Recommendation on (cheap nano/mini) usb wireless adapter

[mlitke]

I am happy to post the instructions on how to revert back. One of the assumptions will have to be that you have access to a Linux system to make the updates on, since that is what I am familiar with. Do you have access to another system that is running Linux (it could be another plug-device as long as there is a way to connect the media)? If not, I may be able to spend some time figuring out a way to to it in Windows, but it will take me longer to develop those procedures.

After a bit of searching, I was unable to find any Windows tools that allows you to create symbolic links on an ext2/ext3 file system. I will post the Linux based instructions, with the assumption that at the very least you have access to a PC that you boot into a "Linux Live" environment (like Parted Magic, ArchBang, Fedora Live, etc).

Here are the steps:
1. Shutdown the device
2. Remove the media that contains the Arch Linux ARM root filesystem
3. Insert the device into another Linux system
4. If the device does not auto-mount, mount the root filesystem (as root):
> mount /dev/<device_node, ie sda1> /<path_to_mount_location>
5. Change to the systemd system directory on the mounted file system:
> cd /<path_to_mount_location>/etc/systemd/system/
6. Remove the wicd service symlinks (as root):
> rm dbus-org.wicd.daemon.service
> rm multi-user.target.wants/wicd.service
7. Create a symlink for the netcfg service (as root):
> ln -s /usr/lib/systemd/system/netcfg.service multi-user.target.wants/netcfg.service
8. Unmount the device
9. Insert it back into the plug-type device
10. Boot the plug-type device

[mlitke]

Just another follow up. After some more testing, I no longer recommend wicd. The command line interface is a little clunky. I have found netcfg much easier to use, and pretty much just followed the instructions outlined here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Netcfg

I ended up also getting a Airlink101 AWLL5099. As graymanforhire mentioned, the driver (/usr/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw.bin) is part of the linux-firmware package and is loaded when the adapter is inserted into a USB port. A couple things I noticed when testing with a GoFlex Home and the AWLL5099:

1. I have two routers both running dd-wrt, one is 802.11b and open, the other 802.11g with WPA, when I was running the 3.1.10 kernel the adapter would connect without issue, when I updated to the kirkwood 3.6.10 kernel, the adapter no longer connects and gives a"WPA Authentication/Association Failed" error, I can, however, get it to connect to another router I have that is running openwrt

2. If the device loses its connection (to the router running openwrt), it needs to be unplugged and plugged back in before it will reconnect, if you do a > netcfg down <profile>, followed by > netcfg <profile>, without first unplugging it, netcfg always gives an "WPA Authentication/Association Failed" error

[jloving]

Thanks for the good instructions mlitke. Did you ever get your box working with the newer kernel? I'm having the same problem connecting to my school's WPA-EAP network (at least I'm getting the same error message).

[WarheadsSE]

linux-kirkwood is up to 3.7.5 or so

[mlitke]

I updated to the latest kernel (linux kirkwood 3.7.5-1) and still see the same behavior I outlined in the thread above. It appears that it may be an issue with the rtl8192cu driver. I found this post over in the Arch Linux forums (no solution as of 2013.02.04):
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=157252

[mlitke]

I had some time to do a bit more searching. It appears the driver/module included with the linux kernel (rtl8192cu) started have issues sometime around version 3.3 of the kernel. Some people appear to have had luck using ndiswrapper, and others have downloaded source from Realtek, compiled it, and used the resulting driver. There are three packages in the Arch Linux AUR repository for the 8192 chipset (based on code from Realtek). I have downloaded the code from Realtek's website, compiled, installed and used the drive on an Arch Linux x86 install and it appears to work. My next step was to try to get the Realtek drive compiled and installed on an Arch Linux ARM system. I run into issues when trying to compile the source. It looks like the file, /usr/src/linux-3.7.6-0-ARCH/include/linux/kconfig.h, does not exist. On my Arch Linux x86 system it is part of the linux-headers package. The file is not part of the linux-headers-kirkwood package in my Arch Linux ARM install. Could someone familiar with the kernel tell me where or how to make the file, or point me to documentation that explains how to get it? Thanks.

[mlitke]

Just another update. I used pkgfile to try to find the kconfig.h file needed to compile the source from Realtek. It looks like the file is part of the core/linux-headers, core/linux-headers-mmp, core/linux-headers-olinuxino, and core/linux-headers-raspberrypi packages, but for some reason not in the core/linux-headers-kirkwood package. At that point I figured compiling a kernel myself would likely get me all the header files I needed to compile the source from Realtek, so I got the files needed to build the kernel and built it (using the Arch Build System). After I built the kernel, I updated the Realtek Makefile to set ARCH to "arm" and to point KSRC to the location of the header files generated and used to build the kernel. I was then able to compile the Realtek source into a kernel module. I loaded the module and it seems to work a bit better. With the Realtek module I no longer needed to unplug the device each time I bring the interface up and down and it connects to all of my wireless routers.

2013.03.07 - update
I forgot to mention that when I compiled the Realtek drivers I got a "WARNING: kernel_thread ... undefined!". I applied the patch that is part of the dkms-8192cu AUR package and the warning went away.

[moonman]

I'll include it in the next kernel release.

[tedm]

I've needed to move my dockstar to different locations on occasion, the setting of dhcp and static was getting painful, so I started just plugging the wired into a spare ap, and leaving dhcpcd on, on the dockstar.

a small linksys with 4 wired 10/100 ports was about the size of the dockstar, but I have since ordered a tp-link mr-3020 which can run off usb power.

[mlitke]

Thanks moonman. I thought I should also mention that it was more than just kconfig.h that is not in the linux-headers-kirkwood package, but is in the other header packages. I started off by just getting kconfig.h and putting it in the correct subdirectory under /usr/src/, but once it was in place there were many, many other header files that seemed to be missing. This lead me to check the other header packages and doing a quick check on the number of entries in two different header packages:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
> pacman -Qpl linux-headers-kirkwood-3.7.10-0-arm.pkg.tar.xz | wc -l
> pacman -Qpl linux-headers-olinuxino-3.7.2-2-arm.pkg.tar.xz | wc -l
')
Results in:
kirkwood - 3074
olinuxino - 8568
I figured there would be some differences, but I was surprised by how many. So, it appears for some reason, quite a few of the header files have been excluded from the kirkwood header package. As I mentioned in a previous post, when I built the kernel and pointed the Realtek Makefile to location where I built the kernel, I was able to compile the Realtek kernel module, so the files appear to exist they are just not included with the kirkwood header package.