Alfa Network AWUS036NH usb wireless adapter OpenWrt 18.06.1, r7258-5eb055306f

peo · December 10, 2018, 3:14am

I need help to get my USB wireless adapter AWUS036NH to work.

Router TP-Link Archer C7 v.2.0 running OpenWrt 18.06.1, r7258-5eb055306f.

I have a working Wifi Extender configuration running.
But I want to use a external USB wireless adapter to connect as a client to a AP.

When I install the adapter the green LED on the adapter lights up and the USB port light.

But I can not see that I have a "new" radio2 in Luci.

Please help me to install the right drivers so that this is working.

Thanks!

peo · December 10, 2018, 3:33am

When I disconnect and connect
This is Sys log

Mon Dec 10 03:04:48 2018 kern.info kernel: [ 1538.307265] usb 2-1: USB disconnect, device number 2
Mon Dec 10 03:27:28 2018 kern.info kernel: [ 2898.223280] usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-platform

diizzy · December 10, 2018, 8:54am

Seems like it uses some ancient Ralink chipset, kmod-rt2800-usb is the driver you need from what I can tell

Pippo · December 10, 2018, 8:54am

Guess you need to find out adapter chipset and then look for driver covering it

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ALFA_Network_AWUS036NH

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Ralink

tmomas · December 10, 2018, 11:12am

Searching the forum for RT3070 might bring up some helpful postings.

slh · December 10, 2018, 12:43pm

As diizzy mentioned, rt3070 is supported by rt2800usb.

DonJuane · March 31, 2019, 3:07am

How do I know what I have? I bought the USB wifi dongle

Alfa AWUS036ACM Long-Range Dual-Band AC1200 Wireless USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Adapter w/2x 5dBi External Antennas: 2.4GHz 300Mbps/5GHz 867Mbps-802.11ac & a, b, g, n

And this link was provided in another post and I assumed it meant this card has something to do with a driver of the line of an MT76x driver which I thought I found and I installed it and I don't see any changes when clicking on the LUCI option Network and the Wireless option is missing.

This link is what lead me to believe a MT76x driver of some type:

github.com

openwrt/mt76/blob/master/mt76x2/usb.c#L23


* ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
* OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
*/


#include <linux/kernel.h>
#include <linux/module.h>


#include "../mt76x02_usb.h"
#include "mt76x2u.h"


static const struct usb_device_id mt76x2u_device_table[] = {
	{ USB_DEVICE(0x0e8d, 0x7612) }, /* Alfa AWUS036ACM */
	{ USB_DEVICE(0x0b05, 0x1833) },	/* Asus USB-AC54 */
	{ USB_DEVICE(0x0b05, 0x17eb) },	/* Asus USB-AC55 */
	{ USB_DEVICE(0x0b05, 0x180b) },	/* Asus USB-N53 B1 */
	{ USB_DEVICE(0x0e8d, 0x7612) },	/* Aukey USB-AC1200 */
	{ USB_DEVICE(0x057c, 0x8503) },	/* Avm FRITZ!WLAN AC860 */
	{ USB_DEVICE(0x7392, 0xb711) },	/* Edimax EW 7722 UAC */
	{ USB_DEVICE(0x0846, 0x9053) },	/* Netgear A6210 */
	{ USB_DEVICE(0x045e, 0x02e6) },	/* XBox One Wireless Adapter */
	{ },

I am working with an Espressobin box that had no wifi as delivered and getting the wifi up, getting the Wifi option under Network and figuring out the driver this device needs is not meshing in my inexperienced brain ....

slh · March 31, 2019, 3:09am

Checking USB IDs is one thing, just testing a very modern (kernel 5.0 or newer) linux live system on an x86_64 system would be the easiest option - that will reveal which drivers feels responsible for it (at worst you'll have to provide the necessary firmware yourself).

DonJuane · March 31, 2019, 3:10am

So you are saying that even though this is labeled as the example that was provided, I don't know what is "inside the box" so to speak?

The way it played out is I asked originally for which USB wifi dongle could I feel comfortable that was supported by OpenWRT. The github link was provided for me and I ordered the exact model number from the list on githum, the Alfa one.

slh · March 31, 2019, 3:16am

It sadly not uncommon (at all) that vendors 'recycle' USB IDs for very different hardware, using the same model name or not. Testing and debugging this is considerably easier on a full featured desktop distro (Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Mandriva, Ubuntu, ...) than an embedded distro like OpenWrt - the former provides all options at once (and all debugging facilities you might envision), for the later you need to know what you need to install - not even considering that most (driver- and kernel) development happens on x86_64, which means you're more likely to encounter arch specific issues on MIPS or ARM than on x86_64 (leave that until you know what you're dealing with).

DonJuane · March 31, 2019, 3:22am

OK, here is my situation. I am a very basic OpenWRT user and asked for suggestions for a Network File Server and it was suggested to buy this Espressobin box and this network card. I am so far over my head, I can't see the surface. The OpenWRT routers that I have set up for my family are my only Linux systems. I would not know what to do with s desktop Linux system if it was gifted to me. Sorry but most of the time I weed through this stuff - this one is a little harder.

I did plug this card in my Windows machine and it says simply 802.11ac Wireless LAN Card. On the windows driver panel it says the manufacturer is Media Tech Inc but that's all I have on it.

I do have another OpenWRT router besides this severely crippled Espressobin, can I plug this card in that machine and run any kind of command to see what driver I need with it? Thanks!

diizzy · April 8, 2019, 12:31am

You probably need to run snapshots of master branch to get it going reliably and install the package usbutils which will give you lsusb.