Connection problems with ThinkPenguin Wireless N USB Adapter about 9 month sin
(I've sent this to ThinkPenguin support, but in the event it is not a hardware issue but something else, I thought I might share it here so people could help me explore other issues that could be at play, and so that if this were the case it would help others. Of course, whenever I can access this forum, it means I cannot repeat the problems at that time, but I appreciate any guidance you can offer and I've referred to this post in my open ticket with the TP folks.)
I'm a previous customer who purchased a wireless adapter for my laptop to switch to Trisquel 7. It has mostly worked fine and I'm grateful to you for helping me make the transition to Trisquel from other less-free GNU/Linux alternatives.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Device: Lenovo Thinkpad x220
OS: Trisquel 7 Belenos
Hardware in question: Wireless N USB Adapter w/ External 5dBi Antenna
(Atheros AR9271) from Thinkpenguin
SYMPTOM: Previously: dropped connections; now: failure to reconnect in a reasonable amount of time
At present, though, I'm having a really hard time with the device. At least once per day, sometimes for periods lasting thirty minutes or more, it ceases to function. I've tried every possible permutation of unplugging and replugging it from the USB port, doing so before or after flipping the wireless killswitch, and so on, to no avail. For the past two months, it has been regularly dropping connections (at least once per hour), and this new issue means that when it drops that connection it almost never reconnects, and I spent between one and fifteen minutes waiting for it to start working again.
ISSUE: Device?
I have of course also rebooted the router and modem when possible, but this happens on every network I connect to: multiple different home networks, university, and work. If there are some commands I can run to produce helpful output for you, or some other troubleshooting strategies I can try, I'd be happy to do so.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to your feedback at your earliest convenience.
Respectfully,
Isaac
One particular oddity is that, roughly half of the drops, the blue light goes out on the wireless adapter but the Trisquel console continues to display wifi bars. The other half of the time, the blue light stays on, sometimes solid, other times blinking, but the wifi signal is completely dropped in the panel and none of the many available connections are visible. In both cases, the connection has been lost, and it takes on average five minutes of physically removing and reinserting the USB before it connects again.
I realize these are superficial symptoms. Since I'm sure there is a command I can run that will produce useful output which better demonstrates what is going on under the hood, please let me know and I'll run the command(s) next time I'm down and post that output(s) the following time I'm back up.
I am a member!
It's most likely one of two issues. There are known problems with libreboot and USB devices. There are also issues with certain USB controllers on some machines. Basically they're flaky with devices of a certain spec/type/class. Plugging the adapter into a different port might work if there are multiple different USB controllers on the machine.
I'd probably suggest an internal card though if you have libreboot. If you don't then you'll probably be locked out of that option. We do have a 34mm PC Card now which should also work fine. That may be a better fit for this laptop. We're revamping our website and so this product hasn't been added to the catalog yet although you can request an invoice if you email sales.
* I won't be responding to further messages here on the forum unless I'm alerted to it in relation to this post.
First, thanks for such a quick reply. (Email alert sent.)
Could you tell me what command I need to run to see if I'm running libreboot? (I don't think that I am -- this was a Trisquelized Ubuntu, though perhaps I ran the additional change.)
If it turns out I am running Libreboot, can I fix the problem by changing that? (On a related note, I believe my device had a whitelist of wireless cards and that in an earlier exchange with you or someone else on the forums I was told to go for this USB wireless card.)
If I'm not running Libreboot, then I don't exactly understand what you were saying before. That the USB controllers of my computer won't work with the adapter? (They worked for the first six months.) That the adapter has been broken by the controllers? That the controller is damaging all adapters I connect to it? (This in response to a point in the email.) I think I just simply didn't understand. I have used many USB adapters, several on a daily basis, for years since getting the laptop and all continue work fine. This device worked fine for the first six months. Apologies for any misunderstanding on my part here. Please assume good intentions, I think I'm just not following you.
I am a member!
I'll try and answer the first question about LibreBoot. LibreBoot is a BIOS that does not normally ship on IBM/Lenovo laptops, but you can get such laptops refurbished with this BIOS software. If you don't know what LibreBoot is then it's almost certain you don't have it. What this means is that you have a BIOS from Lenovo and it uses a whitelist. This means you can't replace the internal card as only the card(s) in the whitelist will work. Generally that would consist of the cards that the laptop shipped with. That would be why you were told to go with a USB wifi adapter instead.
It may not be an issue with the USB controller although the description does align roughly with the results of the issue your describing. But it's still just one possibility that isn't that terribly uncommon. There are many reasons it might stop working. For example it could be your USB ports are worn out. This is also not terribly uncommon. USB ports were really designed to have devices inserted and removed frequently. As a result they can go bad. Changing ports might resolve that sort of issue too.
Internal cards and there ports aren't going to wear out generally speaking as the cards don't get inserted and removed frequently. Doing this though does have an impact on such devices/slots/connectors as well though if you were to insert/remove a card/connector frequently day after day for several months.
Ultimately I'd go with the 34mm PC Card if replacing the internal card was not an option. The 34mm PC Card uses the same highly desirable PCIE chipsets that are used internally. It's just an external form factor now. They are not quite as good as the internal cards, but still, better than the USB option.
Thanks for this, Chris. It was really generous and helpful. I'll look into my options and as always keep ThinkPenguin in mind as a place with various solutions.