=CCMP
       group=CCMP
       auth_alg=OPEN
       priority=9
       id_str="pine64"
}

Of course change the SSID to match your network, the psk to match the key for WPA on your network, and the id_str should match the iface in the interfaces file. 

After you have made the changes you can issue

Code:

ifup iwlan0

If it works, you are in business. If not, for giggles reboot. If its still not working then please note any issues and ask away. 

A few things to note. If you leave eth0 set to auto and dhcp your pine may pause while it tries to connect there first it seems. 
If your wifi adapter is a ra-link then you will probably need to dl the firmware, google is the best bet for finding the right instructions for this part. In my case I had to enable non free sources for debian as well. 

As always I am not an expert, merely worked in IS for 23 years and am an enthusiast. I am open to questions suggestions and critique.

One last thing, thanks again to longsleep others for their hard work!

---

Some Iperf numbers since I know some may wonder, YMMV!

Code:

root@debianpine64:~# iperf -c 192.168.0.45
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.0.45, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 22.5 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.0.165 port 43787 connected with 192.168.0.45 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  46.6 MBytes  39.0 Mbits/sec