Orange Pi mini 2 / Linux / Edimax USB WiFi Dongle [SOLVED]

vshard

If you want to stop flour find solutions - try this - http://www.orangepi.org/orangepibbsen/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=867&extra=page%3D1
Orange Pi PC + [Debian Jessie with GPU driver, WiringOP, Wifi, Retroarch etc preinstalled]

I have RTL8188CUS aka Edimax EW-7811Un (ASIN - B003MTTJOY - amazon.com)
Realtek RTL8188CUS working.
(+ more these devices are working -> 1 - "noname" Ralink RT5370 with antenna 2dBi,  2 - RTL8192CU aka ComFast CF-WU825N)
All the are working "out of the box".
-----------
uname -a
Linux OrangePI 3.4.39-02-lobo #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Nov 10 10:37:50 CET 2015 armv7l GNU/Linux
-----------
dmesg
....
[ 20.320998] rtl8192cu: Chip version 0x10
[ 20.436455] rtl8192cu: MAC address: 80:1f:02:e6:9d:89
[ 20.447441] rtl8192cu: Board Type 0
[ 20.456563] rtlwifi: rx_max_size 15360, rx_urb_num 8, in_ep 1
[ 20.467956] rtl8192cu: Loading firmware rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw.bin
[ 20.479793] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8192cu
[ 20.495486] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'rtl_rc'
[ 20.512688] rtlwifi: wireless switch is on
[ 20.570481] systemd-udevd[197]: renamed network interface wlan0 to wlan2
.....
--------------
lsmod
Module                        Size     Used by
rtl8192cu                          87956 0
rtlwifi                                70757 1 rtl8192cu
rtl8192c_common              52422 1 rtl8192cu
mac80211                       331125 3 rtlwifi,rtl8192c_common,rtl8192cu
8189es                           901572 0
mali_drm                            6634 1
drm                                180399 2 mali_drm
mali                                213192 0
ump                                 41069 3 mali
------------------
lsusb
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 002: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 7392:7811 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd EW-7811Un 802.11n Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8188CUS]
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
-------------------
ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr c6:64:50:86:03:fa
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:114

lo Link encap : local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:238 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:238 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:19764 (19.3 KiB) TX bytes:19764 (19.3 KiB)

wlan2 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 80:1f:02:e6:9d:89
inet addr:192.168.1.151 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::821f:2ff:fee6:9d89/64 Scope : link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:17257 errors:0 dropped:1 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:17315 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:13160340 (12.5 MiB) TX bytes:2527292 (2.4 MiB)

Using this image - "Debian Jessie with GPU driver, WiringOP, Wifi, Retroarch etc preinstalled" (link at the beginning of the post), you can quickly understand why does not work the one that you use.

jernej

You can give up and use the image vshard suggested or you can try to understand how to compile kernel.

Kernel has a lot of settings which must be determined before you start compiling. These settings are saved in a configuration file. In this case, configuration file resides in build/ folder and it name is "sun8iw7p1smp_lobo_defconfig". If you open up this file, you will see a lot of different settings. They are usually set via UI, but for now you can just add "# CONFIG_FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER is not set" (without quotes) after CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE="" line. Rebuild and try again.

mrdma

vshard - Thank you for the reference to a working image for my usb wifi. I'll try it just to experience some success.


jernej - I would prefer not to give up. I eventually want to learn how to compile my own kernel, and eventually build my own image. I'm going to let this issue rest for a couple of days. I'll have more time soon to continue down my path. I'll report back in a couple of days.

Thank you all for your support and direction.

mrdma

vshard replied at 2016-1-25 23:51
If you want to stop flour find solutions - try this - http://www.orangepi.org/orangepibbsen/forum.ph ...

I didn't have success with Jacer's image. Here is my lsusb:

Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Here's my lsmod:

Module                  Size  Used by
8189es                901572  0
mali_drm                6634  1
drm                   180399  2 mali_drm
mali                  213192  0
ump                    41069  3 mali

And ifconfig = command not found, and iwlist = command not found. How did you get it working? Everything about the orange pi has been a joke so far.

jernej

Just out of curiosity, can you try OpenELEC image? There should work out of the box...

vshard

mrdma replied at 2016-2-2 03:38
I didn't have success with Jacer's image. Here is my lsusb:

Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux ...

lsusb  says : "In USB ports is empty"  :-)
Need:  a) test USB ports (put / remove  USB device, for example USB stick, and look dmesg)
           b) check / replace  Power Adapter (must be 5V/2A)
           c) check / replace   microSD card (must be 10 class)
Please show "dmesg"
In debian "internal" command is  ifconfig.
iwconfig - is not "internal" command. Its part of the "wireless-tools" Linux package maintained by Jean Tourrilhes.
if iwconfig - not found, need "sudo apt-get update" and "sudo apt-get install wireless-tools".
P.S. Try "sudo ifconfig" ... and "sudo iwconfig".

mrdma

Update:

I was able to copy the 8192cufw.bin file to /lib/firmware/rtlwifi, and now get the message "firmware is too big" instead of .bin not found. Any more hints?

mrdma

Update:

I was able to get the USB WiFi adapter to work with Laboris' Debian 8 Jessie Xfce image. I'm going to attempt to get it working with other images soon.

Here's what I did (all actions were as root):

1. apt-get install wireless-tools

Copy code

add

1. deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

Copy code

to /etc/apt/sources.list

1. apt-get update && apt-get install firmware-realtek

Copy code

1. apt-get install unzip && exit

Copy code

1. wget ftp://ftp2.dlink.com/PRODUCTS/DWA-130/REVC/DWA-130_REVC_DRIVERS_0.06_LINUX.ZIP

Copy code

1. unzip DWA-130_REVC_DRIVERS_0.06_LINUX.ZIP

Copy code

1. mkdir /lib/firmware/RTL8192U

Copy code

1. cp rtl8192u_linux_2.6.0006.1031.2008/firmware/RTL8192U/* /lib/firmware/RTL8192U

Copy code

reboot

1. dmesg

Copy code

to see if firmware successfully loaded

1. iwconfig

Copy code

to see if adapter shows as wlanX

The next step was to use nmcli to connect to my hidden network. I'll have to come back and put that instruction here.

Thanks to everyone for trying to help. Ultimately, the answer was that realtek drivers are considered "free" drivers and are not pre-installed or available from primary source repos. I'll also come back and provide links to the several web pages I visited to get this to work.

nopnop2002

mrdma replied at 2016-1-24 02:38
I apologize...I meant to say that I had to create /lib/firmware/rtlwifi. The firmware directory didn ...

I apologize for that by the very slow response.

1. sudo apt-get install firmware-ralink

Copy code

/lib/firmware is created.


$ ls /lib/firmware
rt2561.bin   rt2661.bin  rt2870.bin  rt3071.bin  rt3290.bin
rt2561s.bin  rt2860.bin  rt3070.bin  rt3090.bin  rt73.bin