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  • Can I get some help with a WiFi stick?

Okay, so I'm fairly new to Solus (really to linux in general..) but I'm pretty good at google fu, so I figured I could get this working..

I have a Cudy AC1300 Wireless Dual band USB adapter, and I needed to install the drivers, which I.. thought I did?

I looked in the forums and found this article: https://discuss.getsol.us/d/6086-wifi-stick-recommendations/2 which explicitly mentions the AC1300 by Cudy, which led me to this article https://discuss.getsol.us/d/4162-install-some-realtek-wireless-drivers about installing the drivers. I followed that (in the comments they pointed me to GitLab, as the Github page is no longer being used), it was EZPZ, seemed like it installed, but I still can't see 5Ghz networks, so I guess it didn't? I'm not sure what to do at this point, basically, so I figured I'd make a post and see how it goes..

When you say that "you can't see 5Ghz networks", does that mean that you can't see any 5Ghz networks, including networks from your neighbors? If so, it sounds like a driver issue. You might want to make sure that you are using the precise driver for your model (mine is a Cudy WU1300S AC which uses the Realtek RTL88x2bu driver, but it is possible that yours is a different model and might use a different driver). The Cudy website seems to be non-responsive this morning, but that would be the place to check.

The Linux kernel does not include many Realtek drivers (including the RTL88x2bu driver), so you are going to have to reinstall your driver every time the kernel updates. For me, that turned out to be a pain, so I moved from the Cudy to a different adapter with a driver that was natively supported by the Linux kernel.

  • CT42 replied to this.

    tomscharbach Yes, I am unable to see any 5Ghz networks. I Downloaded the RTL88x2BU drivers, following the instructions I found in this forum (linked in the original post), the Cudy website said that model (ed: to clarify, it is the WU1300S) uses the RTL88x2BU drivers. It seemed like they were installed properly...

    Unfortunately, I'm not nearly experienced enough to know how to tell if a wifi stick would work off the linux kernel, and I'm on a pretty low budget- when googling it the wifi sticks were all like 30-50 bucks on the low end if they explicitly said they're native capable, and reading further, a lot of sticks say they're "native capable" which just means "drivers were tested on a linux machine, but not necessarily using the Linux kernel... it got me kinda confused, until I started messing with this, since this stick says it's linux compatible.... which it is, but in that it has drivers in a tar.gz for Deb/Ubuntu/Arch (so it works via apt get, pacman, and I forget the other one) that you can instal via the Terminal (and a helpful instal guide to boot, for those distros)

    ....would I need to do something with those? I had assumed that tar.gz they had was just to install the drivers, the same ones I had installed separately, but maybe that's the problem?

    Or, if that's all entirely too complicated, how would I go about ensuring a given wifi card would work on Solus before buying it?

        The Cudy WU1300S adapter is the same one I used, and it does take the RTL88x2bu driver. As I understand it, you installed the driver using the Tomomi script from this forum, which works. That is exactly what I set up and it worked (however, see below). So I'm baffled as to why the adapter isn't seeing 5Ghz networks.

        Here's the "However": When I had the WU1300S installed on my machine, I didn't notice whether or not it identified both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz networks. I have my router set up to display a single SSID (no differentiation between bands). The router selects 5Ghz if the adapter supports 5Ghz, and 2.4Ghz otherwise. It all happens behind the curtain since I set the router up that way. For all I know, I had the same problem you have (that is, the WU1300S was connecting to the 2.4Ghz band because it didn't see the 5Ghz band) and I didn't know it.

        The good news is that your adapter is connecting to the router (apparently using the 2.4Ghz band). The bad news is that you don't get the benefits of dual band. But connecting at all is something, anyway, until someone with more technical expertise than I have reads this thread and has something more to offer.

        • CT42 replied to this.

          CT42 For what it is worth, I installed my Cudy WU1300S adapter on my test machine this afternoon, using the Tomomi script. I then removed the existing Panda adapter, and restarted. The computer recognized the Cudy WE1300S and connected to my router. I looked for all sources of wifi signal in the neighborhood and could see numerous 5Ghz networks. So you might consider reinstalling your Cudy WU1300S adapter by running the Tomomi script again. Something might have gone wrong with the first attempt.

            tomscharbach Sorry for the delay, I was asleep when you replied last, late day at work and I left my laptop at home so I hadn't been able to get back to this. My laptop has a NIC built in, it just doesn't have 5Ghz, I don't know if the device is connecting at all, honestly, and I'm not really sure how to check it. I'll see if I can disable my built in NIC and wether or not the Cudy device shows any networks..
            Is there a way to verify the drivers are installed other than the device either working or not?

              When installing the Drivers, this does show up

              rm: remove write-protected regular file 'rtl88x2bu/.git/objects/pack/pack-689a0db6911ec6ff131276b7788974040c36b69c.idx'?

              rm: remove write-protected regular file 'rtl88x2bu/.git/objects/pack/pack-689a0db6911ec6ff131276b7788974040c36b69c.pack'? y

              I have been saying Yes to this when it shows up in the Konsole, should I not be doing that, perhaps?

              Another thing that might be causing an issue..

              **install -p -m 644 88x2bu.ko /lib/modules/5.10.1-162.current/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/
              install: cannot stat '88x2bu.ko': No such file or directory
              make: *** [Makefile:2290: install] Error 1
              **

              it does say the drivers are installed, and I can use wireless card at the end though..

              Okay, I think I got my built in NIC shut down using "ifconfig [NIC name] down" at which point wifi is completely gone, so it seems the Cudy device isn't recognized.. Ed: Although it appears my laptop re-enabled my NIC in the time it took me to write that

              Typed bash Tomomi.sh in the tomomi konsole, then went to a different konsole, typed sudo ipconfig [nic] down, then back to the Tomomi konsole and pressed enter, and the NIC has since stayed disabled, now it's saying it couldn't reach github host, so gonna put in a ethernet wire and see if that works.

              After the above, got the OK (again..), reboot, and main NIC is back online, no 5ghz... damn it.

              So saw this, seems like maybe a similiar problem https://discuss.getsol.us/d/2352-permanently-disable-a-network-interface-in-terminal/2

              Tried putting that stuff in the konsole... wifi went down. Ethernet cable in, ran Tomomi script again. Reboot. Now neither Wifi nor ethernet cable gives me internet access lol... gonna hope running that in reverse and changing disable to enable will undo that.. Ed: Running that in reverse unbroke the wifi, so that's nice. Back to square one, though...

              So, kinda just saying screw it, and grabbing a dual band version of my built in NIC, not 100% sure it'll work honestly (I don't really use laptops very often, so I'm not sure how to ensure compatibility..), but I guess I'll try that and see how it goes. I have 10 days till it shows up, so keeping this open, if anyone has any suggestions for getting the Cudy working, I'll be happy to try them. If I don't get a solution and it works when that gets in, I'll update and close this.

                CT42 So, kinda just saying screw it, and grabbing a dual band version of my built in NIC, not 100% sure it'll work ... but I guess I'll try that and see how it goes.

                That sounds like a good solution, if it works. I hope it does.

                My adventures yesterday reminded me what a pain it was to install the Cudy, even when the installation works. Your adventures convinced me that trying to work with wifi drivers not already in the kernel is more trouble than it's worth, at least to me.

                I decided I'm going to stop beating my head against the wall and just stick with the Panda PAU06 300Mbps that I normally use. Its N rather than A/C, and not dual band, but it works good enough for a test machine. The Panda is plug and play with the kernel.

                By the way, just to see what might happen, I tried the Cudy with a Ubuntu 20.10 live session on the test machine, with the Panda removed. Ubuntu didn't recognize the Cudy. I was wondering if it might (some distros have additional drivers over and above the native kernel drivers), but no luck. Pfffft.

                I'm going to give the Cudy to a friend who is now using a TP-Link N-150 I gave him a couple years ago. The Cudy is plug and play with Windows, he'll get dual band, and I won't have to deal with trying to install Linux drivers for it any more.

                Let us know what happens with the dual band version of your built-in NIC, and thanks for documenting all of this.

                    5 days later

                    So.. apparently Lenovo firmware BLOCKS the Laptop from replacing the NIC with anything except the exact model it was built with..

                    My God this has been a blast lmao... That's a whole different problem I gotta see about solving... I guess at this point, I might as well close the ticket, with the final result being Cudy 1300 wireless usb stick is a shot in the dark, works for some, not all; although clearly I, specifically, am being screwed with here.

                      Although tbh Idk how to close the ticket..

                      CT42 So.. apparently Lenovo firmware BLOCKS the Laptop from replacing the NIC with anything except the exact model it was built with..

                      Bizarre. Sure enough, though ... I looked and the internet has lots of "Custom BIOS install WIFI card whitelist bypass Lenovo" instructions.

                      I've seen that sort of firmware lockdown on business/enterprise computers from time to time, but never on a consumer computer. What were they thinking?

                      Thanks for letting us know and good luck with it, whatever direction you take.

                      • CT42 replied to this.

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                          • Post #18

                          tomscharbach How does your Panda PAU06 work? I have the Panda Ultra WiFi and it seems to cut the connection on a regular basis. It will also require replugging since it loses all wifi networks.

                              [deleted]

                              [deleted] How does your Panda PAU06 work?

                              So far (about 6 months) it has worked flawlessly. Not a single burp. It's big (3.5" out and 3.5" antenna) though, so it probably would be a bad choice for a laptop.

                              The PAU06 replaced a TP-Link N-150 adapter, which seems similar to the Panda Ultra WiFi, both nano size and both b/g/n 150Mbps 2.4Ghz. I was having some issues the TP-Link disconnecting during eopkg up; it seemed to become very hot, slow way down (into the 90-100Kbs (not Mbs) range) and eventually drop connection when downloading large files like libreoffice-common. But otherwise, I didn't have any issues with the TP-Link, and that sounds different from your experience with the Panda Ultra WiFi.

                                    tomscharbach I spent the better part of yesterday looking into that as well, it seems well beyond my meager technical abilities lol.. I'll probably just save up for a better wifi adapter (at this point, the cost of the two adapters I bought coulda paid for a single decent one... Ah, live and learn, I suppose.), And just do much more research on it, and hope for the best.