Wifi- dongle

[User 15552]

Hi everybody, 

I am currently having wifi issues making the pinebook pro unusable. 

Does anybody know of a wifi dongle that works well? 


I tried an edimax wifi dongle I still had fro my r-pi. I plugged it in, everything froze and the dongle died. 

thanks for reading.

Edit: I am running the standard OS that was shipped with the pinebook pro.
Edit: Dongle still alive, just didn't work for a moment on other machine.


Update:
Switched to Manjaro and the dongle works perfectly fine and so far appears to fix my wifi issues.

[tophneal]

What OS are you running? I'd suggest looking up what dongles other users of that distro use, or which drivers are typically included with the distro.

[wdt]

OK, a tip. On another (linux) computer lsusb,, note (write down)
vendor id:product id (nnnn:NNNN) for usb wifi dongle
On pbp, cd /lib/modules
grep -r NNNN *
If you get nothing,, not supported
Yes, I know this doesn't really help buying a new one,
you have to read ad very closely, you can look in modules.alias,
using search, for specific chipsets

[jiyong]

The dongle died?

Anyway, I have USB wifi dongle from my Odroid U2, EDUP EP-MS8512.
I'm afraid it's not plug and play, but I think the Realtek8192CU chip was relatively easy to get working, at that time.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt...hp?t=11162
In 2014 someone mentions it is already in the kernel.

But that probably also means it is no longer current.
So it's probably better to figure out which chipsets are supported in the kernel and try to find a current one.

I'm not sure how to disable the wifi chip in the Pinebook Pro and still let it access other wifi dongles.
I tried Pine key + F11, but that seems to shut down all wifi. Or it didn't pick up the USB dongle.

[User 15552]

OK, a tip.  On another (linux) computer lsusb,, note (write down)
vendor id:product id  (nnnn:NNNN) for usb wifi dongle
On pbp, cd /lib/modules
grep -r NNNN *
If you get nothing,, not supported
Yes, I know this doesn't really help buying a new one,
you have to read ad very closely, you can look in modules.alias,
using search, for specific chipsets

Thanks for the feedback: I got  `Realtek RTL8188CUS` with id nnnn:7811 
I then check for the modules and get the following: 

Code:

4.4.210/modules.alias:alias usb:v7392p7811d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* rtl8192cu
Binary file 4.4.210/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rockchip_wlan/rtl8723ds/rtl8723$
Binary file 4.4.210/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rockchip_wlan/rtl8822be/8822be.$
Binary file 4.4.210/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rockchip_wlan/rtl8192cu/rtl8192$
4.4.213/modules.alias:alias usb:v7392p7811d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* rtl8192cu
Binary file 4.4.213/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rockchip_wlan/rtl8822be/8822be.$
Binary file 4.4.213/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rockchip_wlan/rtl8192cu/rtl8192$

It appears that the `rtl8192cu` driver is for the rtl8188cus dongle. 

So what happens when I plug it in is the following: 
-- for a second or two everything is fine
-- then the mouse cursor stops and everything freezes
-- nothing works and I have to reboot by pressing the off button for a bit

Is there a way for me to check what happened, e.g. what error message caused the freeze ?

Edit: When booting with the dongle plugged in. I am stuck on a black screen.

[wdt]

rtl8188cu is apparently not rtl8188cus
search ,,, linux drivers rtl8188cus
freezing seems to be quite common
I suggest a different dongle, unless you like that kind of thing
A common cheap chipset is mt7601u, usually works
(ID 148f:7601 Ralink Technology)
This is what I have on TV box, running hacked manjaro
--edit-- waking up manjaro on pbp,
16 (vendor:product) listings for mt7601u
You have to read ad (for dongle) very closely, and even
then, 1/2 don't tell chipset

[User 15552]

rtl8188cu is apparently not rtl8188cus
search ,,, linux drivers rtl8188cus
freezing seems to be quite common
I suggest a different dongle, unless you like that kind of thing
A common cheap chipset is mt7601u, usually works
(ID 148f:7601 Ralink Technology)
This is what I have on TV box, running hacked manjaro
--edit--  waking up manjaro on pbp,
16 (vendor:product) listings for mt7601u
You have to read ad (for dongle) very closely, and even
then, 1/2 don't tell chipset

Well ordering another wifi dongle on the hope that this might fix my original issues is something I would rather not do.


So I booted up my pbp and presses `Ctr + Alt + F1`. Then I typed `journalctl -f` to see any error messages. I then plugged in the usb-dongle and it did detect it and load a module called `rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw_TMSC.bin`.

Everything froze; but strangely there was absolutely no error message or anything. Is there anything I can do to see what specifically makes the pbp freeze?

Edit:
Found `dmesg  --follow` which continuously prints messages to the command line.

I get the following error message after it loads the firmware

Code:

rtl8xxxu_rx_iqk_path_a: Path A RX IQK failed!

Also found some explanation here.

[jiyong]

I'm willing to help, as I have a supported Realtek chip (rtl8192cu).
That way we can check if it is possible or not.

But you will have to help with shutting down the wifi chip of the PBP and setting up the dongle.
I have no clue how to do that.

[wdt]

Err,, if you go somewhere like .. .. say aliexpress, usb wifi dongle, sort price,
the whole 1st page is <$5 (shipping incl), lots $2-3
2 years ago I was annoyed searching for dongles, spent $20, got 8 dongles,
only duplicates if sure working, only 1 problematic, it was a substitute,,
got money back for that (hate false advertising)
Point is, sometimes for a simple things, not worth the struggle
And bad wifi drivers can definitely be a struggle
Shipping does take 2 months though
> with shutting down the wifi chip of the PBP
Why? Make sure it is power-save, sure
No problem with more than 1 wifi device,, example
#iwconfig
--removed--
wlan11 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=30 dBm
Retry short long limit:2 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off

wlan2 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"***********"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: A2:03:8F:01:8D:F1
Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=30 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
OR for that matter 2 bluetooth devices
# hcitool dev
Devices:
hci0 00:1A:7DA:71:13
hci1 00:19:86:00:00:B1

[User 15552]

I still have not way to get the dongle to work. 

So next I tried to tether my phone to the pinebook pro via usb-a, but it does not recognize it. 

Has anyone gotten usb-tethering via an android 9 phone working?