I have a very old laptop which I want to install openwrt on. The problem is that whenever i try installing anything from void linux to ubuntu or mint or debian on it, it wont recognise a usb wireless dongle I bought. I think it is a realtek dongle but I dont know. I just need to know how to interrogate the equipment under linux mint in order to know if, by looking at the openwrt wiki or forums, it will be found and usable by wrt. My main computer runs linux mint
what commands are there that will let me know exactly what this usb wireless dongle is? Not thinking of using the laptop as an actual router in my network but just to test ideas before trying them on my actual router. The problem is there is nothing written on the dongle except wifi and AC. It's just a really cheap thing.
Any help appreciated. No worries if it cant be done
Does the dongle work with your main Linux Mint box? Try lsusb -vvv or lspci -vvv with the dongle installed on your Linux Mint device.
Thank you I will try that
No linux distro I have tried it with will actually use it. Someone told me that a lot of these wifi usb dongles need the drivers to be compiled into the kernel and that they are mailnly for use with windows where the drivers can simply be installed using a .exe file but I stopped using windows decades ago hahaha
I will try your suggestion, thank you
Thank you for that
I got this data. I will be able to do some research from here
The other command did not find it
thank you, much appreciated
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0bda:c811 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 802.11ac NIC
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0bda Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
idProduct 0xc811
bcdDevice 2.00
iManufacturer 1 Realtek
iProduct 2 802.11ac NIC
iSerial 3 123456
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 0x0035
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xa0
(Bus Powered)
Remote Wakeup
MaxPower 500mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 5
bInterfaceClass 255 Vendor Specific Class
bInterfaceSubClass 255 Vendor Specific Subclass
bInterfaceProtocol 255 Vendor Specific Protocol
iInterface 2
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x84 EP 4 IN
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x05 EP 5 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x06 EP 6 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x87 EP 7 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 3
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x08 EP 8 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0
You might want to try usbview and usb-devices as well for maybe a little more info. See the man pages.
You're not alone. a Mint man myself 
Run ethtool -i wlan0 to determine driver in use?
rtw88_8821cu
…you definitively don't want that device on OpenWrt though.
Does it have minipcie slots onboard like builtin sub-par wifi+bluetooth? You can replace that for mt76 or ath*k with same antenna config for access point usage.
No, unfortunately, its a very old sony vgn-nr38e
I was just looking for something to use it for, other than as a dustbin filler
Will do - thank you for the advice
yeah I am rapidly coming to that conclusion
Hey thank you all - very interesting replies
i think I have enough now to research and come to the conclusion that it was
not £3.75 GBP well spent
Around ten bucks will give you mt7921au, still not a great choice as AP, but a very decent USB WLAN card on linux.
12 screws later lies the truth (you have to check): (step11 - one antenna - useless 2 antennas ok for AP with non-intel card.)
For other purposes "it runs debian" ....
What screws? I lost those about 8 years ago. it's held together by two small wood screws. I've had that laptop apart so many times I could do it blindfolded
What wifi card it has in it? Likely replacable with access-point capable card of same form factor.