21.02.0-rc3: MT7612U wifi client fails

[lukastribus]

Hello,

for a APU2 (x86) device, I just bought a MT7612U USB Adapter, it should act as a simple Wifi Client connecting to a Smartphone Tethering Wifi Network.

Even after installing kmod-mt76x2u and usb-modeswitch in 19.07.07 it wasn't properly recognized, so I upgraded to 21.02.0-rc3, now I can actually see the interface and the Wifi Scan works (I see SSID and all). However I can't seem to set the WPA Passphrase even though I installed wpa-supplicant.

I have configured multiple SSID networks as a client and I can see in the logs:

logs are prefixed with "daemon.notice netifd":

Interface 'wifiwan' is disabled
radio0 (7638): Command failed: Not found
radio0 (8082): Command failed: Request timed out
radio0 (8082): Command failed: Not found
radio0 (8082): Interface 0 setup failed: WPA_SUPPLICANT_FAILED
radio0 (8082): Failed to parse json data: unexpected end of data
radio0 (8082): WARNING (wireless_add_process): executable path /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant does not match process  path (/proc/exe)
radio0 (8082): Command failed: Invalid argument
Interface 'wifiwan' is enabled
radio0 (8405): WARNING: Variable 'data' does not exist or is not an array/object
Interface 'wifiwan' is disabled
radio0 (8430): ip: SIOCSIFHWADDR: Resource busy
radio0 (8430): Command failed: Request timed out
radio0 (8430): Command failed: Not found
radio0 (8430): Interface 0 setup failed: WPA_SUPPLICANT_FAILED
radio0 (8430): Failed to parse json data: unexpected end of data
radio0 (8430): WARNING (wireless_add_process): executable path /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant does not match process  path (/proc/exe)
radio0 (8430): Command failed: Invalid argument
radio0 (8430): Command failed: Request timed out
radio0 (8430): Command failed: Not found
radio0 (8430): Interface 1 setup failed: WPA_SUPPLICANT_FAILED
radio0 (8430): Failed to parse json data: unexpected end of data
radio0 (8430): WARNING (wireless_add_process): executable path /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant does not match process  path (/proc/exe)
radio0 (8430): Command failed: Invalid argument
Interface 'wifiwan' is enabled
Interface 'bobwifi' is enabled

[frollic]

Modeswitch is generally used for mobile network devices like 3g/4g modems.

It won't hurt, but it shouldn't have any effect on your MT7612U.

[lukastribus]

It was detected as a CD-ROM drive with windows drivers, at least on 19.07.07 and modeswitch was mentioned in another thread.

I removed the configuration, uninstalled usb-modeswitch, rebooted and set it up all over again, and now indeed works fine.

Great, I didn't imagine modeswitch could have a negative impact.

[lukastribus]

I think the more likely root cause was that I configured everything without wpa-supplicant installed, and when I installed it, I did not reconfigure the wifi interface from scratch.

Only when I uninstalled usb-modeswitch did I actually reconfigure the entire wifi interface.