Using USB WiFi adapter on Dockstar?

It is the same procedure I posted on page 1.

twinclouds Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It is the same procedure I posted on page 1.

Hi,

I assume that the procedure you mentioning here is:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,563,999#msg-999
but it looks like it's not working correctly according to:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,563,1068#msg-1068
that's why I'm bit confused.
And one more thing I'm using Debian Squeeze - looks like your procedure is not fully reliable for this system ?

Regards,
Adam.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2010 03:35PM by bedek.

Yes. I meant the original posting. It works for Lenny perfectly without any change or additional scripts. It didn't work well for Squeeze at first. Then, once I used Jeff's latest script: "http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/dockstar.debian-squeeze.sh"; and the latest Kernel package by Rudolf, It just worked, no additional scripts/programs needed.

I tried a couple of rtl8187 based USB adapters (Alfa AWUS036H and G-Sky GS-27USB) with Gorgone's 2.6.35.7-dockstar kernel. The results are not great - dockstar only boots if cable is connected and they seem to lose connection with the router after 5..20 minutes. I tried (briefly) to get wicd to work with no success so I'm currently using a hacked up script to connect/reconnect.

Here are the steps I took...

1. Install wireless packages

apt-get install wireless-tools wpasupplicant

2. edit network interfaces: vi /etc/network/interfaces

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# wlan wifi interface
#auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
  wpa-ssid MY_SSID
  wpa-psk MY_WPA2_PASSWORD

# wired ethernet
#auto eth0                         # <--- commented out line so dockstar boots without cable
iface eth0 inet dhcp

3. created a script to monitor connectivity and reconnect if connection stalls /usr/local/bin/netwatch.sh

#!/bin/bash

INTERFACE[0]="eth0"
INTERFACE[1]="wlan0"
ROUTER_IP="192.168.1.1"
CHECK_INTERVAL_SECS=10

echo `date` ": $0 started"

function iface_packets
{
    local IFACE=$1
    local REGEX="^[ ]*$IFACE:[ ]*([0-9]*)[ ]*([0-9]*)";
    while read line; do
        if [[ $line =~ $REGEX ]]; then
            echo -n ${BASH_REMATCH[2]} && exit
        fi
    done < /proc/net/dev
    echo -n 0
}

function interface_status
{
    local IFACE=$1
    local PKTS1=$(iface_packets $IFACE)
    ping -I $IFACE -W 1 -c 1 -r $ROUTER_IP >/dev/null 2>&1
    sleep 2 # allow some time for ping response
    local PKTS2=$(iface_packets $IFACE)

    if [[ $PKTS1 != $PKTS2 ]]; then
        echo -n 'UP' && exit
    fi
    echo -n 'DOWN'
}

CURRENT=0
while [ 1 ]
do
    IFACE=${INTERFACE[$CURRENT]}
    sleep $CHECK_INTERVAL_SECS

    if [[ $(interface_status $IFACE) == DOWN ]]; then
        echo `date` ": bouncing interface $IFACE"
        ifdown $IFACE
        ifup $IFACE
        if [[ $(interface_status $IFACE) == DOWN ]]; then
            ifdown $IFACE
            CURRENT=$(( 1-$CURRENT ))
            echo `date` ": switching to interface ${INTERFACE[$CURRENT]}"
            continue
        else
            echo `date` ": interface $IFACE is up"
        fi
    fi
    sleep $CHECK_INTERVAL_SECS
done

4. modified /etc/rc.local to start the script (added the following before exit 0 line)

nohup /usr/local/bin/netwatch.sh < /dev/null >> /var/log/netwatch.log 2>&1 &

5. reboot

Very kludgy and not recommended, but at least it allows plugging/unplugging ethernet and wifi.

Need to find out why Dockstar doesn't boot without the cable attached.

-PG

twinclouds Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes. I meant the original posting. It works for
> Lenny perfectly without any change or additional
> scripts. It didn't work well for Squeeze at
> first. Then, once I used Jeff's latest script:
> "http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/dockstar.debian-squ
> eeze.sh" and the latest Kernel package by Rudolf,
> It just worked, no additional scripts/programs
> needed.

Currently I'm on stage when my wifi card is configured and I can assign IP to it, but whenever I disconnect ethernet cable wifi card is loosing connectivity either.

"...I meant the original posting..." is:
http://www.rudiswiki.de/wiki/DockStarWLAN?highlight=%28\bCategoryDockStar\b%29
or
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,563,999#msg-999
?

Did you used wicd or any other daemon software to manage you network cards ?

Can you start Dockstar with only wifi usb card connected and ethernet cable disconnected ?

Could you please post you /etc/network/interfaces ?

Did you changed /etc/rc.local or any other configuration file ?

Where is Rudolf kernel ? (I'm using rt73 card)

FYI - 3Com Wireless 54Mbps USB Network Adapter 802.11g/b (model: 3CRUSB10075) seems to work well using the zd1211rw driver (Gorgone's 2.6.35.7-dockstar kernel + 1.4 firmware).

$8 on ebay (used) - just a pity they aren't smaller

-PG

bedek Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> twinclouds Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Yes. I meant the original posting. It works
> for
> > Lenny perfectly without any change or
> additional
> > scripts. It didn't work well for Squeeze at
> > first. Then, once I used Jeff's latest script:
> >
> "http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/dockstar.debian-squ
>
> > eeze.sh" and the latest Kernel package by
> Rudolf,
> > It just worked, no additional scripts/programs
> > needed.
>
> Currently I'm on stage when my wifi card is
> configured and I can assign IP to it, but whenever
> I disconnect ethernet cable wifi card is loosing
> connectivity either.
>
> "...I meant the original posting..." is:
> http://www.rudiswiki.de/wiki/DockStarWLAN?highligh
> t=%28\bCategoryDockStar\b%29
> or
> http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,563,999#msg-999
>
> ?
>
> Did you used wicd or any other daemon software to
> manage you network cards ?
No I didn't use any thing else
>
> Can you start Dockstar with only wifi usb card
> connected and ethernet cable disconnected ?
Yes.
>
> Could you please post you /etc/network/interfaces
Interfaces is exactly the same as I posted earlier in this thread.
> ?
>
> Did you changed /etc/rc.local or any other
> configuration file ?
No nothing was changed.

>
> Where is Rudolf kernel ? (I'm using rt73 card)
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,582

If you really have trouble to make the WIFI adapter work, I would suggest you use Lenny. It works out of box.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2010 12:30PM by twinclouds.

With Gorgone's latest 2.6.35.7.4 kernel and a zd1211rw wireless adapter I can boot without the Ethernet cable attached without any special configuration or scripts and everything looks like its working. Not sure if it was the kernel or the new adapter that did the trick.

My /etc/network/interfaces file looks like this:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
  wpa-ssid MY_ROUTER_SSID
  wpa-psk MY_ROUTER_PASSWORD

auto wlan1
iface wlan1 inet dhcp
  wpa-ssid MY_ROUTER_SSID
  wpa-psk MY_ROUTER_PASSWORD

auto wlan2
iface wlan2 inet dhcp
  wpa-ssid MY_ROUTER_SSID
  wpa-psk MY_ROUTER_PASSWORD

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

-PG

I believe it is the kernel.

Hi,

today I bought a TP-Link TL-WN821N ( version 2 ) USB wlan stick, which is based on an atheros 9170 chip. I am using gorgones 2.6.35.7-dockstar heavy kernel, and after uploading the firmware for the stick to /lib/firmware, my dockstar detects the stick als wlan0 without problems, so far, so good. Now I have the problem that I can't get the WLAN stick to use the channel 12 and 13 ( which is legal in germany ). iwlist wlan0 f reports:

root@debian:~# iwlist wlan0 f
wlan0 11 channels in total; available frequencies :
Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz

So I created /etc/modprobe.d/cfg80211.conf containing
"options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=DE"
but dmesg shows that the required regulatory domain setting seems to be ignored by the driver:

cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: DE
usb 1-1.1: reset high speed USB device using orion-ehci and address 3
rtc-mv rtc-mv: internal RTC not ticking
usbcore: registered new interface driver ar9170usb
ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x809c
ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x52
ath: Country alpha2 being used: CN
ath: Regpair used: 0x52
phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel'
cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: CN

Comparing this to logfiles I found in the net it looks to me, that something is missing on my system, so the call to "CRDA" can't succeed ?

The same thing happens when I am trying to set the reg domain using "iw set reg xx":

root@debian:~# iw reg get
country 00:
(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (6, 20)
(2457 - 2482 @ 20), (6, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(2474 - 2494 @ 20), (6, 20), NO-OFDM, PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(5170 - 5250 @ 40), (6, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(5735 - 5835 @ 40), (6, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
root@debian:~# iw reg set DE
root@debian:~# iw reg get
country 00:
(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (6, 20)
(2457 - 2482 @ 20), (6, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(2474 - 2494 @ 20), (6, 20), NO-OFDM, PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(5170 - 5250 @ 40), (6, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(5735 - 5835 @ 40), (6, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS

No change at all. Does anybody of you know where my fault is ?

C.U. NanoBot

u must load the module with an option
in /etc/modprobe.conf

Quote
options modulname_1 optionenname_1=XX

options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=EU

or if u use backports

options lbm_cw_cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=EU

More info: http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/7/8/421

Loading the module with an option was the first thing I tried, but dmesg shows that the option does not produce what it should. BTW, "EU" is deprecated for non CONFIG_WIRELESS_OLD_REGULATORY based kernels now, but I tried both EU and DE and none of them worked like they should.

I just investigated a little bit more and my idea is that this
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/Regulatory/CRDA
is needed to change the reg domain, but there are no debian packages wireless-crda and wireless-regdb available.

u can find it here
http://myplugbox.com/wireless/crda/

Thanks for the link, gorgone.

I already succeeded in changing the regulatory domain with a workarround: I used the crda binary and the udev rule from the 1.10 armel package for ubuntu; 1.10 because versions 1.11 and 1.12 are throwing errors when calling the crda binary. Then i got the newest regulatory.bin and copied it to /usr/lib/crda, and after rebooting channel 12 and 13 can be used.

I will now remove these "workarround" and replace it with the contents of the archiv from the myplugbox site.

Ok, the crda 1.11 package from plugbox, together with an actual regulatory.bin, works like it should. Nevertheless, now the problems are just starting.

As already said, my WLAN stick is a TP-Link TL-WN821N ( version 2 ), based on the atheros 9170 chipset. I am able to connect to my router / ap working on channel 13 with WPA2 encryption and to ssh into the dockstar using the wireless connection. This connection can be used for hours without problems, but whenever I am trying to copy files from the internet ( using wget ) or from / to the pc ( using samba or sftp ) from / to the dockstar, the whole network connection ( both WLAN and wired connections ) are freezing, if the file is bigger than a few 100kByte. The only way to recover from that situation is to "hard" reset the Dockstar by dis- and reconnecting the power supply.

Does anyone of you has an advice for me where to look for error messages about that ? Are there any logfiles which survive a reboot where I can look for information what causes the network to freeze ?

twinclouds Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Rudolf:
> As far as I know, in addition to the kernel files
> included, it is also necessary to have drivers to
> make the wifi dongle work, e.g., zd1211 folder and
> rt73.bin in the /lib/firmware folder. Do you know
> which driver should be used for TP-Link WN721N?


Hi,

My rt73 wifi works but as in your post it's very slow on local network, looks like ping-s on local network takes long time. Did you found solution for this problem ?

Regards.

No. I haven't. All other wifi dongles that I tried worked well. Either it is a chip problem or a driver problem.

A report concerning my problem with the TP-Link TL-WN821N ( version 2 ):

Using the carl9170 driver instead of the ar9170usb driver did not solve the problem. Nevertheless, the carl9170 is better, e.g. it correctly displays the current linkspeed, while the ar9170usb always reports 1 MBit/S.

But the problem seems to be solved anyway: ATM I am using the stick with an USB "Y" type cable, so it is powered by two USB-ports. And with that cable it works without any problems until now. Is it really possible that the power of one USB-port of the dockstar is not enough for a WLAN stick ?

Just wanted to report my ongoing happiness with the dockstar and debian squeeze using kernel 2.6.35-7 and various rtl8192su based USB wireless NICs!

Thanks for such great work!

I take that back. The rtl8192su wireless NICs are not everything I was hoping for in a NIC. Also apparently the 2.6.36 kernel discards this driver in favor of the r8712u driver. Maybe things will be better soon.

yes if the 2.6.36.1 is out i release the compiled kernel with some new functions

3Com 3CRUSB10075 with Zydas chipset (zd1211rw driver and 1.4 firmware) has been working perfectly for me so far. They're pretty cheap on ebay (<$8 shipped in USA).

-PG

petergunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 3Com 3CRUSB10075 with Zydas chipset (zd1211rw
> driver and 1.4 firmware) has been working
> perfectly for me so far. They're pretty cheap on
> ebay (<$8 shipped in USA).
>
> -PG

Hi petergunn, I have purchased the same USB WLAN stick, can you tell me how/where I need to install the firmware to make WLAN work? I already have Gorgone's latest Kernal installed, but I am pretty much a Linux noob. Do I need to change the /etc/network/interfaces file as well?
Thanks,
Mike

copy it to /lib/firmware/zd1211

cp zd1211-firmware/* /lib/firmware/zd1211/

You'll have to set up network interfaces to match your settings. If you are using WPA2 with PSK you need an entry like...

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
  wpa-ssid MY_ROUTER_SSID
  wpa-psk MY_ROUTER_PASSWORD

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2010 03:51PM by petergunn.

b0nafide Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I take that back. The rtl8192su wireless NICs are
> not everything I was hoping for in a NIC. Also
> apparently the 2.6.36 kernel discards this driver
> in favor of the r8712u driver. Maybe things will
> be better soon.

No they won't. r8712u is also a staging driver. Therefore it will have to make way for a replacement in the future.

petergunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 3Com 3CRUSB10075 with Zydas chipset (zd1211rw driver and 1.4 firmware) has been working
> perfectly for me so far. They're pretty cheap on ebay (<$8 shipped in USA).

Does hostapd or master mode work with this adapter? I'd like to be able configure my DockStar as an access point.

According to the Driver webpage and Wikipedia, Monitor mode is supported but not Master mode.

-PG

I used a Nintendo USB Wifi connector with the Dockstar (it has an rt2500 chip I think)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Wi-Fi_USB_Connector

I used the instructions for another ARM based device (the linkstation) that I wrote up a while ago
http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Alpha_220_LED_Sign#Make_it_Wireless

Hi,

I would like to replace my card with other (more stable) USB WIFI card, could you create a list of USB WIFI cards which:

- are fully stable (work for more then 10 hrs without any problems)
- have full open source support
- work in USB 2.0 mode
- opearatin in 54 M speed

Regards,
Adam.

PS
Similla idea as in http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,1915



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2010 05:22PM by bedek.