Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 20:17:23

I'm trying to get wifi to work through this adapter and I'm horribly struggling. I don't even know where to start, but simply put, whenever I try to connect to any network with wifi-menu, I immediately get a connection failed error.

My device shows up in lsusb and iwconfig and is detecting wifi networks, so I don't know what the issue is with this device. I'm happy to stay on and work through all issues.

Thank you!

EDIT:

when running "lsusb -v", my adapter got the following error: "Couldn't open device, some information will be missing"

Last edited by gterresterial3 (2018-12-12 20:20:01)

jasonwryan · 2018-12-12 20:21:54

What driver have you installed for the device?

Moving to NC...

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 20:25:58

It seems I need the 8192cu driver. I read on a forum that I should run "pacman -Sy dkms-8192cu" to get it, but the target wasn't found. I thought the driver was needed to get the device to be recognized and scan networks unless I'm wrong.

I think I saw the driver that I can install with yaourt but I'd rather get it from the actual repository so I don't have to deal with dkms.

jasonwryan · 2018-12-12 20:26:46

How did you install Arch?

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 20:27:20

I installed it through a usb stick and followed the wiki. Its on a UEFI system.

UPDATE: I just ran "dmesg | grep" and got the following output:

[ 0.184708] Spectre V2 : Enabling Restricted Speculation for firmware calls
[ 3.266115] platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error -2
[ 96.984127] rtl8192cu: Loading firmware rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw_TMSC.bin
[ 1736.401338] rtl8192cu: Loading firmware rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw_TMSC.bin

so it seems I have the driver installed? Is the error message maybe affecting my issue?

UPDATE 2: I checked the wiki and it said to install 8192cu-dkms with yaourt for people who are having issues. dkms says its installed but my adapter still doesn't work. I'm completely lost at this point.

UPDATE 3: I tried going the wpa_supplicant route since I'm trying to connect to a wpa2 network. When I run "sudo wpa_supplicant -B -i $INTER -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant"

I get the following error: "Failed to initialize driver interface"

So at this point there's something wrong with my drivers. Seriously need help and input.

Last edited by gterresterial3 (2018-12-12 20:55:43)

seth · 2018-12-12 21:16:36

You first need to figure what chip is actually in that plastic shell, output of "lsusb"(-v isn't important but the vendor/poduct ID is)

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 21:18:39

seth wrote:

You first need to figure what chip is actually in that plastic shell, output of "lsusb"(-v isn't important but the vendor/poduct ID is)

The product ID is 7392:7811. I don't think this helps because I already know that it needs the 8192cu driver.

loqs · 2018-12-12 21:33:08

Can you post the full output of dmesg please in code tags.

Stratoblaster · 2018-12-12 21:35:19

How do you normally install from the AUR.
There is 8192cu-dkms in the AUR, so try: yay -S 8192cu-dkms

seth · 2018-12-12 21:36:27

Also ensure the interface isn't "UP" before attempting to wifi-menu

ip a

In case it is already up,

systemctl list-unit-files --state=enabled

rtl8192cu is the correct module for that ID and it's part of the linux kernel - please don't follow random advises from probably 5 years ago.

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 21:36:32

[george@archlinux rtl8812au-rpi-dkms-git]$ dmesg | grep usbcore
[    0.611212] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    0.611212] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    0.611212] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    0.769612] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
[    1.920382] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[    3.127420] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8192cu
[  816.580505] usbcore: registered new interface driver 8812au

EDIT: this also might be useful:

[george@archlinux ~]$ dmesg | grep firmware
[    0.184993] Spectre V2 : Enabling Restricted Speculation for firmware calls
[    3.490336] platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error -2

EDIT 2:

dmesg | grep iwlwifi

did not return any output either which is not a good sign.

Last edited by gterresterial3 (2018-12-12 21:46:51)

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 21:47:23

seth wrote:

Also ensure the interface isn't "UP" before attempting to wifi-menu
ip a
In case it is already up,
systemctl list-unit-files --state=enabled
rtl8192cu is the correct module for that ID and it's part of the linux kernel - please don't follow random advises from probably 5 years ago.

I tried these things and no luck with wifi-menu. Also, even if I try to set the interface up it's always down which is really weird.

[george@archlinux ~]$ ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp0s20f0u6: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 74:da:38:f2:df:2d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: enp0s31f6: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 70:4d:7b:2c:c7:e3 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

the device is enp0s20f0u6.

Last edited by gterresterial3 (2018-12-12 21:49:12)

seth · 2018-12-12 21:52:11

Please post the entire dmesg, not random excerpts.
Edit: Notice that the "UP" in the "<>" brackets counts.
If you really fail to bring the device up, load the module w/ "debug_level=5", run "dmesg -w" and monitor attempts to bring the interface up.
(Likely a lot of text, you might want to tee it for reviews)

The reg.db errors are insignificant unless you'd actually attempt to manipulate the reg domain.

Last edited by seth (2018-12-12 21:53:38)

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 21:56:15

seth wrote:

Please post the entire dmesg, not random excerpts.
Edit: Notice that the "UP" in the "<>" brackets counts.
If you really fail to bring the device up, load the module w/ "debug_level=5", run "dmesg -w" and monitor attempts to bring the interface up.
(Likely a lot of text, you might want to tee it for reviews)
The reg.db errors are insignificant unless you'd actually attempt to manipulate the reg domain.

Everything I posted was the complete output. Which dmesg command in particular were you talking about? Also, the adapter does say <UP> in the ip link message, so I guess this isn't an issue.

EDIT:

[george@archlinux ~]$ dmesg | grep rtl8192cu
[    3.150899] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8192cu
[    3.181027] rtl8192cu 1-6:1.0 enp0s20f0u6: renamed from wlan0
[  753.796121] rtl8192cu 1-6:1.0 enp0s20f0u6: renamed from wlan0

So I was an idiot and put iwlwifi instead of rtl8192cu when reading the wiki.

Last edited by gterresterial3 (2018-12-12 21:59:26)

seth · 2018-12-12 21:59:24

No, enp0s20f0u6 is not "UP" (so go for the debug enabled module) and loqs asked you for dmesg in post #8

Edit: where did you "put" it and how's the state of the issue now?

Last edited by seth (2018-12-12 22:00:58)

jasonwryan · 2018-12-12 21:59:48

gterresterial3 wrote:

Everything I posted was the complete output.

You are grepping the output...

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 22:00:07

seth wrote:

No, enp0s20f0u6 is not "UP" (so go for the debug enabled module) and loqs asked you for dmesg in post #8

The last output for ip link was outdated, my apologies. From this output it seems it's up.

[george@archlinux ~]$ ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
3: enp0s31f6: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 70:4d:7b:2c:c7:e3 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: enp0s20f0u6: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 74:da:38:f2:df:2d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Last edited by gterresterial3 (2018-12-12 22:00:57)

seth · 2018-12-12 22:03:17

So since you can bring the device up, try wpa_supplicant, monitor dmesg and log the complete I/O (you may obfuscate the password, but all commands/configs you pass and all output you get in response)

loqs · 2018-12-12 22:05:05

Please ensure you have removed any DKMS or other external module providing rtl8192cu then reboot so the dmesg is showing rtl8192cu as provided by the linux package.
Edit:
Did you bring the interface up or did some service bring it up?

Last edited by loqs (2018-12-12 22:09:26)

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 22:11:26

loqs wrote:

Please ensure you have removed any DKMS or other external module providing rtl8192cu then reboot so the dmesg is showing rtl8192cu as provided by the linux package.
Edit:
Did you bring the interface up or did some service bring it up?

I brought the interface up manually. I uninstalled the dkms package so I only have the drivers from linux itself. I'm going to run through all the wiki steps before wpa_supplicant and post an update.

Last edited by gterresterial3 (2018-12-12 22:11:54)

loqs · 2018-12-12 22:13:08

linux provides usr/lib/modules/4.19.8-arch1-1-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtlwifi/rtl8192cu/rtl8192cu.ko.xz

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 22:18:22

Here are some things that have changed since uninstalling the dkms module and rebooting:

Now dmesg is showing the firmware for rtl8192, don't know if the error will cause an issue.

[george@archlinux ~]$ dmesg | grep firmware
[    0.184142] Spectre V2 : Enabling Restricted Speculation for firmware calls
[  190.806848] platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error -2
[  190.888020] rtl8192cu: Loading firmware rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw_TMSC.bin

My output for this other dmesg command is also much longer, which seems like a good sign. However, I don't see any message saying "loaded firmware", which is shown on the wiki. Hopefully I'm good to go to use wpa_supplicant.

[george@archlinux ~]$ dmesg | grep rtl8192cu
[  190.856671] rtl8192cu: Chip version 0x10
[  190.887922] rtl8192cu: Board Type 0
[  190.888020] rtl8192cu: Loading firmware rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw_TMSC.bin
[  190.890193] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8192cu
[  190.892013] rtl8192cu 1-6:1.0 wlp0s20f0u6: renamed from wlan0
[  190.927573] rtl8192cu: MAC auto ON okay!
[  190.938699] rtl8192cu: Tx queue select: 0x05
[  191.423074] rtl8192cu: MAC auto ON okay!
[  191.433595] rtl8192cu: Tx queue select: 0x05
[  259.370543] rtl8192cu: MAC auto ON okay!
[  259.382620] rtl8192cu: Tx queue select: 0x05

EDIT:

I'm now having issues with wpa_supplicant. Here are my config settings:

ctrl_interface=/run/wpa_supplicant
update_config=1

And this is the error I got trying to run wpa_supplicant:

[george@archlinux ~]$ wpa_supplicant -B -i $INTER -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
nl80211: deinit ifname=wlp0s20f0u6 disabled_11b_rates=0
wlp0s20f0u6: Failed to initialize driver interface

EDIT 2:

Just ran the same command again with sudo, and I think it worked? I'm not sure if there is supposed to be a success message for my device too.

[george@archlinux ~]$ sudo wpa_supplicant -B -i $INTER -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant

I also don't know why this would make a difference, I thought I would get an error flat out if I needed to run with sudo.

Last edited by gterresterial3 (2018-12-12 22:34:28)

loqs · 2018-12-12 22:24:06

jasonwryan wrote:

gterresterial3 wrote:
Everything I posted was the complete output.
You are grepping the output...

gterresterial3 · 2018-12-12 22:26:23

loqs wrote:

jasonwryan wrote:
gterresterial3 wrote:
Everything I posted was the complete output.
You are grepping the output...

What do you mean by this? Was everything that I ran in my last post ok? what commands in particular did I do wrong?

seth · 2018-12-12 22:42:15

wpa_supplicant requires root permissions and you did get an error.
Check "ip l" on whether you now have got a carrier.

Fwwi, you again provided a grepped dmesg…

Arch Linux

#1 2018-12-12 20:17:23

Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#2 2018-12-12 20:21:54

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#3 2018-12-12 20:25:58

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#4 2018-12-12 20:26:46

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#5 2018-12-12 20:27:20

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#6 2018-12-12 21:16:36

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#7 2018-12-12 21:18:39

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#8 2018-12-12 21:33:08

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#9 2018-12-12 21:35:19

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#10 2018-12-12 21:36:27

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#11 2018-12-12 21:36:32

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#12 2018-12-12 21:47:23

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#13 2018-12-12 21:52:11

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#14 2018-12-12 21:56:15

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#15 2018-12-12 21:59:24

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#16 2018-12-12 21:59:48

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#17 2018-12-12 22:00:07

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#18 2018-12-12 22:03:17

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#19 2018-12-12 22:05:05

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#20 2018-12-12 22:11:26

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#21 2018-12-12 22:13:08

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#22 2018-12-12 22:18:22

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#23 2018-12-12 22:24:06

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#24 2018-12-12 22:26:23

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

#25 2018-12-12 22:42:15

Re: Struggling to Get an Edimax EW-7811UN Wifi Adapter to Work

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