BeagleBone + WiFi - fail

[bickhardt]

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: C0:25:06:3B:CA:64
Channel:8
Frequency:2.447 GHz (Channel
Quality=70/70 Signal level=-35 dBm
...
wlan0 No scan results
...
Quality=27/70 Signal level=-83 dBm
...
Quality=26/70 Signal level=-84 dBm

so, if No scan result, that may mean that signal is low, but between -35 and -84 db?

so long for tonite! a plus!

[bickhardt]

success,finally! tried it with a Belkin F7D2101 USB stick for 9.99 Euros at Saturn-Hansa.

followed exactly the tutorial, except when installing I used:

# opkg -t /home/root/tmp linux-firmware-rtl8192su
which installs at /lib/firmware/rtlwifi: rtl8712u.bin

then you do
# /usr/lib/connman/test/test-connman services
...
* champs_des_aulnes_2_4GHz { wifi_08863b07...25f3447487a_managed_psk }
...

then you do
# /usr/lib/connman/test/test-connman connect wifi_08863b07...25f3447487a_managed_psk

which connects to the access point and uses dhcp to provide an ip- address
# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 08:86:3B:07:DA:E9
inet addr:192.168.16.121 Bcast:192.168.16.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::a86:3bff:fe07:dae9/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1036 errors:0 dropped:274 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:326 errors:0 dropped:1 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:211143 (206.1 KiB) TX bytes:55009 (53.7 KiB)

you can now do (check in your router whether you are connected or not; if not, this may be due to a wrong passphrase, network name etc.)
# ssh root@192.168.16.121

this all works even with the ethernet cable attached.

When you reboot, however, you have to disconnect the ethernet-cable for # ssh root@192.168.16.121 to work.

Now, when I had achieved this, it turns out it also works with the mini-wifi adapter from Adafruit. However (due to the weak signal strength?) it only works now and then.

[NormLane]

That's all beyond my level of expertise. I just want to get the wifi dongle I bought from Adafruit working or get a replacement that works.

[adafruit]

That's all beyond my level of expertise. I just want to get the wifi dongle I bought from Adafruit working or get a replacement that works.

hi norm,

if you want to get it working you'll need to let us assist you

another dongle will not do anything - it will be exactly the same, the a6 beagle bone requires the instructions found here, you should try this and we're willing to help you. if you're unable or unwilling to follow the instructions that are required for a complex product like the beagle bone this you are welcome to return it for a full refund. this is not a beginner product - but we can and will do our best to assist you - otherwise email support@adafruit.com and we'll arrange a return/refund.

thanks,
adafruit support, phil

[NormLane]

hi norm,

if you want to get it working you'll need to let us assist you

bickhardt basically says, in the end, that your dongle doesn't work. Are you in agreement with that?

another dongle will not do anything - it will be exactly the same, the a6 beagle bone

You sold me an a5. Does that matter? I installed the a6 OS which seems to work fine.

requires the instructions found here, you should try this and we're willing to help you. if you're unable or unwilling to follow the instructions that are required for a complex product like the beagle bone this you are welcome to return it for a full refund. this is not a beginner product - but we can and will do our best to assist you - otherwise email support@adafruit.com and we'll arrange a return/refund.

That's patronizing. I'm am at least old enough to be your father so cut it out

In his last post, bickhardt says...

Now, when I had achieved this, it turns out it also works with the mini-wifi adapter from Adafruit. However (due to the weak signal strength?) it only works now and then.

I think a comment from the vendor would be very appropriate here. Does this wifi dongle work consistently or not? If it does work what part of bickhardt's post(s) is correct and what part is wrong?

I'm not going to the trouble to ship a $20 item back. If it does not in fact work I'll toss it in the box with the Async_Labs junk that hardly ever worked.

[adafruit]

hi norm,

we're doing our best to assist you, we're sorry it did not work out and we could not help you with this. we really did try the best we could. we found it works fine with A5's using the A5 image. not sure why you may be having problem, we never had weak signal strength issues - it could be a wireless router setup. we would not ask you to ship the item back.

we have refunded that portion of your order - once again, we're sorry we could not assist you better with this. just to be clear, we're not patronizing you or anyone at all - forum posts are not in-person interactions and can be read in ways that are not intended - we apologize if you feel we've said or done anything that offended you.

thanks,
adafruit support, phil

[NormLane]

Well thanks and sorry if I misinterpreted your tone.

Let me repeat that the dongle worked fine on a Windows 7 box. It was in the same location so I don't think it was related to distance. I assume this means it's some interaction between the dongle and the Beaglebone. I don't know if that's helpful or not. I did use the external power source by the way so it wasn't that.

I actually have a workaround. I have a portable wifi router that I can plug the bb into. It's an automotive application so the extra power consumption isn't too important although I would prefer a smaller package.

[bickhardt]

Whatever it is (and I still think it is related to to the weak signal reception) here is a protocol:
after booting up to no avail with the mini-adapter, I simply insert the other adapter.. et voila it works!
and it kept the connection (on wifi alone) for 48 hours in a stretch (the I rebooted)!


>boot with miniAdapter and USB-cable installed<

root@beaglebone:~# dmesg
…
[ 1.366131] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8176
[ 1.366153] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 1.366168] usb 1-1.3: Product: 802.11n WLAN Adapter
[ 1.366179] usb 1-1.3: Manufacturer: 802.11n WLPN Adapter
[ 1.366190] usb 1-1.3: SerialNumber: 00e04c000001
…
[ 5.403099] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[ 7.212542] rtl8192cu: MAC address: 00:9e:95:9b:5b:d9
[ 7.212580] rtl8192cu: Board Type 0
[ 9.480380] rtlwifi: rx_max_size 15360, rx_urb_num 8, in_ep 1
[ 9.530312] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'rtl_rc'
[ 9.531489] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8192cu
[ 9.579687] rtl8192cu: MAC auto ON okay!
[ 9.635872] rtl8192cu: Tx queue select: 0x05
[ 9.637315] rtl8192c_common: Loading firmware file rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw.bin
[ 10.280675] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
…
root@beaglebone:~# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:9E:95:9B:5B:D9
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)

root@beaglebone:~# iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0 No scan results

>pull out the mini-adapter, insert the Belkin adapter, no reboot<

root@beaglebone:~# dmesg
...
[ 116.171685] usb 1-1.3: USB disconnect, device number 4
[ 116.172083] rtlwifi: reg 0x102, usbctrl_vendorreq TimeOut! status:0xffffffed value=0x3800
...
[ 116.298166] rtlwifi: reg 0x42, usbctrl_vendorreq TimeOut! status:0xffffffed value=0x3f3f3f3f
[ 126.130708] usb 1-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 5 using musb-hdrc
[ 126.232749] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=050d, idProduct=845a
[ 126.232770] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 126.232784] usb 1-1.4: Product: Connect Wireless USB Adapter
[ 126.232796] usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: Manufacturer Realtek
[ 126.232807] usb 1-1.4: SerialNumber: 00e04c000001
[ 126.264148] r8712u: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[ 126.273340] r8712u: DriverVersion: v7_0.20100831
[ 126.273425] r8712u: register rtl8712_netdev_ops to netdev_ops
[ 126.273443] r8712u: USB_SPEED_HIGH with 4 endpoints
[ 126.278472] r8712u: Boot from EFUSE: Autoload OK
[ 126.674023] r8712u: CustomerID = 0x0000
[ 126.674041] r8712u: MAC Address from efuse = 08:86:3b:07:da:e9
[ 126.674053] r8712u: Loading firmware from "rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin"
[ 126.674367] usbcore: registered new interface driver r8712u
[ 127.480770] r8712u: 1 RCR=0x153f00e
[ 127.481270] r8712u: 2 RCR=0x553f00e
[ 127.600714] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 139.982664] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[ 144.077489] r8712u: [r8712_got_addbareq_event_callback] mac = c0:25:06:3b:ca:64, seq = 48, tid = 0

root@beaglebone:~# iwscan wlan0 scanning
wlan0 scanning
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:1F:3F:13:8D:91
ESSID:"blacktomcat"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
...

[NormLane]

Well, I found a used Belkin F7D2101 on Amazon for $10 so I'm going to try it.

Thanks for all this effort.

[NormLane]

Do you actually have to boot with each dongle in turn? That would be a show stopper. This thing has to be able to boot up on it's own.

[bickhardt]

What do you mean?

You can boot with no dongle, but then you have to connect via USB or eth0 to access the bb. In the latter case you then have to do the "./connman-test connect <service> thing to use wifi after inserting the dongle when you don´t pull the eth-plug. Or pull the plug, then insert the dongle.

If you want the beaglebone to e.g. collect sensor data, then you can boot with no connection to the host, and insert the dongle later in which case it should start up the connection automatically, too.

[Jerrill]

I have also been trying to get the BeagleBone working with the Adafruit / Monoprice mini USB wireless adapter (Realtek RTL8192CU). I also have a Belkin F7D1101 USB wireless adapter (Realtek RTL8188SU) and an EDUP EP-MS150ND USB wireless adapter (Ralink RT5370).

The Adafruit is the only one that supports master (soft AP) mode which is what is required for tethering (connman's answer to not supporting ad hoc connections). This is a must-have feature for the application that I'm building the BeagleBone into. So, I was trying really hard to get the Adafruit adapter to work and not go buy another one hoping that the chip set supports master (AP, soft AP, etc.) mode since this information is usually hard to find on distributor and manufacturer websites.

Unfortunately I've seen A LOT of stability issues with BeagleBone / connman / and the Adafruit adapter. I've tried two different powered USB hubs with the Adafruit adapter and it didn't help. Even with line power via the DC jack I had very little success getting the adapter to work at all when connected directly to the BeagleBone USB port.

I've also seen issues where an established connection to an access point is disconnected after a while. Additionally, after deliberately disconnecting from an access point (within a few seconds) the device stops being able to scan for any access points at all until I reboot. I don't know if it's the device or the driver, but it's frustrating to say the least. I have another adapter (ASUS USB-N13 rev B1) with the same chipset on order to help determine if it's the device, the driver, connman, etc..

The Belkin adapter doesn't seem to suffer from the same disconnect problems, but it doesn't support master mode. If Adafruit ends up changing to a different device, make sure it supports master / soft AP mode!

[Jerrill]

I purchased an ASUS USB-N13 802.11n Network Adapter (rev. B1) [Realtek RTL8192CU] to see if it was the device or the driver and I am having the same sort of stability problems with the device. So, I'm beginning to suspect the RTL8192CU driver that ships with the BeagleBone. I looked at Realtek's website and they updated their Linux software on 7/4/2012. I'll give that a try and post back if it improves anything.

On another note, I've been using a Belkin F7D1101 USB wireless adapter (Realtek RTL8188SU) from Best Buy and it's been extremely stable.

More news to follow.

[greg1415]

My wifi adapter (http://www.adafruit.com/products/814) has been working much better after downloading the Nov 2012 driver from RealTek and compiling the module on the BeagleBone (Angstrom v2012.05 kernel 3.2.34).

RTL8192xC_USB_linux_v3.4.4_4749.20121105.zip from
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/Red ... 121105.zip

[captain_juno]

My wifi adapter (http://www.adafruit.com/products/814) has been working much better after downloading the Nov 2012 driver from RealTek and compiling the module on the BeagleBone (Angstrom v2012.05 kernel 3.2.34).

RTL8192xC_USB_linux_v3.4.4_4749.20121105.zip from
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/Red ... 121105.zip

greg1415, how did you compile the module on the BeagleBone? Did you cross-compile the driver for ARM and then copy it over?
Thanks.