Solved - I now have reliable WiFi on the Bone

[Carl Johnson]

I have been trying for over a month to get reliable WiFi working on the original BeagleBone and now on the new BeagleBone Black.  I kept seeing weird behavior, such as randomly dropped or stuttering connections, and different symptoms depending upon whether the WiFi dongle was plugged directly into Bone, into an extension cable, or into a powered hub.  There's a lot of online frustration about this, some of which I contributed to.  It was really unclear to me if the problem was hardware or software related, or some combination of the two.

Long story short, I believe that most of my problems stemmed from attempting to use dongles based upon the rtl8192cu chipset (I tried several different ones).  These are very common, widely available, and appear at first glance to have the best software support on the Bone, at least in the standard Angstrom distribution.  Most of the online tutorials about how to get WiFi running on the Bone are using these dongles.  I don't know if or why the people who wrote these are getting reliable WiFi - I sure didn't.

Robert Nelson suggested that I try using a dongle using an Atheros chipset.  I ordered a NetGear WNA1100 but soon discovered that it won't run in the Angstrom distribution, which by default doesn't provide the ath9k_htc driver and associated firmware.  This was really disappointing to me, since I had already made quite an investment in learning all about Angstrom.  I was able to bitbake a version of the distribution that included the driver, but was unable to build or find a version of the firmware that would work in Angstrom.  I have since given up and switched to Ubuntu, which includes support for this dongle natively.  My WiFi is now rock solid with this adapter. 

A plea to the makers:  please bundle the ath9k_htc driver and associated firmware with the standard Angstrom distribution.

tl;dr:  Install Ubuntu on the Bone (I used the latest raring image), buy this dongle, follow these directions to get reliable WiFi.

Thanks to all who attempted to help me - hopefully this post will help others. 

[AndrewTaneGlen]

For what it's worth, here are steps I documented for reliably using an 'ath9k_htc' usb wifi dongle with Angstrom (systemd-image):

Building and Installing ‘compat-wireless’ Drivers (on the Beaglebone itself):

1.       Prepare local environment for building drivers. Following instructions here: ‘http://nomel.org/post/30357133735/beaglebone-tutorial-how-to-compile-kernel-module’):

a.       opkg install task-native-sdk

b.      opkg install kernel-headers

c.       opkg install kernel-dev

d.      'ln -s /usr/src/kernel /lib/modules/3.2.30/build' (Replace 3.2.30 with appropriate kernel version… Make sure the headers downloaded to ‘/usr/src/linux-3.2….’ match the actual kernel version ‘uname -r’, otherwise the modules built in this way will not work)

e.      cd /usr/src/kernel

f.        make scripts

2.       Download and build the ‘compat-wireless’ drivers. Following instructions here: (http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download/stable/#compat-wireless_3.6_stable_releases):

a.       mkdir ~/compatwireless

b.      cd ~/compatwireless

c.       wget http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/compat-wireless-3-stable/v3.6/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp.tar.bz2

d.      tar -xzvf compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp.tar.bz2

e.      cd compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp

f.        ./scripts/driver-select ath9k_htc

g.       make (this step is redundant if the following line is run…)

h.      make install-modules (Automatically copies the modules to the correct place)

i.         Run ‘depmod -a' to update the ‘known module dependencies’ list with the ones just made/copied.

3.       Alternately (much faster/better), cross-compile the wireless drivers on a host machine and transfer them across:

a.       [From the host machine e.g. Ubuntu…]:

b.      mkdir ~/compatwireless

c.       cd ~/compatwireless

d.      wget http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/compat-wireless-3-stable/v3.6/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp.tar.bz2

e.      tar -xzvf compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp.tar.bz2

f.        cd compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp

g.       ./scripts/driver-select ath9k_htc

h.      Build with cross-compiler (using the kernel source git repo path as KLIB and KLIB_BUILD):

i.         make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi- KLIB=~/angstrom/setup-scripts/build/tmp-angstrom_v2012_05-eglibc/work/beaglebone-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/linux-ti33x-psp-3.2.23-r14i+gitr720e07b4c1f687b61b147b31c698cb6816d72f01/git KLIB_BUILD=~/angstrom/setup-scripts/build/tmp-angstrom_v2012_05-eglibc/work/beaglebone-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/linux-ti33x-psp-3.2.23-r14i+gitr720e07b4c1f687b61b147b31c698cb6816d72f01/git [Note: Change paths to suit...]

j.        Package up the module files and move to the target (Borrowing steps from here: http://wiki.chumby.com/index.php/Compat-wireless_driver_on_chumby#Cross-compile_compat-wireless_driver):

k.       find ./ | grep ko$ | xargs tar cvjf wireless-compat_modules.tar.bz2

l.         [On the beaglebone]:

m.    cd /lib/modules/3.2.23

n.      mv updates old-updates (only if there is an old version of the wifi drivers present…)

o.      mkdir updates

p.      cd updates

q.      Copy from host machine:

r.        scp bo...@10.192.0.95:/home/bone/compatwireless/compat-wireless-3.6.2-1-snp/wireless-compat_modules.tar.bz2 ./

s.       tar -xvf wireless-compat_modules.tar.bz2

t.        Run ‘depmod -a' to update the ‘known module dependencies’ list with the ones just made/copied.

4.       Download and copy the two firmware files 'htc_7010.fw' and 'htc_9271.fw' from http://linuxwireless.org/download/htc_fw/1.3/ to '/lib/firmware':

a.       cd /lib

b.      mkdir firmware

c.       cd firmware

d.      wget http://linuxwireless.org/download/htc_fw/1.3/htc_7010.fw

e.      wget http://linuxwireless.org/download/htc_fw/1.3/htc_9271.fw

5.       Make sure to check the file ‘/var/lib/connman/settings’ and ensure that line after ‘[WiFi]’ reads ‘Enabled=true’

6.       Reboot.

7.       Plug in the usb-wireless dongle. Check ‘dmesg | tail’ to see that it is recognized and that the firmware files are properly transferred. Check ‘lsmod’ to see that all the ‘ath…’ modules have installed correctly.

8.       Follow Steps here to verify wifi works (in client mode…): (http://support.criticallink.com/redmine/projects/arm9-platforms/wiki/USB_WiFi_Configuration?version=6)

a.       opkg install wpa-supplicant

b.      opkg install wireless-tools

c.       opkg install kernel-module-rfkill (annoyingly, needs to update the kernel image – not required for kernel build versions 3.2.30 onwards)

d.      In the following files:

/usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant.service

/usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/fi.w1.wpa_supplicant1.service

Change the "Exec=" line to be "Exec=/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -u -s -O /var/run/wpa_supplicant" in both files. (initially it is the same up to ’–u’)

e.      wpa_supplicant –B –Dwext –iwlan0 –c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf (runs wpa_supplicant in thebackground)

f.        call ‘wpa_cli’, then call ‘status’ to see how the connection is going.

g.       Sometimes it can take a long time to connect – perhaps removing connman service helps.

                                                               i.      What definite helps is setting ‘ap_scan=…’ to ‘ap_scan=1’ in the ‘wpa_supplicant.conf’ configuration file.

[Carl Johnson]

Thanks for your post.  It seemed specific to kernel version 3.2, but the fact that you had it running in Angstrom made me try again.  I downloaded the htc_9271 firmware from linuxwireless.org and now the dongle is working in kernel version 3.8.11.  It wasn't working for me in earlier kernel versions (rfkill kept preventing the driver from loading), but it's now working fine in Angstrom.  I'm not sure whether the new firmware or the updated kernel is responsible for it working now.

FWIW, I went back and tried dongles using both the rtl8192cu and RALink chipsets.  They continue to be unreliable for me, in both Angstrom and Ubuntu.

[Carl Johnson]

I've had some better luck with the RALink chipsets now.  My problem was that the dongle power save was kicking in, making it dodgy to use the BeagleBone as a server.  I fixed this by turning off power save as follows:

cat > /etc/udev/rules.d/wifi_power_save.rules <<-EOF
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", KERNEL=="wlan*" RUN+="/usr/sbin/iw dev %k set power_save off"
EOF

This command should turn off the power save features of any type of dongle.

[AndrewTaneGlen]

Hi Carl,

I've just been revisiting ath9k_htc wifi on the beaglebone, and was wondering what procedure you followed to bitbake the drivers into the angstrom distribution.

Did you just bitbake menuconfig and then set all of the ath9k options to build as modules, then rebuild the entire systemd image? Or did you just rebuild the modules - if so, how is this done and where do they end up?

Regards,

Andrew Glen.

On Friday, 3 May 2013 03:12:25 UTC+12, Carl Johnson wrote:

[Carl Johnson]

Hi Andrew,

Sorry for the late reply.  FWIW, I see that Koen has enabled the ath9k_htc driver by default in one of his latest commits, so at some point soon this will become part of the standard Angstrom distribution.  I assume the required firmware will also be included.

In case you don't have this working yet, here are the notes I took about the process:

# To create a customized kernel, I fetched and built everything on a Ubuntu 12 host, running
# as a Parallels 8.0 VM on a Mac running Mountain Lion.  I'm sure any other machine running
# the latest Ubuntu would work as well.

# First make sure you have the following requisite packages installed
# You may need others, or you may already have some of these.
# In any case, the bitbake build scripts listed below will tell you if anything is missing.
# Install any missing packages (I used the Ubuntu Software Center), and then rerun the command.

    sudo apt-get install gettext chrpath subversion gawk texinfo g++ git diffstat

# Start by downloading the latest build scripts into a suitable working directory:

cd ~/Devel/BeagleBone/kernel
git clone git://github.com/Angstrom-distribution/setup-scripts.git
 
# Modify the ./setup-scripts/conf/local.conf file and comment out the following line:

INHERIT += "rm_work"

# Configure and update with the following commands:

cd ~/Devel/BeagleBone/kernel/setup-scripts

MACHINE=beaglebone ./oebb.sh update

# Run menuconfig to enable the ATH9K_HTC driver:

MACHINE=beaglebone ./oebb.sh bitbake virtual/kernel -c menuconfig

# This may take a long time to complete the first time, as it has to build the toolchain first.
# In the menu that eventually pops up, select the following items to enable the driver:

    Device Drivers
    -> Network device support
    -> -> Wireless LAN
    -> -> -> Atheros Wireless Cards
    -> -> -> ->  Atheros HTC based wireless card support (type 'M')

# Alternatively, edit the following default .config file to enable the ATH9K_HTC driver:

sources/meta-beagleboard/common-bsp/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-mainline-3.8/beaglebone/defconfig

You'll need to change this line:
# CONFIG_ATH9K_HTC is not set
to this:
CONFIG_ATH9K_HTC=m

# Build the kernel image with the following commands:

. ~/.oe/environment-angstromv2012.12
bitbake virtual/kernel

# Copy the file ath9k_htc.ko into /lib/modules/<version>/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k
# I didn't write down where to find this file in the build directories, but I think it might be somewhere in ./setup-scripts/build/tmp-angstrom_v2012_12-eglibc/work/beaglebone-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/linux-mainline-<version>/image/.  I used the linux 'find' command to locate it.

# You can download the required firmware from linuxwireless.org: http://wireless.kernel.org/download/htc_fw/1.3/htc_9271.fw
# Copy this file to /lib/firmware on the BeagleBone

[AndrewTaneGlen]

Thanks for that Carl. Much appreciated.

[Nishant Sood]

Can anyone Carl, Andrew verify these dongles to work with BBB > http://www.adafruit.com/products/814   and http://www.adafruit.com/products/1012 

[Gerald Coley]

The ones that we have tested an work are listed on the support Wiki. http://xircuitco.com/support/BeagleBoneBlack.

Gerald

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[Dale Schaafsma]

Nishant,
I have the adafruit mini (your 814 link) which is a Realtek rtl8188cus chipset. Generally people have not found them to work very reliably. Mine doesn't work well enough for me to use it. Some have had good luck with vendor drivers, but YMMV.

FYI here's the direct link to circuitco tested adapters:
http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack#WIFI_Adapters

One other thing, you definitely need additional power. Either a barrel jack supply or a powered hub is required.
-Dale

[William Hermans]

Thats a rather small list . .. and is at least one of thsoe an Atheros chipset ?

[Nishant Sood]

I this evening ordered a wna 1100 netgear wifi dongle that csrl suggested on the very first link to be working fine on ubuntu and also even on angstrom.

Thanks & Regards,
Nishant
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[Carl Johnson]

Yes, I have since switched back to Angstrom now that I figured out how to build the ATH9K_HTC driver module and download the appropriate firmware.  I have also had good reliability on Angstrom with the Tenda W311M dongle, which uses the standard RALink driver. It is less expensive and has a smaller footprint, although the range isn't as good as the WNA1100.  I never got any of the many Realtek dongles I tried to work acceptably on either the BB or BBB.

[William Hermans]

Good to know Carl, thanks :)

On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 10:26 AM, Carl Johnson <bony...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, I have since switched back to Angstrom now that I figured out how to build the ATH9K_HTC driver module and download the appropriate firmware.  I have also had good reliability on Angstrom with the Tenda W311M dongle, which uses the standard RALink driver. It is less expensive and has a smaller footprint, although the range isn't as good as the WNA1100.  I never got any of the many Realtek dongles I tried to work acceptably on either the BB or BBB.

--

[Nishant Sood]

Hey Carl,

Your WNA1100 works well in Angstrom latest image for BBBlack? Following Andrew's steps?

[AndrewTaneGlen]

Hi All,

We have been heavily using the TP-Link TL-WN722N (ath9k_htc) in both client and access-point modes (using wpa_supplicant and hostapd) and found it to be very reliable - and with a good range - although it is extremely important to have an external 5V power supply connected - without it (or with it connected intermittently) you'll find the device 'randomly' browns out as the usb supply is overwhelmed.

Regarding my set of steps to bring up the drivers, it has since become clearer that building the drivers into the kernel as modules is far simpler and obviously less prone to tool-chain dependency problems faced when building it separately.

I would still highly recommend using wpa_supplicant (as opposed to connman or any other network manager) to manage client-side connections - it just seems simpler and more powerful; but whatever works...

[Akhilesh Mritunjai]

I now have reliable Wifi on my BBB (A5A) with an Edimax dongle (rtl8192cu). The problem is not the driver/board (in my case), but it was apparently ages old versions of connman and wpa_supplicant. I'm using the firmware binary downloaded from debian repo and then compiled the latest connman (1.16 iirc) and latest wpa_supplicant (2.0) from sources right on the BBB itself and did a make install.

Presto, reliable wifi connection with sane (~1ms) ping to router.

[smith.wi...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, September 5, 2013 2:39:08 AM UTC-4, Akhilesh Mritunjai wrote:

I now have reliable Wifi on my BBB (A5A) with an Edimax dongle (rtl8192cu). The problem is not the driver/board (in my case), but it was apparently ages old versions of connman and wpa_supplicant. I'm using the firmware binary downloaded from debian repo and then compiled the latest connman (1.16 iirc) and latest wpa_supplicant (2.0) from sources right on the BBB itself and did a make install.

Presto, reliable wifi connection with sane (~1ms) ping to router.

That's fantastic -- does anyone with more OE experience than me know how to update the recipes for 2012.12 so I can rebuild an image with the newer connman and wpa_supplicant?

[Anewbie]

When I try to ./compile connman 1.16 I get error "configure: error: D-Bus >= 1.4 is required".  I can't figure out how to update D-Bus.  (I am using Angstrom Production Image 2013.09.04) Any suggestions?  Finally, can you describe the type of problems you had before upgrading connman and wpa_supplicant?  (I have very slow/intermittent wifi access unless I hold the BBB in my hands a certain way...I am hoping what you suggest will fix this.)  THANKS!

On Thursday, September 5, 2013 2:39:08 AM UTC-4, Akhilesh Mritunjai wrote:

[Nishant Sood]

Hey Andrew, I'm not understanding this part >> d.      'ln -s /usr/src/kernel /lib/modules/3.2.30/build' (Replace 3.2.30 with appropriate kernel version… Make sure the headers downloaded to ‘/usr/src/linux-3.2….’ match the actual kernel version ‘uname -r’, otherwise the modules built in this way will not work)

to the extent that I was able to understand is that i have to run this >>  -s /usr/src/kernel /lib/modules/3.2.30/build with 3.8.13 as my kernel is but this statement didn't ran because the terminal couldn't fine "-s" and I'm stuck now at this line >> h.      make install-modules (Automatically copies the modules to the correct place)

[Nishant Sood]

 I couldn't find this modules/3.2.30(3.8.13 in my case)/build  directory in the my Angstrom linux kernel directory on the BBBlack!

[Charles Hamilton]

Hi Carl,

Thanks very much for the helpful post.

For the dongle, did you use the micro or full-sized version? Amazon shows two versions via your link. Do you think it matters?

Regards,
Charles

[Carl Johnson]

I used the full size one. That micro version looks suspiciously like the other Realtek chipset dongles that everyone's had problems with. 

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[Mark Lazarewicz]

I am trying to get DIGIKEY Can cape working on Bone white I followed http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone#BeagleBone-LinuxKernel and built from scratch

I used Ubuntu 13.04 and kernel 3.8 I see following

[ 9.609042] bone-capemgr bone_capemgr.8: failed to load firmware 'BB-BONE-SERL-01-00A2.dtb

[ 9.618026] bone-capemgr bone_capemgr.8: loader: failed to load slot-0 BB-BONE-SERL-01:00A2 (prio 0)

1)Can someone explain why I get this message and how to resolve it? I am guessing this needs to be resolved my goal is to get
some CAN traffic out for now dont care how

2)are the can socket avaialable in Ubuntu and how to i get this package? Is there an alternative to can-sockets? I would like to write some code that accesses the can cape and learn this device tree stuff as I have a coworker trying to access an FPGA on the white and its become apparent he need a .dtb file to access this with the new kernel

looking at this https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/beagleboard/CHeixccrV3g I
 dont have canconfig or candump like I did with an older version of the kernel I was using the Arago project kernel

I also got wifi working so I am excited and would prefer to stick with Roberts kernel its very well documented and worked first time since I dumped VMware

[ch....@gmail.com]

Have been wrestling with wifi on BBB.
I was following this thread and the webpage at http://octopusprotos.com/?p=37  for a static address.

I did go to amazon.com and buy the TP-LINK TL-WN722N.
Did a fresh load of the BBB from a mid-september image then did 'opkg update ... ' as seen elsewhere.
That got me recognizing the device.
I installed wireless-tools.
Then I replaced connman with /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/wpa_supplicant as in that octopusprotos.com posting.

I had a terrible time.  Device would attach then drop with reason=3.
Then I discovered that I had two wpa_supplicants running!
I commented out the pre-up line from the /etc/network/interfaces as found on octopusprotos
and now things seem to be working swell.

So my addition to the knowledge pile is not to run two wpa_supplicant processes.

[Ben Mitch]

On Thursday, 2 May 2013 23:14:24 UTC+1, AndrewTaneGlen wrote:

For what it's worth, here are steps I documented for reliably using an 'ath9k_htc' usb wifi dongle with Angstrom (systemd-image):

Thanks everyone for posting their experiences. I've tried following several guides, using two dongles (first an Edimax EW-7811UN, which I understand needs driver RTL8192CU, then a TP-Link TL-WN722N which I think uses ath9k_htc). I have an Asus N10 on order, out of desperation, but perhaps someone can explain a couple o' things to me that I haven't been able to make sense of yet.

At the moment, I'm finding a lot of different approaches suggested, and I'm not familiar enough with the kernel module/driver architecture of Linux to see the commonality there must be between them. Perhaps an answer to one of my questions will help clue me in.

* Tried the RTL8192CU following http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=WiFi - "opkg upgrade" took 4-5 hours instead of the 12-20 mins suggested, and the result was a wireless card that seemed to keep turning itself on and off, or sometimes just off and off. After further googling, thought I'd bail and try the other dongle.

* Tried following http://goo.gl/Zdfo0M for the TL-WN722N. Had to build ath9k_htc, and the compile failed (pid vs. portid, etc.). I went through trying to patch up the source, but my notes from that evening peter out uninformatively (three or four days in, now, exhausted... :/). In any case, no dice.

* Tried opkg install kernel-module-ath9k-htc to use the pre-compiled package. Present on machine, installed ok, but every attempt to load generated "Invalid argument", with dmesg filled with notes about "disagrees about version of symbol ...". Gave up, figured I'd have to build for myself.

* Tried running opkg upgrade with the TL-WN722N plugged in. Came back five hours later to find the board had frozen. Have not tried upgrading again since, but still have this in my arsenal, also filed under "desperation".

In my latest attempt to go wireless, I installed the image 2013.06.20 from BBB latest images page, logged in as root, and then followed the steps provided back in May by AndrewTaneGlen, with the change that I used the latest "backports" release (backports-3.11-rc3-1.tar.bz2) rather than the circa-May compat-wireless release. As mentioned above, I already tried the same procedure but using the compat-wireless release, and the compile failed.

The log of my SSH is attached, as is my current boot-time dmesg (i.e. during a reboot after I get to the end of SSH.log). If anyone can clue me in on any of the following, I'd be very grateful:

(in SSH.log...)

* need I worry about "kernel-dev: unsatisfied recommendation for kernel-base-dev"?

* is backports the right place to get the driver? I noticed there's an opkg "kernel-module-ath9k_htc", but whilst I could install it, I couldn't get modprobe to load it. I'm not good with modprobe, perhaps. Is this package a valid pre-compiled driver I could use against 2013.06.20? If so, I only need to figure out how to load it, but the messages I got when I tried it made me very suspicious I'd have to build my own.

* I have been getting this a lot:

WARNING: could not open /lib/modules/3.8.13/modules.order: No such file or directory

WARNING: could not open /lib/modules/3.8.13/modules.builtin: No such file or directory

does that mean my modules have been built, but have not been "installed"? why do these files not exist, and who is trying to access them?

* Finally, when I try "modprobe ath9k_htc", I get:

root@beaglebone:~# modprobe ath9k_htc

ERROR: could not insert 'ath9k_htc': Invalid argument

and dmesg | tail gives:

[ 1418.895608] compat: disagrees about version of symbol mem_map

[ 1418.895666] compat: Unknown symbol mem_map (err -22)

I got very similar messages when trying to modprobe (load?) the pre-compiled ko module for ath9k_htc that I found through opkg (only many more of them, for all different symbols).

* Why, oh, why, oh, why. Did I mention I was exhausted?

So I'm going to have three dongles, based on three different chipsets. Is a consensus forming as to which one works (and how) with BBB? Oh well, I hope the Asus N10 will just magically work... :(.

Regards, Ben

[AndrewTaneGlen]

Hi,

My instruction may be out of date with the latest version of the kernel/filesystem, but a couple of notes on your questions:

With regards to both the 'opkg upgrade' and the 'disagrees about version of symbol', this looks like you are trying to run a module compiled under a different version (older/newer) of the kernel, i.e. one incompatible with the modules you are trying to load. To get around this I'd recommend trying to run the opkg upgrade again, or downloading and copying over the latest image. I'd recommend trying with the Ubuntu build from RobertCNelson (http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#Method_1:_Download_a_Complete_Pre-Configured_Image - Follow the instructions here, try with the Raring image) - this should work 'out of the box' with the TL-WN722N. The latest Angstrom also includes the ath9k_htc by default, so should also work 'out of the box'.

TL/DR: Forget about all my earlier instructions. Use a new image that supports your wifi device out of the box.

Regards,

Andrew.

[meng...@gmail.com]

Hi Carl,

I have the similar problem. I was using edimax based on rtl891cu chipset. The wifi is on and off from time to time. Also it's very slow. I am going to try your solution. May I ask which driver do you use for NetGear WNA adaptor? What speed can you get by using this adaptor?

Thanks,

Mengjun

[Wilfredo Nieves]

Hello Everybody,

Why not try network manager instead of connman. I was having trouble with getting the wifi (Linksys WUSB100v2) to work. Removed connman and installed network manager, installed the drivers with opkg and it worked perfect on the first try. I have had it running for about a week now besides the occasional reboot to get VNC back up and wifi is still working good. Haven't tested speed yet but it seems to be running good for being G and considering that my phones data connection runs circles around my home data connection (best i can get in BFE unless i spend almost triple for only double the speed).

-Wil

[mengjun xie]

Hello every one, 

First, Wil, thank you very much for your help. But the problem is I have to use ubuntu instead of angstrom. I have the wifi working(ediMax adaptor). But it is very unreliable. 

For example ,by typing ifconfig in the terminal, I can see the wlan0 is activating and I can see wifi IP address. But it cannot be connected(ssh for example) or ping through. Sometimes rebooting solve the problem sometimes does not. 

Also, WIFI speed is terrible(200KB/S). I am doing video streaming on beaglebone black, 200KB/S is not enough.

Is there anyone can give me a good solution for this? Is there any other reliable WIFI adaptor to recommend?

Thank you so much!

Mengjun

[Harry May]

Thank you for all the information.

This is my experience with reliable wifi. This took me 4 days and 4 night(mares):

I had all kinds of problems. Maybe the most important is that the Micro-USB-Stick N150 (Netgear) does not work reliably. It was possible to setup a WiFi connection

but it broke down all the time.

The much more stable hardware is the stick described by Carl Johnson in his first post (the bigger size netgear stick using the ath9k_htc driver).

I had no luck with Angstrom, the wifi stick was recognized and a dhcp request startet, but succeeded only 1 of 10 times.

So I ended up with Ubuntu saucy:

http://rcn-ee.net/deb/rootfs/saucy/ubuntu-13.10-console-armhf-2014-01-24.tar.xz

and the instructions from this site:

http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu (Debian or Ubuntu is the same procedure)

To setup the stick I modified /etc/network/interfaces:

auto wlan0

iface wlan0 inet dhcp

    wpa-ssid "MYSSID"

    wpa-psk "MYPASSPHRASE"

and the same for WLAN1 !!!!

I found out that changing from one stick to another may switch from wlan0 to wlan1, even if you power off.

And tested it according:

http://embeddedprogrammer.blogspot.de/2013/01/beaglebone-using-usb-wifi-dongle-to.html

as Carl already suggested.

Everything worked fine, so I removed the LAN cable and rebooted the bone.

Now comes the important thing: WAIT at least 2 to 3 minutes.

It takes 2:30 minutes until the blue LED on the stick gets lit.

For any reason I don't know: at a later time it booted MUCH faster.

I checked my DHCP router when the bone requested the IP.

Then it took some more time until I was able to SSH into the board via wifi.

But after that time all went really nice. To test the wifi link I copied a 100MB file repeatedly until 100 GB were copied.

All went well.

My WLAN router can do 54Mbit, but iwconfig showed 15Mbit only. I have no idea why, but I am happy that all works well so 15M is good enough

for all my needs.

This setup needs 650 MB on my SD card.

What I learned in these 4 night and days:

* use ubuntu (not Angstrom)

* use saucy (not raring, I did not get it working with raring)

* never use these tiny N150 micro sticks.

Harry

[Harry May]

thanks for all the information.

My way to reliable wifi on the bone took me 3 days and 3 nights, it was a really hard job.

The best explanation was given from Carl Johnson in his first post.

Now, almost one year later, I did it this way:

I do not use Angstrom, it works, but only 1 of 10 times.

Both, Debian and Ubuntu work, I finally switched to Ubuntu because of the more complete repositories.

* download: http://rcn-ee.net/deb/rootfs/saucy/ (the latest image)

* as Carl already told us, I installed the image according this description: http://embeddedprogrammer.blogspot.de/2012/10/beaglebone-installing-ubuntu-1210.html

this page also shows how to test if the Wifi stick is recognized by the system.

Important:

* NEVER usw the N150 Micro-Sticks. These sticks work, but not reliably. 

* The bigger USB stick mentioned by Carl works perfect: NETGEAR N150 Wi-Fi USB Adapter (WNA1100)

to setup the wlan I opened the file /etc/network/interfaces and added:

auto wlan0

iface wlan0 inet dhcp

    wpa-ssid "MYSSID"

    wpa-psk  "MyPassPhrase"

and the same for wlan1 !

For any reason the stick was wlan0 or wlan1, I don't know why, so I configured both.

VERY IMPORTANT:

the bone has a CPU governor which switches the CPU frequency automatically. 

This makes any sort of problems, not only with wifi but also with other applications.

Therefore it must be switched off using this command:

cpufreq-set -c 0 -g performance

Also I disabled HDMI and eMMC in the uEnv.txt file. The command is already included in the original file, just remove the #.

Don't forget to press the boot button on the bone, otherwise it will use the uEnv.txt file from the eMMC.

Now I removed the LAN cable, repowered the bone, and after a minute the bone got the IP via DHCP and

I was able to SSH via wifi. (The LAN cable must be removed, it makes problems if wifi and wired lan is used simultaneously).

With all this settings I wrote a script which copies a 100MB file between the bone and my PC via wireless SSH.

I copied some 100GB of data, without any problems. The CPU load (tested with htop in another terminal) goes up to 100%

during copying, but all works very stable.

The end of the story is:

* don't use Angstrom

* don't use Micro-USB-Wifi-Sticks

[Robert Nelson]

ssh keys are generated on first bootup... It takes some time..

Regards,

--
Robert Nelson
http://www.rcn-ee.com/

[ky...@cranehome.info]

I've had good luck with Arch Linux and the ASUS N10.   I just install wpa_supplicant and from there use the standard netctl profile system and it will connect up no problem.   I gave up on Angstrom a while ago.   Same adapter simply would not run in that and there were so many other issues I just quit trying.   

I put this in /etc/netctl/wlan0-MYSSID

Pre_up='sleep 10'

Connection=wireless

Description='Automatically generated profile by wifi-menu'

Interface=wlan0

Security=wpa

ESSID='MYSSID'

IP=dhcp

Key='thisismysecretkey'

Then it's: 

# netctl start wlan0-MYSSID

If that is successful then:

# netctl enable wlan0-MYSSID

Will bring the connection up at boot

It gets more complicated to handle coming up when it's plugged in or connecting to several networks automatically but I don't need any of that for my purpose.   Also note I have problems getting NTP to run right on wireless.  Takes too long to come up and it seems NTP gives up before the network is available.   I have an RTC connected on I2C-1 though so I never got too interested in solving this.   I just use a cron job and ntpdate once a day to keep things close once the RTC has been set.

All the other small adapters I have tried are problematic.

[rattus]

Give it a couple of hours - it will die. I've tried it with the Edimax EW-7811Un and the Netgear WNA1100 (the biger stick) - same thing.

If you have an Ethernet cable connected to the router, it's less than 30 seconds to a live network connection, either hard-wired or the wifi. I've found that without the RJ-45 cable, wifi takes 3 minutes or so to come up - waiting for the eth0 to respond? 

ssh keys are generated on first bootup... It takes some time..

Seems the delay is the same every time, unless eth0 is connected.

Am I the only one that has both wlan(0 for the Edimax, 1 for the Netgear) and eth0 die after a few hours? AS I am trying to get a headless server set up, it is frustrating...

Mike

[steveb...@gmail.com]

One problem I've seen with BeagleBone is that WiFi dongles seem to get electrical interference problems when plugged directly into the BeagleBone...using a USB extension cord seems to fix that.  AFAIK, this problem causes unreliability in all chipsets...so if you have it basically working - but unreliable - then adding an extension cable might help.  After all, we're dealing with radio signals here - and antenna interference is a big deal.  Most uses of WiFi dongles are OUTSIDE the metal case of a PC or laptop - where the metal helps to shield the antenna from R/F junk being emitted by the computer chips...maybe just putting some distance between the BeagleBone and the antenna helps.

  -- Steve

[Gerald Coley]

http://www.elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack#WIFI_Adapters

Gerald

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[Steve Baker]

Wow...that would have save me a ton of time if I'd seen it before!

But yes...get the WiFi dongle away from the BBB board. Radio signals
reduce in intensity with the square of the distance...so if the antenna is
currently one inch from the BBB's radio interference - then moving it just
10" away will reduce the interference 100-fold, and getting it on the end
of a three foot USB extension cord will reduce it 1000-fold...so it
doesn't take much to make a huge difference.

-- Steve

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[Gerald Coley]

Yep. I can write it. I can put the link on the card in the box. But I can't make anyone read it.

Gerald

[Steve Baker]

Yeah - but I unpacked and installed my BBB ages ago. It's controlling my
"lasersaur" laser cutter - which basically boils down to accurately aiming
a death-ray - which we should admit is a position of extreme
responsibility for such a tiny computer.

At the time, I probably read the card that's in the box because I'm
careful about things like that.

But I was using a wired connection and the BBB ran beautifully and
flawlessly...hardly inflicting hot-laser-death upon even a single small
furry animal.

Many, many months later I needed to relocate the laser cutter - which
required a switch from wired to wireless...and by then both the card and
the box and any memory I might have had of either of them had *long* gone!

I share your frustration at people who don't RTFM...and I'm certainly not
blaming you for any short-coming here. It's just the nature of the
universe and the frailty of human memory.

[Gerald Coley]

WIKIs change, that is their nature. It doesn't hurt to revisit them from time to time.

Gerald