using external usb wifi adapter?

[garyed]

I have an old laptop running ubuntu 22.04 release with a very slow internal wifi connection.
I wanted to try an external usb wifi adapter to see if I can up the speed of my wifi so I tried an old usb adapter that I used to use on another ubuntu computer.
The problem is I can't figure out how to get the computer to use it instead of the internal wifi.
lsusb : shows the usb wireless adapter so it is recognized to some degree.
Does anyone know how I can tell Ubuntu to use the usb adapter & disable the internal wifi without physically removing it?

[jeremy31]

Post results from terminal for

lsmod | grep cfg; lspci -nnk |grep -iA3 net

[grahammechanical]

May I suggest? That you enter the BIOS/UEFI settings and disable the internal WiFi adapter. Then Ubuntu may notice the WiFi adapter plugged into a USB port.

Regards

[garyed]

Post results from terminal for

lsmod | grep cfg; lspci -nnk |grep -iA3 net

snd_intel_dspcfg 36864 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_intel_sdw_acpi 16384 1 snd_intel_dspcfg
cfg80211 1327104 3 rt2x00lib,rtlwifi,mac80211
06:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 05)
DeviceName: Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [103c:3577]
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169
07:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter [10ec:8176] (rev 01)
DeviceName: Realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter [103c:1629]
Kernel driver in use: rtl8192ce
--------------------------------------
Here is also the output of lsusb:

Bus 003 Device 002: ID 058f:a001 Alcor Micro Corp. HP Webcam-101
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 148f:5372 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT5372 Wireless Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 25a7:fa67 Areson Technology Corp 2.4G Receiver
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

[jeremy31]

echo "blacklist rtl8192ce"|sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8192ce.conf
sudo depmod -a

Reboot

[garyed]

May I suggest? That you enter the BIOS/UEFI settings and disable the internal WiFi adapter. Then Ubuntu may notice the WiFi adapter plugged into a USB port.

Regards

I tried that but my BIOS doesn't give me an option to disable the built in wifi.
I plan open up the laptop & pull out the wifi card if I can't find a way to do it through the software.
On a side note since your user name is grahammechanical, you might be interested in some of the HVAC calculators on this site: https://www.oceanhvac.com

[garyed]

echo "blacklist rtl8192ce"|sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8192ce.conf
sudo depmod -a

Reboot

That got rid of my internal wifi adapter but now I have no internet access at all from my laptop.
Before I go any furthe, what is the command to take it off the blacklist in case I want it back.
It was usable before but just very slow so i want to try the usb adapter to see if it will be faster.

[jeremy31]

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8192ce.conf

That will unblacklist the driver

See if this gets the USB going

sudo modprobe rt2800usb

[garyed]

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8192ce.conf

That will unblacklist the driver

See if this gets the USB going

sudo modprobe rt2800usb

That did the trick & thanks for all the help.
Before I mark this thread solved, there is a down side that I'm assuming is the fault of either an inferior usb wifi adapter or a usb limitation or both.
It seems my internal wifi would only give about 25 to 30 Mbps & my usb adapter is even worse at about 10 to 15 Mbps.
I know the internal used to go a lot faster but this is the first time I've tried a usb adapter on this laptop.
It might be because it looks like I'm running on usb 1.1 with this old computer.

[jeremy31]

You may want to try unplugging plugging in that dongle and see if it works on its own
I wonder if the speed is the result of wifi power management, it can be disabled with

sudo sed -i 's/wifi.powersave = 3/wifi.powersave = 2/' /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf

Reboot