Automatic setup for RTL8188CUS based wifi adapters

[arg1]

Mr Engman's latest script (June 19) worked fine for me - many thanks!! As his script suggests when it finishes it's not a good idea to run rpi-update though - it all stopped working again after that. So it seems we can have a working connection or an up-to-date system but not (yet) both!

Thanks again for all the help though.

Hi arg1,

What image are you using? Sometimes after running rpi-update I've seen the wifi stop but re-running the script and selecting the Update option can bring it back up.

I've got the latest raspbian running and the script stops before running rpi-update but I've run rpi-update manually and the code is updated to linux version #171 from #168 I think and the current latest driver is OK with that.

MrEngman

Thanks for the prompt feedback. I tried it again with the intention of re-running the script as you suggested but this time it worked fine after the rpi-update so I've no idea what happened the first time. Anyway all is well now and I can get on with using the Raspi for other things, thanks to all your efforts!

[wallacebiy]

Hi

I've got a TP-Link Model TL-WN723N Ver 2.2 , it reports as RTL8188CUS on the Bus ,
I've run the script and it says it completes , however the script just hangs the terminal window on completion ( I suspected it's wicd interfering so I've uninstalled that fully )

iwconfig gives me the following


lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan1 unassociated Nickname:"<[email protected]>"
Mode:Managed Frequency=2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Sensitivity:0/0
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0




Any suggestions as to how to get this working correctly ? it flicks the lights every so often

[petercal]

Hi,
Does anyone know why there are so many dropped packets on wlan0 ??

Everything seems to run fine on the wifi connection..

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr b8:a3:86:06:fe:19
inet addr:192.168.1.19 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::baa3:86ff:fe06:fe19/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:239 errors:0 dropped:247 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:102 errors:0 dropped:1 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:46432 (45.3 KiB) TX bytes:14501 (14.1 KiB)

BR
Peter

[wallacebiy]

Sorry for my truncated post earlier , system instability went to the max and froze nearly completely .

I re imaged the SD card and started clean , re ran the script and all looks tickety boo at the moment , it appears that the script hadn't run fully first time , but thought it had so after I'd uninstalled wicd and reinstalled the wifi it still didn't take . after the reimage it ran fully .

I'm still plugged into the network , but after this post I'm going to test and see is the Wireless working fully . the dongle is now giving a steady flash , so I think it's right.

Many thanks to Mr Engman for this !!


Edit From Wifi Adapter !!!!!

success , thanks again !!

[wallacebiy]

posting from the mac again . I moved everything upstairs and now the Wifi is gone .

This'll have to wait til tomorrow evening to investigate , as it's bedtime for him now ...

[wallacebiy]

OK

When I was taking him to bed he asked could I have one more go at fixing it so I swapped the single
to a port on the powered hub ( iomega minimax HD)

It worked.

Anyway. He spent the next hour surreptitiously playing with Scratch ....


Many thanks again. I'm going to have to read through that script, its a thing of beauty I'd say. !!

[johnculpin]

Thanks for the script Mr Engman. Worked perfectly with clean install of Raspbian and an Edimax wi-fi adapter.

[Montala]

I have just been trying this out, but when I plugged in the Edimax Wi-Fi 'dongle' my RasPi immediately restarted itself... should it have done this?

I didn't have any Wi-Fi access either, and neither did the keypad on my Logitech K400 keyboard, so I am about to start from scratch with a new Raspbian 'official' image.

[MrEngman]

I have just been trying this out, but when I plugged in the Edimax Wi-Fi 'dongle' my RasPi immediately restarted itself... should it have done this?

I didn't have any Wi-Fi access either, and neither did the keypad on my Logitech K400 keyboard, so I am about to start from scratch with a new Raspbian 'official' image.

It should wait for keyboard input before restarting - you should see something like "....then press any key to continue". Sounds like you might have a power supply problem. It won't help if both the wifi adapter and keyboard dongle are both plugged directly into the Pi's USB ports.

Have you got a hub you can plug it in to to try it first?

[PaulCheffus]

I have just been trying this out, but when I plugged in the Edimax Wi-Fi 'dongle' my RasPi immediately restarted itself... should it have done this?

I didn't have any Wi-Fi access either, and neither did the keypad on my Logitech K400 keyboard, so I am about to start from scratch with a new Raspbian 'official' image.

It should wait for keyboard input before restarting - you should see something like "....then press any key to continue". Sounds like you might have a power supply problem. It won't help if both the wifi adapter and keyboard dongle are both plugged directly into the Pi's USB ports.

Have you got a hub you can plug it in to to try it first?

Hi

I have exactly the same USB items plugged directly into the PI and your script worked perfectly for me (except hotplugging which isn't the end of the world). I am using the 5v RS supplied power supply.

Cheers

Paul

[Montala]

I have just been trying this out, but when I plugged in the Edimax Wi-Fi 'dongle' my RasPi immediately restarted itself... should it have done this?

I didn't have any Wi-Fi access either, and neither did the keypad on my Logitech K400 keyboard, so I am about to start from scratch with a new Raspbian 'official' image.

It should wait for keyboard input before restarting - you should see something like "....then press any key to continue". Sounds like you might have a power supply problem. It won't help if both the wifi adapter and keyboard dongle are both plugged directly into the Pi's USB ports.

Have you got a hub you can plug it in to to try it first?

Thanks for your prompt reply... sorry I should have said... I am using a Newlink powered hub with both devices plugged into the hub... the voltage on the board is 4.92v

Just tried it again, and it now tells me that it Can't find device "wlan0" although when I type in "lsusb" the Wi-Fi adapter is shown as a Realtek RTL8188CUS device.

I have just tried a full restart, but it still cannot find the device... and the keypad still doesn't work!

One other thing... I am using a BT Home Hub 3 which shouldn't make any difference, I wouldn't have thought?

[Montala]

I left it too long to edit my last post, but even when I unplug the Wi-Fi adapter and put things back to, in effect, how they were originally (but of course the drivers have now been installed, so it obviously still can't find "wlan0") the touch-pad still doesn't work, which I find a bit strange.

All OK touch-pad wise under 'Puppy' though... although that couldn't see the adapter either!

Just another quick question, when the script asks for "Network Password" does it mean the 'Wireless Key" or the actual Password I use to get into Admin on my Home Hub?

I am assuming it is the former!

[MrEngman]

I have just been trying this out, but when I plugged in the Edimax Wi-Fi 'dongle' my RasPi immediately restarted itself... should it have done this?

I didn't have any Wi-Fi access either, and neither did the keypad on my Logitech K400 keyboard, so I am about to start from scratch with a new Raspbian 'official' image.

It should wait for keyboard input before restarting - you should see something like "....then press any key to continue". Sounds like you might have a power supply problem. It won't help if both the wifi adapter and keyboard dongle are both plugged directly into the Pi's USB ports.

Have you got a hub you can plug it in to to try it first?

Thanks for your prompt reply... sorry I should have said... I am using a Newlink powered hub with both devices plugged into the hub... the voltage on the board is 4.92v

Just tried it again, and it now tells me that it Can't find device "wlan0" although when I type in "lsusb" the Wi-Fi adapter is shown as a Realtek RTL8188CUS device.

I have just tried a full restart, but it still cannot find the device... and the keypad still doesn't work!

One other thing... I am using a BT Home 3 which shouldn't make any difference, I wouldn't have thought?

What is showing - Can't find device "wlan0" ?

Are you using an up to date version of the script? It has changed recently and avoids some issues in previous versions - like the following ...

Couple of things to check. Make sure file /etc/network/interfaces only has one set of entries for wlan0. If there are any duplicate lines remove them.

checkfile /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules. delete any lines containing wlan0, wlan1 etc.

Check dmesg for any errors regarding the 8192cu driver. Use command "dmesg | less" will let you scroll back and forwards through the file.

Have you seen the wifi adapter led flash at all? If not then you may not have the correct driver version.

Are you installing using a wired connection for the install, the correct driver will be automatically downloaded by the script, or downloading the driver and copying to the SD card? If you're downloading and copying to the SD card you will need the latest driver for the newest rasbian version. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/80256631/8192cu-latest.tar.gz

[Montala]

Thanks again... I can answer most of your questions straight away, I think!

Although it does say Can't find device "wlan0" it does then carry on with a lot more text after that, but even after a restart it still can't find it!

I am using the very latest version of the script which I downloaded again today.

Yes, I have seen the wi-fi 'dongle' light flash, and as I mentioned earlier the command "lsusb" does show it.

I do start with a working wired connection, and noticed that it did download a driver.

I am not very familiar with Linux commands, I'm afraid, but will try and look at some of the files you mentioned.

What does still rather concern me though that although the keyboard itself works OK, the associated touchpad seems to stop 'working' after the new wi-fi driver has been installed, once I 'startx'.

[Clifford]

Before loading the script what did you do when the setup gui ran?

First time partition resize and SSH; the second time left at defaults. The WiFi LED flashes for several minutes before finally going out.

I'll try again at some point; the problem is that I only have one SD card at the moment, so swapping images is tedious and time consuming.

OK, I got it working, though the method may not make much sense. I burned the image onto a 2Gb I'd used previously, and ran the script with that. When prompted to insert the WiFi dongle, the LED did not flash and the script did not start to flash. However after a reboot it started up no problem. I then took a copy of the card as an image and wrote it to the 4Gb card where it continued to work. I then resized teh partition using raspi-config.

I have no idea why this worked, or whether it working was just coincidental with this process, but the 4Gb card was originally generated from the Wheezy Beta using this method because I wanted to keep all the set-up and installations from my original 2Gb card, so I thought I'd replicate the process.

Very strange; now I don't believe in magic or software pixies, but I cannot explain why different people have different experiences with an identical image and script; but the variables are:

• the SD card, the power supply,
• the exact model of WiFi adapter,
• and possibly whatever might be connected to the other USB socket drawing power.

[MrEngman]

I left it too long to edit my last post, but even when I unplug the Wi-Fi adapter and put things back to, in effect, how they were originally (but of course the drivers have now been installed, so it obviously still can't find "wlan0") the touch-pad still doesn't work, which I find a bit strange.

All OK touch-pad wise under 'Puppy' though... although that couldn't see the adapter either!

Just another quick question, when the script asks for "Network Password" does it mean the 'Wireless Key" or the actual Password I use to get into Admin on my Home Hub?

I am assuming it is the former!

Yes it's the wireless key. One thing to be careful of. If you use any non-alphanumeric characters in your network ssid or wireless key that can cause problems as they may be interpreted as special characters rather than plain text characters.
I have tried to check which can cause problems and the ones I've had difficuties with are

Code: Select all

 ! " # $ ( ) . / : < > ? [ \ ] _ { | } 

[MrEngman]

Before loading the script what did you do when the setup gui ran?

First time partition resize and SSH; the second time left at defaults. The WiFi LED flashes for several minutes before finally going out.

I'll try again at some point; the problem is that I only have one SD card at the moment, so swapping images is tedious and time consuming.

OK, I got it working, though the method may not make much sense. I burned the image onto a 2Gb I'd used previously, and ran the script with that. When prompted to insert the WiFi dongle, the LED did not flash and the script did not start to flash. However after a reboot it started up no problem. I then took a copy of the card as an image and wrote it to the 4Gb card where it continued to work. I then resized teh partition using raspi-config.

I have no idea why this worked, or whether it working was just coincidental with this process, but the 4Gb card was originally generated from the Wheezy Beta using this method because I wanted to keep all the set-up and installations from my original 2Gb card, so I thought I'd replicate the process.

Very strange; now I don't believe in magic or software pixies, but I cannot explain why different people have different experiences with an identical image and script; but the variables are:

• the SD card, the power supply,
• the exact model of WiFi adapter,
• and possibly whatever might be connected to the other USB socket drawing power.

Hi Clifford,

Great to hear you've finally been able to get it working. I often wonder about why people have problems as generally I have had very few - but I suppose I have seen one or two myself and cannot explain why one install will fail and then repeating it it works with no sign of a problem. I think basically some problems are due to the operation of some of the code and/or the configuration, but that's just my own personal opinion. But then I'm a hardware engineer at heart.

As far as software pixies are concerned I'm not going to say anything - I don't want to upset them

Yes, there are the hardware items to concider and unfortunately they don't help.

Anyway it's really good to hear its all working - have fun with your Pi.

MrEngman

[Montala]

I left it too long to edit my last post, but even when I unplug the Wi-Fi adapter and put things back to, in effect, how they were originally (but of course the drivers have now been installed, so it obviously still can't find "wlan0") the touch-pad still doesn't work, which I find a bit strange.

All OK touch-pad wise under 'Puppy' though... although that couldn't see the adapter either!

Just another quick question, when the script asks for "Network Password" does it mean the 'Wireless Key" or the actual Password I use to get into Admin on my Home Hub?

I am assuming it is the former!

Yes it's the wireless key. One thing to be careful of. If you use any non-alphanumeric characters in your network ssid or wireless key that can cause problems as they may be interpreted as special characters rather than plain text characters.
I have tried to check which can cause problems and the ones I've had difficuties with are

Code: Select all

 ! " # $ ( ) . / : < > ? [ \ ] _ { | } 

Hi MrEngman,

Thanks for confirming that.

There aren't any 'funny' characters in mine, and I am confident that I have entered that, and the SSID correctly.

I did have a look at 'dmesg' (although I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be looking for!), and it does seem to be recognising the Wi-Fi' dongle OK, but as I said, I am still getting the "Cannot find device wlan0" error message on start up.

Although I am using a powered hub, it does only have a 1 amp PSU. which could be the problem I suppose, but I should have a more powerful one coming tomorrow, so will try that instead.

Hopefully I will get there in the end!

[toonhead85]

1) Is that the new Raspbian image on the Rapberry Pi download page?
2) What power supply do you use?
3) Have you tried plugging the wifi adapter into a hub?

** Insufficient power can cause some really bad problems like the one you're getting.

As to your 3 questions:
1) Yes, the .img of Raspbian I am using is from the Raspberry Pi Download page.
2) I am using a Motorola Power supply for a set of S305 Bluetooth Headphones - Power specs from the unit are: 5.0V 550mA *** PROBLEM FOUND, as I am writing this post actually!!
3) I have thought about getting a 4 port Powered Hub, but since I found that my Power Supply is about 250 mA short of the requirements, I might hold off, though it is something I am looking into anyway.

Thanks for all your help, in the end, it's not an issue with your script... it seems to be user error

[Montala]

Can I just ask a quick question before I start today... what should happen when (following the 'request') a wi-fi adapter is plugged in to the powered hub?

That is to say, what should the Pi actually 'do' and what should be displayed on the screen at that point, as I think that was the stage at which I first experienced a problem?

Thanks!

[MrEngman]

Can I just ask a quick question before I start today... what should happen when (following the 'request') a wi-fi adapter is plugged in to the powered hub?

That is to say, what should the Pi actually 'do' and what should be displayed on the screen at that point, as I think that was the stage at which I first experienced a problem?

Thanks!

When the configuration is complete and it is ready for the wifi adapter to be loaded you should see

Code: Select all

Plug in the wifi adapter. It should start automatically. Just wait a while for
the wifi adapter LED to start flashing then press any key to continue...

At this point the driver is loaded and the files have been configured for the wifi. So now plug in the wifi adapter and the LED should start flashing. Wait a few seconds then press a key to continue and you should then see

Code: Select all

You now have 1 wifi adapter configured

The wifi adapter driver is installed. Waiting for the wifi adapter to connect.

and when it connects to the network and an IP is assigned which will take a short time you should see

Code: Select all

The wifi adapter wlan0 is now connected.

Check the wlan0 settings. This will show the network IP address assigned to the
wifi adapter and other parameters for the wifi adapter.

and it will display the output of the command ifconfig and show the wifi network settings. Something like

Code: Select all

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 80:1f:02:xx:yy:zz  
          inet addr:192.168.16.11  Bcast:192.168.16.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:21 errors:0 dropped:22 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:28066 (27.0 KiB)  TX bytes:1020 (1020.0 B)

The basic wifi driver is now loaded and operating. You may now terminate the
installation if you want to, however, your firmware and software may not be up to
date. If you decide to terminate the installation but then later update the
firmware and software the wifi may stop working and you will need to upgrade the
wifi driver.

Press cntl-C to terminate the installation, any other key to continue...

If it gets stuck and you don't see

Code: Select all

The wifi adapter wlan0 is now connected.

you can press cntl-c to try and abort the script and then reboot. The wifi should then start.

If you get a kernel crash or something like that then you may have PSU problems. This appears to be a common problem where the install has failed looking at recent posts.

[pjc123]

Has anyone been able to get roaming working with wpa_supplicant on the RTL8188CUS? There are a ton of options for the wpa_supplicant.conf file, and I have tried a bunch, but I just can't get it to work. It does work fine with just the interfaces file only, so I know the dongle is working. I have two routers and it is a real pain having to change the interfaces file every time I want to change the router I need to use.

By the way, the latest Engmann script fixed my dongle that stopped working by selecting the upgrade option. I never do a firmware update specifically, but it must be done when I do an apt-get upgrade, so I suspect that is what killed it. Is there a way to perform an upgrade of all programs yet exclude some? I imagine there must be a file somewhere to set excludes.

[alexeames]

I never do a firmware update specifically, but it must be done when I do an apt-get upgrade, so I suspect that is what killed it.

Yep the firmware updates are now coming in when you upgrade.

[Jogi]

After being clueless for about an hour, i figured out why the install script was stuck waiting for the wlan to connect.

Don't change the local (to german for example) before you run the script!! Or otherwise the many grep in this script wont ever find the right values to compare.

Is there a possibility to include a check or an automatic locale switch? If not there should at least be a warning.

I have to admit, that i don't have read all the posts in this thread, because i assumed i can get all needed information from the script itself.

Nevertheless many thanks for this great piece of software! Except of this little drawback, the installation of my edimax stick was done easily in minutes!

Joachim

[Montala]

If you get a kernel crash or something like that then you may have PSU problems. This appears to be a common problem where the install has failed looking at recent posts.

Hi,
Apologies for not having come back before now, to thank you for your very long, and most informative post.
As you surmised, I think that PSU problems were behind some of the problems I was experiencing, as despite using a powered hub, it obviously needed a bit more than a 1 amp supply!
I am just waiting now to get my hands on something a bit more suitable, and am also going to try using another USB wifi adapter... an Asus USB-N10 actually!