Arch Linux

skanur

Member

Registered: 2014-07-14

Posts: 3

USB Wifi-Adapter not detected

Hi,

I have trouble using my new usb-wifi adapter with my laptop. I'm at my wits end and would really appreciate some help. Thanks in advance

tldr - "USB-Wifi Adapter DWA-171 is not detected on Macbook Pro 8.1 early 2011 laptop running ARCH 3.16.4-1"

Details:

Symptoms:
1. lsusb does not list the usb device
2. dmesg | grep usbcore shows new device registered with interface driver rtl8812au
3. lsmod | grep 8812au shows the driver loaded
4. The device itself does not turn on. (Led on the adapter does not blink when plugged in laptop)

Laptop: Macbook Pro 8.1 early 2011 edition
OS & related softwares: Arch 3.16.4-1 using Awesome WM only
Network: Network Manager with dhcpd and nm-applet

Adapter works?
Yes. I have checked it working on a desktop running Manjaro Linux with kernel 3.12

Installed drivers?
Yes. I have installed https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au drivers. Works perfectly on destop with Manjaro linux, but not on my laptop.

I have run udevadm and udiskctl utilities to see if it is detected when plugging in/out. No avail. Any leads to how I can go about debugging this?

nomorewindows

Member

Registered: 2010-04-03

Posts: 3,375

Re: USB Wifi-Adapter not detected

Why don't you use the AUR package so that pacman can manage it?  Does dmesg report any firmware messages?

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I may have to CONSOLE you about your usage of ridiculously easy graphical interfaces...
Look ma, no mouse.

skanur

Member

Registered: 2014-07-14

Posts: 3

Re: USB Wifi-Adapter not detected

Why don't you use the AUR package so that pacman can manage it?

Yes, my mistake. I switched to AUR for that package now. Thanks!!

Does dmesg report any firmware messages?

Yes. But its related to my wifi card. Nothing related to usb.

$ dmesg|grep firmware
[   30.350422] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)

nomorewindows

Member

Registered: 2010-04-03

Posts: 3,375

Re: USB Wifi-Adapter not detected

Try linux-lts to see if pops up again.

---

I may have to CONSOLE you about your usage of ridiculously easy graphical interfaces...
Look ma, no mouse.

skanur

Member

Registered: 2014-07-14

Posts: 3

Re: USB Wifi-Adapter not detected

Thanks for the reply! Tried 3.14 lts

uname -a
Linux sudMacArch 3.14.21-1-lts #1 SMP Fri Oct 10 16:22:00 UTC 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux

But no difference . lsusb still does not detect the adapter.

nomorewindows

Member

Registered: 2010-04-03

Posts: 3,375

Re: USB Wifi-Adapter not detected

Does dmesg show usb messages?  It probably won't show anything but that a usb device has (dis)connected.

---

I may have to CONSOLE you about your usage of ridiculously easy graphical interfaces...
Look ma, no mouse.

ginaux

Member

Registered: 2014-10-15

Posts: 2

Re: USB Wifi-Adapter not detected

My money is on power-saving modes shutting off the device, that has caused USB devices to not show up for me in the past.

Plug in your AC adapter and see if that makes any change, or look at your LaptopModeTools or TLP configuration, both have a usb powersave mode blacklist.