Automatic setup for RTL8188CUS based wifi adapters

[MrEngman]

Yea, I had the same problem as swezzard on the same day with the latest scrip claiming my network was not visible. Also, sometimes had the other same problem as swezzard with script stating my WiFi adapter did not support scanning. Is this a bug in the latest script?

Ray Frano

Its not a bug in the script. Maybe an issue with udev.

This error is from the command in the script

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iwlist wlan0 scanning

which should return a list of nearby wireless networks. This error can happen if the wifi adapter is not plugged in when the command is issued or it has been assigned a different name by the program udev. If you are installing your first wifi adapter the script expects the wifi to be called wlan0. If you already have your system configured for wlan0 and are adding a second wifi adapter which would be called wlan1 the script will try using wlan0 and wlan1. If adding a third it would try wlan0, wlan1 and wlan2 and so on.

If you get this error abort the script and try the command with a different wifi adapter name just to see what happens, say wlan1 or wlan2.

If you see a list of wifi networks generated using a different wifi name check the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules to see if it has multiple wifi adapters listed. There is some wierd problem that can cause this file to have invalid names assigned to non-existent wifi adapters. Why I don't know.

Either delete the file or remove all the entries referencing wifi adapters.

MrEngman

[it9xxs]

Hi, I'm not able to ssh to my raspberry via wifi if the ethernet is unplugged. Can you please help me ?
Thanks both for the script and in advance for your reply.
Giovanni

[graham3000]

I was able to set-up my Edimax wifi dongle with MrEngman's script, and I am very grateful. The set-up was successful on the official "Wheezy" distro. However, I would like to set-up the same Edimax wifi dongle on Ada Fruit's RPi Occidentalis distro. The script aborts the installation because it does not recognize the software version. Has anyone successfully used this script on the Ada Fruit distro? If so any tips to get it working?

I also read somewhere that it is a good idea to back-up my distro once the wifi has been setup. How would I go about that. Thanks in advance and sorry about the NOOBness. I am just now learning Linux.

[MrEngman]

I was able to set-up my Edimax wifi dongle with MrEngman's script, and I am very grateful. The set-up was successful on the official "Wheezy" distro. However, I would like to set-up the same Edimax wifi dongle on Ada Fruit's RPi Occidentalis distro. The script aborts the installation because it does not recognize the software version. Has anyone successfully used this script on the Ada Fruit distro? If so any tips to get it working?

I also read somewhere that it is a good idea to back-up my distro once the wifi has been setup. How would I go about that. Thanks in advance and sorry about the NOOBness. I am just now learning Linux.

The script will not work with Adafruit but it is already configured with the driver for the rtl8188cus wifi adapters so to set it up manually is quite simple.

Basically all you need to do is to setup your network name and password in the right place. You will need to edit the file /etc/network/interfaces to add your network name and password. Use the command to edit the file

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sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

if you have logged in as user pi. If you have logged in as root user you do not need to use "sudo".

Now change the lines

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wpa-ssid "NETWORK-NAME"
wpa-psk "NETWORK-PASSWORD"

replacing NETWORK-NAME and NETWORK-PASSWORD with your own network name and password. Do not delete the quotation marks. To exit and save the file type cntl-X, y, Enter. These entries are for a network using WPA/WPA security. For a network using WEP change the two lines to

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wireless-essid NETWORK-NAME
wireless-key NETWORK-PASSWORD

note no quotation marks. The WEP password is a hex character string of 10 or 26 characters as it appears in your router setup. For a network with no security you only need the single line

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wireless-essid NETWORK-NAME

And one final thing. You will need to delete a file that should not have been included in the image.

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sudo rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

again no need for sudu if logged in as root user. If you do not delete it your wifi will not connect. Adafruit are aware of this and presumable it will be removed in any future image.

Now reboot and you should find your wireless is up and running.

As for backing up images. I use a Windows 7 machine and Win32diskimager to make my SD card images. You can also use the same program to save the image of the SD card by selecting read instead of write. It's a reasonably good idea to make a backup before making changes to the system in case something breaks. You can then restore to your working version without having to go through all the setup again.

MrEngman

[rayfranco]

Hurray!!! I am no longer tethered an Ethernet cable.

MrEngman, thank you for your assurance that the problem was not a bug in the script. I am using the built-in powered USB hub in my Dell 1901FP monitor. I unplugged everything from the hub, and ran the script wireless via SSH from my iPad. It worked I suspect the problem was with either my usb Apple keyboard or usb IBM mouse interfering with the EDIMAX EW-7811Un (nano wifi). I have two Pi's, and I am going to do more troubleshooting.

BTW, at one time I thought the problem might have been with the monitor's built-in USB hub so I purchase a Belkin F5U234 powered hub. The Beklin F5U234 hub is verified at elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals, however, the EDIMAX would not ever work with this hub in Windows XP.

Again, MrEngman, Thank You for the script.

[rayfranco]

I have confirmed that when the EDIMAX EW7811Un is plugged into the same powered powered USB hub as an Apple (Model A1242) keyboard, it does work. Is this the USB Elephant discussed else where in this form?

I have also confimed that the EDIMAX EW811Un will not work when it is plugged into a Belkin F5U234 powered USB hub. This is NOT the Pi USB Elephant. It will not work on Windows XP machine either.

Both the Apple keyboard (Model A1242) and the Belkin powered USB hub (Model F5U234) are listed as verified compatible with the Raspberry Pi at: http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals. Yes, they are both compatible with Raspberry Pi, but unfortunately neither of them are compatible with the EDIMAX EW7811Un.

I may be a Noob when it comes to Linux, but I troubleshoot hardware for living.

Why are there so many compatiblity problems with the Raspberry Pi?

[Dweeber]

Could be that the EDIMAX EW7811Un is pulling more power than others?

[alexeames]

Could be that the EDIMAX EW7811Un is pulling more power than others?

Possibly, but I doubt it. On my measurements it pulls practically nothing at idle and 100 mA when being totally hammered (i.e downloading an HD video at full whack on a 30 Meg connection)

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 973#p95973

[broo0ose]

Hi, just reporting on my experience.

I have used this previous versions of this script successfully on previous versions of the standard Debian image, but this time on the latest Wheezy and the latest script it failed.

The adapter was coming up on wlan1.

To get it working I had to delete rtl8192cu.ko and remove all the lines from
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules, then reboot.

After that it worked fine.

Bruce

[13eastie]

The script worked flawlessly on a clean install of 2012-08-16-wheezy-raspbian
fitted with an Edimax EW-7811UN which is connected directly to the RPi's USB port and with the RPi itself powered from another machine's USB port.

There are no apparent issues with a static IP config.

I heartily recommend both MrEngman's script and this wireless adapter.

Many thanks.

[MrEngman]

Hi, just reporting on my experience.

I have used this previous versions of this script successfully on previous versions of the standard Debian image, but this time on the latest Wheezy and the latest script it failed.

The adapter was coming up on wlan1.

To get it working I had to delete rtl8192cu.ko and remove all the lines from
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules, then reboot.

After that it worked fine.

Bruce

Removing rtl8192cu.ko was probably unnecessary.

However, I have seen issues with /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules where it can have spurious entries which will then affect the name newly installed wifi adapters are assigned. On random occasions I have found a new name in the file. Why I have no idea but they all have a MAC address 00E04Cxxyyzz which is a Realtek MAC address. My wifi adapters have MAC addresses 00113bxxyyzz (Micronet) and 801f02xxyyzz (Edimax), but use the Realtek RTL8188CUS which may be the reason the additional entries have a Realtek MAC but why they appear is a mystery. Maybe an issue with the USB not being able to read the actual MAC so a random address is assigned, just a thought.

I've been looking into adding something to the script to detect this problem. OK if you've no adapters installed but if you've already got adapters installed that's a totally different problem.

MrEngman

[broo0ose]

Removing rtl8192cu.ko was probably unnecessary.

yes, I saw it loaded in lsmod, so that was my first hit at getting it working. After that I saw that it was using wlan1 which lead me to the second modification.

Anyway, hopefully my info is all grist for the mill.

Either way, your script is still miles quicker that starting from scratch, thanks again.

Bruce

[broo0ose]

Removing rtl8192cu.ko was probably unnecessary.

yes, I saw it loaded in lsmod, so that was my first hit at getting it working. After that I saw that it was using wlan1 which lead me to the second modification.

Anyway, hopefully my info is all grist for the mill.

Either way, your script is still miles quicker that starting from scratch, thanks again.

Bruce

Doh, just remembered the reason I deleted it. It was stopping the Pi from booting when the adapter was plugged in. The Pi was headless, so I don't know where it was failing, but I could see rtl8192cu loading when I plugged it in after boot, so I deleted it and rebooted and then it would boot successfully with the adapter plugged in.

[MellowVids]

(Sad face)

Using NETGEAR G54/N150 ()
Tested "latest" script on SQUEEZE and WEEZY debian releases. I have only tried debian releases.

Seems to build stuff OK.
lsusb says: "NetGear, Inc. WNA1000M 802.11bgn [Realtek RTL8188cus]"
wlan0 gets created and configured (/etc/network/interfaces looks right and has good WPA settings) , .

In both cases, dongle flashes at the right time but the script hangs at waiting for adapter to connect.

On reboot, it never succeeds in getting DHCP response.

I have seen other people do the same thing in blogs and say they had no issues with this device.

I was encountering this as well, but when I changed the /etc/network/interfaces file to have static settings instead of dhcp it worked fine.

I wanted it to work with dhcp, so I did the following:
rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8192cu/rtl8192cu.ko

Then I changed /etc/network/interfaces back to have dhcp settings and rebooted the rpi. - It still did not work.

Then, I restarted my router and it started working. Please don't ask me to explain this voodoo.

[MrEngman]

Hi, I'm not able to ssh to my raspberry via wifi if the ethernet is unplugged. Can you please help me ?
Thanks both for the script and in advance for your reply.
Giovanni

Can you report the output of commands

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lsusb
lsmod
ifconfig
cat /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
uname -a

[swizzard]

Oh man...
So, I checked for /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules...and I didn't have a copy on my system. So I created a blank one. Didn't help. Then I went in and manually edited /etc/network/interfaces to include my wireless network and password. The auto-install script now works fine(-ish), I can make it to the prompt where it asks whether I want to (A)dd or (U)pgrade. I choose upgrade, and it seems to go well until the part when it asks me to wait for the dongle to start blinking. No blinking. Trying to unplug the dongle and plug it into a different usb port seems to cause some sort of gnarly kernel-panic type thing, forcing me to do a hard reboot.

The dongle shows up when I check lsusb. ifconfig only shows eth0 and lo (or 1o, I can't really tell from the resolution on the tv I'm using as a monitor.) lsmod lists the following relavent-looking modules:
rtl8192cu
rtlwifi
rtl8192c_common
mac80211
cfg80211
uname -a shows me:

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Linux raspberrypi 3.1.9* #272 PREEMPT Tue Aug 7 22:51:44 BST 2012 armu61 GNU/Linux

I deleted rtl8192cu.ko a while ago, because I'd forgotten what it was and my SD card was running frustratingly low on space.
One more possibly-relevant point: my copy of the auto-installer script asks specifically for 8192cu-20120726.tar.gz. It won't accept anything labeled otherwise.

This is crazy frustrating, because as I said up-thread, it was totally working before I upgraded to the latest raspbian release.

[morticiaskeeper]

6 hours of messing around so far

I've been using the Rpi for a couple of months on an ethernet connection. Today I bought an Edimax EW-7811Un wifi dongle.

Plenty of attempts to get it to work, including the install-rtl8188cus.sh script.

After a bit of hair pulling, I made a new 8gb SD img of wheezy. copied the 8192cu.ko file into /lib/modules/3.1.9+/kernel/net/wireless/. Copied the install script into /home/pi, then put the card into the Rpi.

SSH in the Rpi check the powered hub is seen by lsusb, run the script as root (sudo su, sh install-rtl8188cus.sh and wait for things to happen.

the first line after the instructions reads:

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install-rtl8188cus.sh: 85: read: Illegal option -n

The RTL8188CUS driver module is not installed.
install-rt8188cus.sh: 144: [: 0: unexpected operator
install-rt8188cus.sh: 144: [: 0: unexpected operator
install-rt8188cus.sh: 182: [: 0: unexpected operator

You have 0 wifi adaptors configured,
install-rtl8188cus.sh: 212: [: 0: unexpected operator
The Pi has no Internet connection.

There then follows 3 paragraphs of instructions, followed by:

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install-rt8188cus.sh: 238: read: Illegal option -n

install-rtl8188cus.sh: 434: [: 0: unexpected operator

I'm told to plug in the wifi adaptor:

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install-rtl8188cus.sh: 773: read: Illegal option -n

then it gets into a loop, reading:

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trying wlan0
install-rtl8188cus.sh: 788: install-rt8188cus.sh: let: not found

apt-get update is working, proving the network connection.

The Rpi has been powered from both the powered hub AND a separate power supply that has been running the Rpi from new.

Running out of hair to tear at

[MrEngman]

Oh man...
So, I checked for /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules...and I didn't have a copy on my system. So I created a blank one. Didn't help. Then I went in and manually edited /etc/network/interfaces to include my wireless network and password. The auto-install script now works fine(-ish), I can make it to the prompt where it asks whether I want to (A)dd or (U)pgrade. I choose upgrade, and it seems to go well until the part when it asks me to wait for the dongle to start blinking. No blinking. Trying to unplug the dongle and plug it into a different usb port seems to cause some sort of gnarly kernel-panic type thing, forcing me to do a hard reboot.

The dongle shows up when I check lsusb. ifconfig only shows eth0 and lo (or 1o, I can't really tell from the resolution on the tv I'm using as a monitor.) lsmod lists the following relavent-looking modules:
rtl8192cu
rtlwifi
rtl8192c_common
mac80211
cfg80211
uname -a shows me:

Code: Select all

Linux raspberrypi 3.1.9* #272 PREEMPT Tue Aug 7 22:51:44 BST 2012 armu61 GNU/Linux

I deleted rtl8192cu.ko a while ago, because I'd forgotten what it was and my SD card was running frustratingly low on space.
One more possibly-relevant point: my copy of the auto-installer script asks specifically for 8192cu-20120726.tar.gz. It won't accept anything labeled otherwise.

This is crazy frustrating, because as I said up-thread, it was totally working before I upgraded to the latest raspbian release.

Why make the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules? There are NO instructions anywhere that say do this!!

Did the image have the wifi installed already and you edited the /etc/network/interfaces file to change the network and password? Or did you start with a new image and add a complete new entry for a new wifi setup. The script will not work if you go messing around with the setup before running it. If you want to set it up manually you have to do everything needed. Not just some of it. If you manually edit the /etc/network/interfaces file to add the wifi set up and you select upgrade in the script as you say you did it also expects other files it normally sets up on a new wifi install to already be set up as well. If you set up /etc/network/interfaces manually and then run the script these other files that need configuring will not be set correctly and the wifi will not work as you have found.

Either use the script or set it up manually. Your choice. Don't try a bit of both. It won't work.

The script asks for the file 8192cu-20120726.tar.gz because it needs it. It is the driver that works with the version of Linux you have. There are about a dozen different revisions of the driver for different linux versions and revisions.

Try this - start with a new image. Copy the script to the image /boot directory. If using a wheezy raspbian image first run through the raspi-config setup and reboot. DO NOT PLUG IN THE WIFI ADAPTER until the script tells you to. Run the script and follow the instructions it outputs to the screen. If the script says it needs a file you will have to download it and copy it to the SD card /boot directory and then run the script again. For some installations you may need to reboot and run the script again but it will tell you if you need to do this.

If your system crashed when you unplugged it and plugged it back in maybe you need to look at your power source. If the script says unplug the wifi adapter and plug it back in do not plug it back into a different USB port. Plug it back into the same port.

Remember do not go messing with the setup before running the script as you may stop it from working.

MrEngman

[simplesi]

@MrEngman
Users - can't live with them - can't live without them
Simon

[swizzard]

Why make the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules? There are NO instructions anywhere that say do this!!

Did the image have the wifi installed already and you edited the /etc/network/interfaces file to change the network and password? Or did you start with a new image and add a complete new entry for a new wifi setup. The script will not work if you go messing around with the setup before running it. If you want to set it up manually you have to do everything needed. Not just some of it. If you manually edit the /etc/network/interfaces file to add the wifi set up and you select upgrade in the script as you say you did it also expects other files it normally sets up on a new wifi install to already be set up as well. If you set up /etc/network/interfaces manually and then run the script these other files that need configuring will not be set correctly and the wifi will not work as you have found.

Either use the script or set it up manually. Your choice. Don't try a bit of both. It won't work.

The script asks for the file 8192cu-20120726.tar.gz because it needs it. It is the driver that works with the version of Linux you have. There are about a dozen different revisions of the driver for different linux versions and revisions.

Try this - start with a new image. Copy the script to the image /boot directory. If using a wheezy raspbian image first run through the raspi-config setup and reboot. DO NOT PLUG IN THE WIFI ADAPTER until the script tells you to. Run the script and follow the instructions it outputs to the screen. If the script says it needs a file you will have to download it and copy it to the SD card /boot directory and then run the script again. For some installations you may need to reboot and run the script again but it will tell you if you need to do this.

If your system crashed when you unplugged it and plugged it back in maybe you need to look at your power source. If the script says unplug the wifi adapter and plug it back in do not plug it back into a different USB port. Plug it back into the same port.

Remember do not go messing with the setup before running the script as you may stop it from working.

MrEngman

I'm sorry I went messing around with stuff I didn't understand...I'm very appreciative of you and your script, and I don't think less of either because my dumb ass went screwing around. That being said: I'm trying my best. I used your script before successfully, and now it's not working and I'm frustrated. I tried a clean wheezy install and I'm still having the exact same problem. [ETA: by "the exact same problem" I mean the dongle not being able to find my wireless network when I put the name in and also telling me wlan0 doesn't support scanning.]

Sorry for being such a noob about all this, but I was kind of under the impression that learning new stuff was part of the point of the Raspberry pi in the first place.

[MrEngman]

6 hours of messing around so far

I've been using the Rpi for a couple of months on an ethernet connection. Today I bought an Edimax EW-7811Un wifi dongle.

Plenty of attempts to get it to work, including the install-rtl8188cus.sh script.

After a bit of hair pulling, I made a new 8gb SD img of wheezy. copied the 8192cu.ko file into /lib/modules/3.1.9+/kernel/net/wireless/. Copied the install script into /home/pi, then put the card into the Rpi.

SSH in the Rpi check the powered hub is seen by lsusb, run the script as root (sudo su, sh install-rtl8188cus.sh and wait for things to happen.
.
.
Running out of hair to tear at

First read the instructions. You might find they help. Go to the wiki page http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeriphera ... i_Adapters and look for Micronet SP907NS, 11N Wireless LAN USB Adapter (uses Realtek RTL8188CUS) There is a link to the instructions and the latest script. This is the adapter I first used but I also use the Edimax EW-7811Un and the script installs it OK.

Otherwise download the latest script using

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sudo wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/80256631/install-rtl8188cus-latest.sh -O /boot/install-rtl8188cus-latest.sh

The script expects to run under the bash command shell and uses commands specific to bash. The errors you are getting are because you are using sh to run the script. SSH also sometimes changes the default program used to run scripts and this can also screws things up.

As you are using SSH to run the script you may need to use the command

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sudo bash /boot/install-rtl8188cus-latest.sh

The script is usually installed in the /boot directory as per the instructions. Adding bash to the command line forces the script to run using the bash command shell and it should then run OK.

Once the script runs follow the on-screen instructions, including possibly having to run the script more than once, and it should install OK.

MrEngman

[aptoitos]

Just to let all know that I used MrEngman's instructions to the LETTER on a raspbian wheezy distro with the Edimax nano adapter and everything worked the first time... no problems whatsoever.. Thanks MrEngman...!!!!

I am a total newbie to the Linux o/s; before buying the Rpi, I had zero exposure to and knowledge of it. So, I am looking forward to learning lots with it.

[MrEngman]

Just to let all know that I used MrEngman's instructions to the LETTER on a raspbian wheezy distro with the Edimax nano adapter and everything worked the first time... no problems whatsoever.. Thanks MrEngman...!!!!

I am a total newbie to the Linux o/s; before buying the Rpi, I had zero exposure to and knowledge of it. So, I am looking forward to learning lots with it.

Thanks for the feedback.

MrEngman

[swizzard]

A fresh install of the latest Raspbian + a brand new wifi dongle (a netgear one this time, not the cheapo Micronext I was using) + following the on-screen instructions TO THE LETTER, without messing around with anything else results in the exact same "can't find your wifi network" problem I was having in the beginning. I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm just at my wits' end. Anything anyone could suggest would be greatly appreciated.

[MrEngman]

A fresh install of the latest Raspbian + a brand new wifi dongle (a netgear one this time, not the cheapo Micronext I was using) + following the on-screen instructions TO THE LETTER, without messing around with anything else results in the exact same "can't find your wifi network" problem I was having in the beginning. I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm just at my wits' end. Anything anyone could suggest would be greatly appreciated.

Is that raspbian_wheezy_20120608? Or 2012-08-16-wheezy-raspbian? The exact image name would be helpful. The script works with both of those but there are a load of different versions around and the script works with most but not all.

What Netgear dongle? The USB ID would be helpful. Can you be a little more precise with the error? Do you mean "That network is not visible. " after inputting your SSID, or something else? Are you using the latest script? Last update was last Friday - 25 Aug.

MrEngman