Cannot get realtek USB wifi to work on RPi [Arch ARM]

[maggie]

I'm using Arch ARM trying to get my usb wi-fi called "Vilros 150 Mbps wireless 802.11b/g/n nano USB adapter" to work.

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# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n WLAN Adapter

I get this error:

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# wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/example.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands
wlan0: Failed to initialize driver interface

The hardware is good because I can plug it into my Arch x86_64 box and it works just fine.

The 8192cu module is loaded on my Pi.

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# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
cfg80211              446651  0 
8192cu                516676  0 
uio_pdrv_genirq         3238  0 
uio                     8753  1 uio_pdrv_genirq
sch_fq_codel            7611  2 
snd_bcm2835            19627  0 
snd_pcm                84574  1 snd_bcm2835
snd_timer              20697  1 snd_pcm
snd                    60977  3 snd_bcm2835,snd_timer,snd_pcm
bcm2708_rng             1044  0 
rng_core                5666  1 bcm2708_rng
ipv6                  327652  18 

I have tried using the included 8192cu module and Arch ARM offers an alternative version in a package called "dkms-8192cu" which I also tried without any success. Any advice?

The hardware is seen by ip:

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# ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: ifb0: <BROADCAST,NOARP> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 32
    link/ether e2:4e:14:91:33:aa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: ifb1: <BROADCAST,NOARP> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 32
    link/ether ba:ea:eb:1f:3f:52 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether b8:27:eb:77:8f:fa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
5: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:13:ef:90:43:27 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

[fruitoftheloom]

By the default the RTL8188CUS ''should'' be supported, does Wireless Scanning work:

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wifi-menu -o

http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/blog/201 ... ent-page-1

[maggie]

Yes, it does work. So it seems my problem is with wpa_supplicant not with the kernel driver! I would like very much to use systemd-networkd to manage the wired and wireless networks since it can autodetect if there is a wired connection and then take down the wireless connection. But if there is not a wired connection, it will bring up the wireless connection. I think wifi-menu is part of netctl which is different. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

[DougieLawson]

Yes, it does work. So it seems my problem is with wpa_supplicant not with the kernel driver! I would like very much to use systemd-networkd to manage the wired and wireless networks since it can autodetect if there is a wired connection and then take down the wireless connection. But if there is not a wired connection, it will bring up the wireless connection. I think wifi-menu is part of netctl which is different. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

If you need that insane action with Raspbian there's ifplugd to mess with your WiFi interface when a wired interface comes active. I ALWAYS re-configure that useless thing with sudo apt-get purge ifplugd. You may want to do the opposite with sudo apt-get install ifplugd.

Personally, I prefer to retain total control of my interfaces as I know what I'm doing when two are active.

[fruitoftheloom]

Yes, it does work. So it seems my problem is with wpa_supplicant not with the kernel driver! I would like very much to use systemd-networkd to manage the wired and wireless networks since it can autodetect if there is a wired connection and then take down the wireless connection. But if there is not a wired connection, it will bring up the wireless connection. I think wifi-menu is part of netctl which is different. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

If you need that insane action with Raspbian there's ifplugd to mess with your WiFi interface when a wired interface comes active. I ALWAYS re-configure that useless thing with sudo apt-get purge ifplugd. You may want to do the opposite with sudo apt-get install ifplugd.

Personally, I prefer to retain total control of my interfaces as I know what I'm doing when two are active.

This question is ArchLinuxArm NOT Raspbian, though

ifplugd is in the ArchLinuxArm Repositories

[maggie]

Yes, Arch does offer ifplug but I would like to keep the network control to be systemd-native since Arch uses systemd as the init system. I guess the problem is with wpa_supplicant then. Do any of you all use that?

[fruitoftheloom]

Yes, Arch does offer ifplug but I would like to keep the network control to be systemd-native since Arch uses systemd as the init system. I guess the problem is with wpa_supplicant then. Do any of you all use that?

I presume you have totally updated Arch as it is a rolling release ?

Regards wpa_supp https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/WPA_supplicant

[maggie]

I presume you have totally updated Arch as it is a rolling release ?

Regards wpa_supp https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/WPA_supplicant

Yes, totally updated. Also, following the steps in that linked article is where I encountered the error I posted about. Does that software work on your distro? Maybe something is to blame in the Arch packages?

[sdjf]

Hard to know if it is an Arch package problem or a step possibly missed unless you post exactly what you did. There are a lot of options on that wiki page, and one typo could mess everything up.

Also looks like you may need a wpa_supplicant.conf file? If so and you have one, have you checked it over carefully? Note I only use wired, but thought I would pipe in some basic debugging comments.

[maggie]

The problem is with wpa_supplicant version 2.3 or 2.4 it would seem, see this thread.

[chsims1]

Sorry to necro-bump this post, but it's directly relevant & I can't see any other solutions posted.

What was the solution to the problem with wpa_supplicant? Did you compile wpa_supplicant v1.0 (seems ancient) successfully? I wonder why nothing has been done at wpa_supplicant upstream (now on to 2.5), since there are loads of these dongles around.

Regards,

Ian Sutherland

[mr.fusion]

I also had this problem.

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wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/example.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands
wlan0: Failed to initialize driver interface

It works for me if I use the wext driver, add it:

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wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/example.conf  -D wext