[SOLVED]Which USB Wi-Fi Adapters Work with Mageia?

[banjo]

I have been searching high and low to find a USB Wi-Fi adapter that I can buy with confidence that it will work on my Mageia computer. Here is the situation.

I have an older computer that I mothballed a few months ago to start using this new bigger-better-faster computer. The older computer has Mageia 3 on it. It was working fine when I took it down. I would like to resurrect it as an experimental platform for playing around with upgrades, Caldron. etc. Because of the location of the computer, I will have to connect to the net using Wi-Fi.

I have searched both the forum and the net to find an adapter that I can assume will work, but without any luck. Stories abound about brands that used to work with kernel 2.4 and 2.6 but no longer work on later kernels, failed downloads of drivers, building drivers from source code, etc. It is all very confusing.

Since I want to boot the computer to upgrade it, the device I get should work on newer kernels as well as older ones. If someone knows of a brand or model number of a USB Wi-Fi adapter that I can plug in and use with the Mageia OS, I would appreciate a pointer to it.

Thanks in advance,
Banjo
(_)=='=~

[doktor5000]

Does it have to be USB or would a PCI / PCIex card also work?

[banjo]

I do not remember what PCI slots are open in there, if any. I will have to crack open the box and take a look. If there is an open slot, then a card would work.

[banjo]

I opened the crate and found that there is currently one PCIEx x1 slot open. The graphics card takes the PCIEx x16 and covers one of the PCI slots. There is a NIC in the other PCI slot, which I put in because the on-board NIC never worked. The computer used to be plugged directly into the switch on the router via the PCI NIC. I could pull out the NIC if I were going to go totally wireless, and that would free up a PCI slot.

Banjo
(_)=='=~

[doktor5000]

Well PCI cards usually offer the advantage that they separate the wireless NIC and the antenna and you can easily replace the antenna with a better one for really only a few bucks.
I'd recommend one with an Atheros or Intel chipset. Most atheros chipsets offer the advantage that the driver comes with the kernel so you have wifi directly out of the box, usually without some nonfree firmware.
See e.g. https://wiki.debian.org/ath9k#supported and https://wiki.debian.org/ath5k#supported for the Atheros ones, for Intel it doesn't matter as long as you don't grab the really latest chipsets.

Do you have any online store where you want to buy that, as not all cards may be available in all parts of the world?

[banjo]

Doktor5000,

Thanks for the info. I have been fooling around with the computer to familiarize myself with how to hook this up. I have an old Rosewill USB WiFi adapter that I used two computers ago to connect that even older computer to the net. I bought the adapter back in July 2010, so it is pretty old. I had to build the drivers from source back then, and that was for a 2.6 kernel, so it wasn't looking good.

I plugged the adapter in to a USB and then attempted to set it up, but it complained about not having driver rtl8192sefw.bin in /lib/firmware/rtlwifi. I came back to this Mageia 5 computer and looked in that folder, and there were a bunch of rtl drivers in there, even though it has never connected via WiFi. On a hunch, I copied the entire rtlwifi folder onto the old computer and after a couple of reboots, it came up. I was able to configure it and connect to my router at the other end of the house. Here is some partial output from ifconfig:

Code: Select all

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1A:EF:11:0A:E8 
          inet addr:192.168.1.10  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21a:efff:fe11:ae8/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:34184 errors:0 dropped:1517 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:13572 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:29646668 (28.2 MiB)  TX bytes:1883379 (1.7 MiB)


Here is some relevant output from iwconfig:

Code: Select all

[root@localhost brian]# iwconfig wlan0
          Bit Rate:65 Mb/s   Sensitivity:0/0 
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=94/100  Noise level=0/100
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0


This is not a long term solution because there are some serious issues with the device. If I boot the system with the USB WiFi connected, the system does not detect it. lsusb does not show it. I have to plug it in after the system has been booted, and then it shows wlan0. That seems strange, but it was not unexpected because the same device does exactly the same thing on my daughter's Mint system. She has to plug it in after the boot and then connect.

We are both looking for a newer adapter. I have at least confirmed that the computer will be able to see the signal where I have it set up. It even has a strong signal, 94/100.

So far I have not found much to run with. I found an Atheros PCIe card on Amazon that I was going to pick up, but evidently it ships directly from China, and there were complaints that weeks later orders were still in China. I will have to think about pulling the trigger on that one. I found Alfa AWUS036NHA which claims that it has the Atheros chipset, but it is a USB connection, and it is a single antenna, 150 Mbps device.

I will keep looking around, using the Debian suggestions in the links you posted. I think I will steer clear of the Rosewill devices.

Thanks for the help. I am learning a lot about how this system hangs together.

Banjo
(_)=='=~

[banjo]

I thought I would update this thread with the resolution that I have implemented for this issue in case anyone was interested in the outcome. I ended up purchasing the ALPHA device:

ALFA Network AWUS036NHA Atheros AR9271 2000mW 802.11b/g/n Wireless-N USB WLAN Adapter with 5dBi Antenna

It is a USB, external device. The device cost about $25 U.S. dollars.

It boots and connects with Mageia 3 just fine. Installation went fine right out of the box with no driver issues. Here is some relevant information about the setup.

From ifconfig:

Code: Select all

wlan1     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:C0:CA:92:35:35 
          inet addr:192.168.1.5  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::2c0:caff:fe92:3535/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:20725 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:14661 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:19013029 (18.1 MiB)  TX bytes:2427312 (2.3 MiB)


From iwconfig:

Code: Select all

          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=59/70  Signal level=-51 dBm 
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:380   Missed beacon:0


The link quality is a bit less than I got using the Rosewill; I am getting 54 Mb/s and the Roswill was getting 65 Mb/s. But the Rosewill would not connect on boot so I am going to stick with this one. The difference could be caused by other conditions that are different now than they were when I ran the other test, so I will keep tabs on it and see if it changes. If I feel adventurous later, I might spring for a 9dB antenna to see if that helps with the signal; the ALPHA has a screw-on antenna so it will be easy to replace. At this point the signal quality is mostly irrelevant.

The other issue with the Rosewill is that it is an old device. I plan on updating the computer with newer software soon, and I don't want to hassle the antiquated connection hardware.

Thanks to all for the support.
Banjo
(_)=='=~

[banjo]

I thought I would add a quick update to this thread in case anyone was curious about forward compatibility. I just booted the new stable release Mageia-6-sta2-LiveDVD-Plasma-x86_64-DVD.iso on my old computer and was able to get the ALFA WiFi device connected OK. I did that after booting from the USB drive; I have not installed it on the hard disk yet.

Banjo
(_)=='=~

[daniewicz]

Thanks for the posts banjo. I have ordered a ALFA AWUS036NHA.

[banjo]

FYI, I have also seen the ALPHA work with Mageia 6 RC and Linux Mint with no additional work other than entering the WiFi password to my network. This device appears to be very comfortable with Linux.

I have moved the computer to a new location in my basement, closer to the WiFi antenna, and the signal strength has gone up to ~67%. I have not needed to replace the antenna.

[daniewicz]

I received my ALFA AWUS036NHA today from Amazon. Works perfectly with Mageia 5. Thanks banjo!