MiSTer FPGA Forum

I've just received a WiFi dongle from misterfpga.co.uk. It's an RTL8192, which should be supported.
Indeed, it shows local SSIDs but won't connect. All looks OK in the log, the module appears to be loading correctly but when I ssh in and manually try to bring up the interface it times out waiting for carrier. It's not the key/password because it's not getting that far.
Any ideas? Should I be looking for a better module/firmware?

I've tried the dongle on my Linux Desktop (nice to have a comparison) and it connects fine there.

(I've also ordered a 5GHz dongle listed as compatible but that's going to take a few days to arrive).

I have the same one, also from the same seller. At first it didn't seem to connect after setting it up with the WiFi script. But it turned out it just took a lot of time to connect. I think it connected faster after that, I normally use a wired connection.

I normally use a wired connection too but this definitely fails to connect no matter how long I leave it.
When I ssh in, iwconfig shows no associations and ifconfig shows no inet address for wlan0.

Is your wifi router running in a "ganged" kinda mode, where both 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands share the same SSID? If so, that's probably the root cause of the problem. Linux can get weird with handling these kinds of connections appropriately, I've seen it happen with Retropies, arch linux on laptops, etc...

Nope. Both frequencies are on different ssids. I've even tried using my phone's hotspot with the same results.

I've also tried the same dongle on my main Linux Desktop and it connected perfectly.

ponder wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:10 pm I normally use a wired connection too but this definitely fails to connect no matter how long I leave it.
When I ssh in, iwconfig shows no associations and ifconfig shows no inet address for wlan0.

I've just tried it again to make sure and it connected right away. I have a Bluetooth dongle connected as well.

What kind of power supply are you using? Does your WiFi dongle work when you use it with a computer?

I'm using a 4A PSU with a splitter (also from misterfpga.co.uk).

Yes, the dongle works absolutely fine on my Linux Mint Desktop.

It's possible, but not likely, that there was a sneaky revision made to that dongle and nobody noticed, and it doesn't work anymore. Weird.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PB1X4CN/

This is what I use, recommended by Rysha, and it works perfect, but that may be subject to change if they randomly make a new revision too.

This is mostly a huge problem with the linux kernel, the way they handle the wifi drivers is a mess and always has been, and to support more adapters adequately you have to add a lot of bloat to your distro.

Go to the command line interface on the mister (or SSH in if you have a network cable to it). Type "lsusb". Then enter. Then plugin the wifi adapter, and do the same. What's the new one's ID? For instance, here's my tp-link one:
Also have you tried shooting an email to misterfpga.co.uk's support for help?

https://misterfpga.co.uk/contact/

EDIT: Just to make sure nothing weird happened, I just tested my dongle which is of the other brand to make sure nothing in the latest updates messed up anything, and it works.

I used -v for more detail:

idVendor 0x0bda
idProduct 0x818b
bcdDevice 2.00
iManufacturer 1 Realtek
iProduct 2 802.11n NIC

Not tried contacting the store yet but have ordered a 5GHz adaptor that's listed as compatible on the main Github page.

Well after some very informative chat in Discord I tried a final power cycle and it's now connected
Problem solved.

Good to hear you've got it working now! Like I said it didn't seem to work at first here as well and now it just works fine, it is really odd.

ponder wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 6:35 pm Well after some very informative chat in Discord I tried a final power cycle and it's now connected
Problem solved.

Had this exact problem, thanks for the heads up!