Recommendation on (cheap nano/mini) usb wireless adapter

[DePingus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mlitke', 'I') was able to do some testing, and got wicd up and running for the wired connection over ssh.

[grayman4hire]

mlitke/moonman, is it possible to get the correct drivers included into the latest kernel so the AirLink AWLL5099 is plug and play? It would be nice to get a couple of cheap nano wireless usb adapters working on the PogoPlug with ALARM - the AirLink AWL5099 and the Edimax EW-7811Un are pretty popular with the Raspberry Pi community.

BTW, I lost my AirLink AWLL5099. Darn thing is too small and I have no idea where it is now.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mlitke', '
')If you need (or want) to update your system to the linux-kirkwood kernel, the device will likely not work with the driver included with the kernel. But, with the current version of the linux-kirkwood kernel (3.8.4), there is a package in the Arch Linux AUR for the Realtek driver, that does not require too many modifications to get work with Arch Linux ARM (thanks moonman, the newer kernel includes all the necessary header files). Here are the steps I ran to get the device working with the Realtek driver:
- Get the system up and running with the base install (using the install instructions on the Arch Linux ARM website)
- Update the system to the linux-kirkwood kernel (to run the kirkwood kernel the system must have the newer UBoot)
- Install the linux-headers-kirkwood package
- Install the abs package and the base-devel package group
- Get the files to make the dkms-8192cu package from the Arch Linux AUR (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dkms-8192cu/)
- Update the MAKE[0] line in the dkms.conf file (included with the dkms-8192cu package files) to change the architecture from i386 to arm, change the line:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'MAKE[0]="make ARCH=i386 CROSS_COMPILE= -C $kernel_source_dir M=$dkms_tree/$PACKAGE_NAME/$PACKAGE_VERSION/build modules"')
to
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'MAKE[0]="make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE= -C $kernel_source_dir M=$dkms_tree/$PACKAGE_NAME/$PACKAGE_VERSION/build modules"')
- Install the dkms package on the system
- Use makepkg to make the dkms-8192cu package
- Install the dkms-8192cu package (this takes a little while, since the driver is built as part of the install process)
- Reboot the system (after it reboots, if you have the adapter plugged in, the 8192cu module should be loaded)
- Follow the instructions on the Arch Linux wiki to setup wireless networking

You may also want to enable dkms.service (this will make it so the system automatically rebuilds the driver when the kernel is updated).

[mlitke]

That would be nice, but the source code for the drivers included with the kernel are maintained as part of the "generic" linux kernel. So, to me, it appears to be an upstream problem with the kernel. I remember coming across at least one open bug against the kernel regarding the issue with the rtl8192cu driver, but since the issue has been around for quite a while (approximately since the 3.1 kernel), I do not have very high hopes the issue will get resolved any time soon. Which is one of the reasons why I spent some time trying to figure out another solution.

[grayman4hire]

Why is it plug and play on the Raspberry Pi then? Or am I mistaken.

[moonman]

I think raspberry pi kernel is not exactly "generic": https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux
It does get merged with the code from the main linux tree, but it is maintained separately.

[grayman4hire]

Got it. Thanks for the explanation.

[mlitke]

After a bit I searching I was able to find the kernel bug again:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=45241

Comment #13 of the bug includes a patch and says it was added to the linux-wireless git tree, so the fix should make its way downstream. I am much more hopeful now

[moonman]

Tried applying the patch to the current kernel:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'patching file drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8192cu/hw.c
Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected! Skipping patch.
1 out of 1 hunk ignored -- saving rejects to file drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8192cu/hw.c.rej
patching file drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/base.h
patching file drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/pci.c')

Seems the patch has already been merged.

[mlitke]

moonman, when you say current kernel, do you mean current Arch Linux ARM armv5te kernel, or current "generic" Linux kernel? Thanks.

[moonman]

kirkwood kernel is vanilla besides the device specific patches. Thats why its ahead of other ones.