Compatible USB WiFi adapters
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Running a Libreboot x200 here with Trisquel 9.0. For many months I have been having random disconnects with my AR9285 wifi card. This problem dates back to Trisquel 8.0. I have wasted many hours trying to resolve this. When the bug occurs, the wifi will not authenticate with the router. The logs show Auth continually timing out. Meanwhile, all of my other machines have rock solid connectivity. I would like to try a mini USB wifi adapter to see if that resolves my problem.
Does anyone have recommendations for 802.11N USB adapters compatible with Trisquel 9?
I only need USB 2.0 on this old machine. Thanks!
See https://ryf.fsf.org/ for some. But beware that the small thumb-sized one has a small antenna (of course - because it's small) while the internal cards connect to antenna in your screen that's much larger.
Since your X200 is already libreboot'ed, the whitelist restriction is already gone. Why do you still want to use a USB wireless NIC when you can simply replace the internal PCIe one?
Please note that, although USB-based ath9k-htc has free/libre firmware, having free/libre firmware is inferior to having no firmware, which is the case of ath5k/ath9k.
Therefore my suggestion is to replace the AR9285 (a rather low-end one) with a better one. If your X200 has three antennae for WLAN (grey, black, white), purchase one AR9380. If only two antennae (grey and black) are available, purchase one AR9382.
Don't be afraid of possible physical damage of mini PCIe slots. With libreboot, you can use wireless NIC on all three mini PCIe slots. All of them have PCIe definition. If you wish (and have enough antennae), you can even install three ath9k cards at the same time.
Thanks everyone.
Another question- I just found a Ralink USB-N adapter in my desk. It identifies itself as a Realtek RTL8191SEvA. I popped it into one of my Linux Mint machines and it worked immediately. I then tried it in my Triquel x200 and it says it needs firmware. Could someone point me in the right direction? Thanks.
There is no right direction, i.e., no direction that would make that chipset work using free software.
I guess the right direction would be not to use that chipset with Trisquel, and to follow the above hints about what to use instead.
> it says it needs firmware
The reason why said firmware is not available with Trisquel is highly probably that it is proprietary. Mint does not let you know about this and uses whatever proprietary blob seems fit.
>"Don't be afraid of possible physical damage of mini PCIe slots. With libreboot, you can use wireless NIC on all three mini PCIe slots. All of them have PCIe definition. If you wish (and have enough antennae), you can even install three ath9k cards at the same time."
Will they combine to give you 3X the throughput?
I can use them for different purposes. For example, I use one to connect to WLAN; use another to create hot spot (sharing connection); and use a third one to do some dirty work (e.g., hammering other's devices).
Some legacy ThinkPad models could have up to 6 antennae (e.g., T400s, X301, X200t, or X200 without camera, all perfectly supported by coreboot/libreboot). It's very feasible to have three ath9k wireless NICs installed.
>"I can use them for different purposes. For example, I use one to connect to WLAN; use another to create hot spot (sharing connection); and use a third one to do some dirty work (e.g., hammering other's devices)."
Yes I know that a person can use multiple nic's for multiple purposes. I've done it many times myself. But that doesn't answer the question - can you combine their throughput on the ThinkPad? I'm assuming not - I'm assuming that you are still just limited to the throughput of one device.
Surely, it can.
For example, both my and my neighbor's apartments have 100 Mb/s of bandwidth. I use one NIC to connect to my AP and another to my neighbor's AP (cracked using Kali), I can get more than 100 Mb/s of download speed, for example 150 Mb/s (~15 MByte/s), with most download utilities under GNU/Linux.
Oh, how interesting...
It is good to support vendors providing RYF hardware: https://ryf.fsf.org
If you cannot afford their prices, you can search "AR9271" on a site such as eBay. AR9271 is, by far, the most common Wi-Fi chipset (for USB adapters) supported by a free firmware, firmware-ath9k-htc, which is installed by default on Trisquel.
Magic Bananas, Thanks. I just ordered a USB Wireless N adapter from Think Penguin. I'll see if that solves my wifi issues.
Since you already ordered one ath9k-htc from ThinkPenguin, then you may temporarily forget the internal ath5k/ath9k.
The cheapest ath9k-htc (AR9271) sold on ThinkPenguin is about $50, and it costs about $1.5 on (my) local dark market.
I'd use USB-based ath9k-htc only when it's impossible to use PCI/e-based ath5k/ath9k (e.g. whitelist restriction, non-standard physical interface, or on-board wireless NIC).
Think Penguin charges $35 for a AR9271 USB wifi device, TPE-N150USB. Shipping, handling & tax cost another $10.
Or you can buy an alleged AR9271 USB from China for $4 plus $5 shipping. Arrival in 6+ weeks unless stranded on a freighter drifting off Long Beach. My Think Penguin purchase will arrive in a few days from Keene, NH.
Update- My new AR9271 USB wifi arrived from Think Penguin yesterday. It seems to work perfectly and my connection is quite a bit faster than my internal ar9285 card. I had one random disconnect this morning, at least according to the indicator applet. The applet showed "trying to connect" for an extended period of time, but I never lost connectivity during this period. After many minutes,the indicator finally caught up with reality and indicated I was connected. I will continue to monitor this for a few days before trying anything.
Congratulations. I've checked the datasheet for Atheros NICs (either PCI/e-based ath5k/ath9k or USB-based ath9k-htc). Agreed, AR9271 (1*2:1) is slightly more performant than AR9285 (1*1:1), provided that you give your AR9271 a second antenna for receiving.
However, I'm very curious about the fact that the vendor sells libreboot'ed computers at so high prices while offering so poor wireless NICs. AR9285 is the second lowest-end ath9k model. It is only marginally better than AR2427 (essentially an AR9285 with n disabled) and is no better than any other ath9k model. (When I sell coreboot'ed computers, I give them wireless NICs no weaker than AR9382 or AR9462.)
As I've mentioned above, although ath9k-htc models (such as AR9271) do have free/libre firmware, they still require firmware to operate. ath5k/ath9k models don't have any firmware, and almost all of them are much stronger than ath9k-htc. It is strongly recommended that you try one of them, e.g. AR9380 or AR9382.
Thanks for the information. I have an AR9565, what do you think about that?
It's among the four weakest (1*1:1) ath9k models: AR2427, AR9285, AR9485 and AR9565.
But freedom is much more important. Besides, non-free firmware in PCI/e NICs (with DMA capability, either wired or wireless) is extremely dangerous.
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