How do we tell Ubuntu 10.04 to use a DIFFERENT wireless radio card?

**coffeecat** · April 25th, 2011

Do not change the MAC address of either of the devices. Look at the thread I link to - specifically post #2 in that thread - in post #2 of this thread. It is very easy to achieve what you want by means of network manager. I described the process in 2-3 sentences. If you find yourself using ifconfig or finding it difficult, you are complicating things.

**rocksockdoc** · April 25th, 2011

I'm a bit confused because I went to a wireless hotspot and it 'still' looked connected to the wisp!

So, the 'driver' or something isn't working exactly right (normally it won't 'show' as connected with 5 bars unless it's actually connected); so something is slightly amiss.

BTW, at a hotspot, which doesn't use MAC address filtering, BOTH the internal wifi card and the external USB wifi card seem to connect.

How can I tell WHICH connection is what I'm actually using?

Googling, some suggest I use the "route" command (but I'm not sure what it's actually telling me yet):

Code:

$ route
...
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
10.120.110.128  *               255.255.255.128 U     2      0        0 wlan1
default         10.120.110.129  0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 wlan1

Others say to use the 'arp' command (again, I'm not sure what it's telling me):

Code:

$ arp
...
Address HWtype HWaddress Flags Mask Iface
10.120.110.129 ether 00:90:fb:45:82:aa  C  wlan1

Since I manually pressed the "disconnect" button for the internal card (wlan0) on the wireless connection pulldown, I 'think' those commands are telling me that I'm only using the external (wlan1) USB wifi extender.

Right?

**rocksockdoc** · April 25th, 2011

Originally Posted by coffeecat

Do not change the MAC address of either of the devices. Look at the thread I linked to - specifically post #2 in that thread

I'm going to summarize (what I can figure out) about the referenced thread:
- My experience with disabling one of two wireless adapters in Ubuntu

Options listed in that thread (some good, most bad):

Locate the on-board wireless adapter and remove it (i.e., this is a bad idea)
Blacklist the appropriate modules in /etc/modprobe.d/
Create a script that would autorun and evoke the "iwdown" command in some way
Create a startup script that turns off the adapter using the "iwconfig" command
Manually disconnect the internal wlan0 in the "Network Manager" each time you connect to WiFi
Edit Connections in the Network manager to only use a single adapter with a specific MAC address

Looking at that suggested last (i.e., hopefully best) option above:

Right click on the Network Manager icon in the main Ubuntu 10.04 top menu bar
Left click on Edit Connections -> Wireless tab
Left click to highlight your desired connection & press the "Edit" button
Left click on the "Wireless" tab & enter the desired MAC into the "MAC address" field
- This option locks this connection to the network device specified by the MAC address entered here. Example: 00:11:22:33:44:55
Left click the "Apply" button
Then, when you start up, the Network Manager should only use the wireless device with that MAC address.

A bit of confusion arises because I am not sure whether to put in the "real" MAC address of the external USB WiFi radio or to enter the purposefully set MAC address (e.g., DEADBEEFCAFE) because my WISP provider uses MAC filtering for authentication.

I can set the MAC address of the external USB WiFi radio to DEADBEEFCAFE using this procedure:

Code:

$ sudo ifconfig wlan0 down hw ether DE:AD:BE:EF:CA:FE
$ sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

QUESTION1:
Which MAC address do I put in the "Network Manager" "Wireless" tab "MAC Address" field?

QUESTION 2:
And, ideally, how do I get that manual MAC-address setting to be automatic upon reboot?

**rocksockdoc** · April 25th, 2011

It looks like a LOT of people have been similarly burned by this Ubuntu bug:
- Ubuntu Karmic 32bit Realtek 8192SU driver
- Realtek RTL8192SU driver compiling issues
- [STAGING] realtek rtl8192su chipset based USB wireless devices fail to work
- Mvix Solido driver (rtl8712/8172) on 10.04
- Firmware for Realtek 8192
etc.

Here's my summary for that thread of the workaround to this Ubuntu bug.

Originally Posted by rocksockdoc

Yesterday, I tried to get an external WiFi radio to work in my Ubuntu 10.04 laptop (effort detailed here):
- How do we tell Ubuntu 10.04 to use a DIFFERENT wireless radio card?

On my version of a ( 2.6.32-31-generic) pristine Ubuntu 10.04 laptop installation:

Code:

$uname -a
...
Linux library 2.6.32-31-generic #61-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 8 18:24:35 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux

At first, Ubuntu would not recognize the Amped UA600 USB WiFi radio adapter when it was plugged into the laptop USB port.

Code:

$ ifconfig | grep wlan   
...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:a0:c3:3a:93:38
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0a:8d:37:b3:ba

First, I determined the device identifier using 'list short USB":

Code:

$ lsusb
...
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:8172 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

Then, in the /var/log/messages (dmesg | tail), I determined what driver Ubuntu was (mistakenly) looking for:

Code:

usb 2-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
r8192s_usb: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned. <=== huh?
 ...
Linux kernel driver for RTL8192 based WLAN cards
Copyright (c) 2007-2008, Realsil Wlan
...
rtl8192_proc_init_one+0x25/0x460 [r8192s_usb]
rtl8192_usb_probe+0x148/0x191 [r8192s_usb]       <==== NOTE: This will be useful for the modinfo command syntax!
...
usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl819xU   <=== NOTICE the "U" (Ubuntu has only the "E")
usb 2-1: firmware: requesting RTL8192SU/rtl8192sfw.bin
...
usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 3
...

Placing that keyword into "module information", I could see the desired driver:

Code:

$ modinfo r8192s_usb
...
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.32-31-generic/kernel/drivers/staging/rtl8192su/r8192s_usb.ko
description:    Linux driver for Realtek RTL8192 USB WiFi cards
...

A quick look in the /lib/modules/2.6.32-31-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless directory shows an "rtl818x" directory with the following contents:

Code:

$ ls -alsF /lib/modules/2.6.32-31-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/*
...
44 -rw-r--r--  1 root root 43176 2011-04-08 16:36 rtl8180.ko
72 -rw-r--r--  1 root root 73640 2011-04-08 16:36 rtl8187.ko

The problem appears to be that Ubuntu is looking for the following location (which doesn't exist):

Code:

$ ls /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU/rtl8192sfw_bin
...
ls: cannot access /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU/rtl8192sfw_bin: No such file or directory

The file exists (rtl8192sfw_bin); it's just in a different location on Ubuntu:

Code:

$ ls -alsF /lib/firmware/RTL8192SE
...
/lib/firmware/RTL8192SE:
total 244
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 75984 2010-12-14 08:26 rtl8192sfw492.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 89616 2010-12-14 08:26 rtl8192sfw74.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 80976 2010-12-14 08:26 rtl8192sfw.bin

Post #35 and post #36 of this thread provided a (different sized, same-named file):
- [STAGING] realtek rtl8192su chipset based USB wireless devices fail to work

Here's what I did to obtain that differently-sized file (I guess I should call it a "driver"):

Code:

http://launchpadlibrarian.net/37387612/rtl8192sfw.bin.gz
    $ gunzip rtl8192sfw.bin.gz
    $ sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU
    $ sudo mv rtl8192sfw.bin /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU/.

Finally, I was able to get Ubuntu to recognize the external WiFi radio when plugged in:

Code:

$ ifconfig | grep wlan
...
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0a:8d:37:b3:ba
wlan1     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr f8:78:8c:a1:45:f4

Now that the driver is finally working, I can get back to the original question asked in that thread:
- How do we tell Ubuntu 10.04 to use a DIFFERENT wireless radio card?

**rocksockdoc** · April 26th, 2011

I tested the setup today from a local hotspot.

I was easily able to tell Ubuntu to use the external USB wifi extender (wlan1) and it worked just fine even when I changed the MAC address of the USB wifi extender.

However, back at home, with my WISP using MAC address filtering, for some strange and incomprehensible reason, I can 'only' be on the Internet with the internal wifi card (with its MAC address changed).

For some strange incomprehensible reason, the driver that I installed to work around the Ubuntu 10.04 bug does NOT allow a connection to the WISP!

I do remember this being mentioned in the bug report but I thought I followed all instructions appropriately and used the suggested Realtek driver in that bug report. Sigh.

So, I 'still' can't connect, at home anyway, to my WISP with the WiFi extender even though I 'can' switch from the internal wifi card (wlan0) to the external USB WiFi extender (wlan1).

Luckily I can (still) connect to the WISP (after changing the MAC of the internal card) with the internal wifi card (wlan0); but the whole point of this thread was to be able to use the more powerful USB wifi extender to connect to the WISP!

I wonder if that makes this problem "SOLVED" or not?

**rocksockdoc** · April 27th, 2011

It appears I'm sailing in uncharted seas ...

Since I couldn't connect with the Amped UA600, I bought a 'similar' looking "ID 1740:9603 Senao":
- Enenius EUB9603 Wireless 11b/g/n Hight Power USB Adapter (2,000 mW, & a 5 dBi detachable antenna)

Plugging it into two available USB slots, nothing happens (as before with the Realtek chips)
"lsusb" reveals it's uses the "1740:9603 Senao" chipset
- Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1740:9603 Senao
"ifconfig | grep wlan" reveals there is no wlan1 external adapter (just the wlan0 internal radio card):
- wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:a3:f8:2e:e7:df
"iwconfig | grep wlan" also reveals only the internal card connection point:
- wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"linksys"
"lsmod | grep rt2" didn't reveal any entries
A search for "1740:9603 Senao" in these Ubuntuforums reveals only a single thread:
- [SOLVED] Engenius eub9703 usb by phoenixpb, November 17th, 2010
I've tried all that was listed in that thread ... but it's not the same situation as that OP was emulating with Wine so he apparently had the necessary drivers (the unit doesn't come with Linux drivers).
So I sent a message to Senao technical support (fae@senaousa.com) from this web page
- http://www.senaousa.com/support.html

It seems that Linux drivers are still in the dark age when it comes to supporting common devices.

Any idea how to get Linux to recognize this external USB device?

**rocksockdoc** · March 27th, 2012

Originally Posted by rocksockdoc

How can I tell WHICH connection is what I'm actually using?

For the record, I ran into this problem again with both eth0 and wlan0 connected; so I opened up a separate thread to get at the bottom of how to tell which NIC is the one that's currently being used by Ubuntu!

How can I tell WHICH connection Ubuntu is actually using? (wlan0, wlan1, eth0, etc.)

**bogan** · March 28th, 2012

Hi!, Rocksockdoc,

I am fascinated by your voyage of nondiscovery.

I had similar problems but cured them with the r8172_usb driver downloaded from the Realtek Site shown in your Thumbnail. It works with both the installed Realtek RTL8191SU card and the USB Dongle RTL8188SU.

They work together and both show in the Network Manager Connections drop down and connect much more reliably than with the r8192_usb driver. So I do not care which is doing the work.

FYI The reason I have both is that sometimes the RTL8191 does not reconnect after Suspend or Hibernate, and plugging in the RTL8188 Dongle prompts the NM to reactivate scanning and connects both { usually! } so I do not have to Reboot.

Chao!, bogan