Realtek RTL8188SU USB WiFi

[lleachii]

All,

I have a Belkin F9L1001 v1 that I added to a Meraki MX60W. I installed kmod-net-rtl8192su:

Installing kmod-net-rtl8192su (4.14.63-1) to root...
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.1/targets/apm821xx/nand/packages/kmod-net-rtl8192su_4.14.63-1_powerpc_464fp.ipk
Installing rtl8192su-firmware (2017-09-06-a61ac5cf-1) to root...
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.1/packages/powerpc_464fp/base/rtl8192su-firmware_2017-09-06-a61ac5cf-1_powerpc_464fp.ipk
Configuring rtl8192su-firmware.
Configuring kmod-net-rtl8192su.

I also ran:

cp /etc/config/wireless /etc/config/wireless.original
rm -f /etc/config/wireless
wifi config
wifi
reboot

Upon reboot I see in the log:

Wed Oct 24 00:38:35 2018 kern.info kernel: [   10.408717] r8712u: register rtl8712_netdev_ops to netdev_ops
Wed Oct 24 00:38:35 2018 kern.info kernel: [   10.414481] usb 1-1: r8712u: USB_SPEED_HIGH with 4 endpoints
Wed Oct 24 00:38:35 2018 kern.info kernel: [   10.421043] usb 1-1: r8712u: Boot from EFUSE: Autoload OK
Wed Oct 24 00:38:35 2018 kern.info kernel: [   10.767076] usb 1-1: r8712u: CustomerID = 0x0000
Wed Oct 24 00:38:35 2018 kern.info kernel: [   10.771694] usb 1-1: r8712u: MAC Address from efuse = 08:86:3b:xx:xx:xx
Wed Oct 24 00:38:35 2018 kern.info kernel: [   10.778285] usb 1-1: r8712u: Loading firmware from "rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin"
Wed Oct 24 00:38:35 2018 kern.info kernel: [   10.785194] usbcore: registered new interface driver r8712u

Yet, I still only see the original phy0. Am I missing anything needed to get the USB WiFi device working?

[lleachii]

From: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/R8712u

AP (Master) mode: unsupported

Shouldn't I be able to use STA mode?

[mk24]

What does iw list report?

[lleachii]

It only shows phy0 (the built-in card).

[leeandy]

I have E-top WU306n using RTL8191SU chip. Same issues.

VendorID:DeviceID is 0bda:8172

iw list & iw dev doesn't report.

[lleachii]

Moved to the For Developers section - in hopes we can get some advise or assistance on what's going on.

I'm available to test the adapter if anyone needs us to do so.

EDIT: Using kmod-rtl8xxxu doesn't work either.

[slh]

The correct kernel module for rtl8188su would be staging r8712u module, which doesn't seem to be packaged for OpenWrt (it doesn't support AP mode either).

[lleachii]

@slh

would be staging r8712u module

@lleachii

r8712u: MAC Address from efuse = 08:86:3b:xx:xx:xx

@slh

which doesn't seem to be packaged for OpenWrt

It is.

@slh

it doesn't support AP mode either

We know:

@lleachii

AP (Master) mode: unsupported

Shouldn't I be able to use STA mode?

[slh]

I've never tried r8712u on OpenWrt (just on desktop linux, where it works relatively well), but you have to consider that r8712u uses wext (instead of cfg80211/ nl80211) for its interaction between userspace and kernel (it has a partial nl80211 shim, which might work or not), so take a look at the generated wpa_supplicant configuration under /tmp.

[jgrulich]

This is well known issue of the OpenWrt, see this:

[Solved] RTL8188 Driver for 18.06.01

Hi, I'm trying to compile driver for RTL8189ES for the OPi R1 board. I've used patch from Hauke Mehrtens and latest git distro. All compiles well, but the wifi works only in scan mode. When tried to enable AP, the wlan0 disappears for ever. It's not available even after hard reset. All modules are persistent. Any ideas what may be wrong?

[lleachii]

I responded to you in post #2 of that thread.

It appears you updated the thread an hour ago. Thanks.

[slh]

While the problems with non-mac80211 (and only a very partial cfg80211/ nl80211 shim layer) are the same for most RealTek USB drivers (those in staging or out-of-tree), you need to be aware that rtl8188su (r8712u) and rtl8189es are different devices, requiring different drivers. Unfortunately Realtek is pushing out massive numbers of new/ different chipsets, each with different (out-of-tree) drivers, making it really hard to distinguish them (find a supported device in advance) or for driver developers to keep up.