Suggestion for thumb wifi USB for Antix 19.3

[Member Danathar]

Does anybody here use a small thumb USB wifi adapter with Antix? I need one that works out of the box without issues on an Asus EEPC. One that will work with the stock Antix kernel without having to do any odd troubleshooting. The kernels available in Antix will not enable the onboard wifi, MX Kernels do but I’d rather not have to load MX Kernels on Antix just to get it working (updates and all).

Better just to get a itty bitty wifi adapter that will work without hassle.

thanks

• This topic was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Danathar.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Danathar.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Danathar.

[Member sybok]

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Not quite sure which version(s) of antiX have you tried so far.
1) Searching the forum for ASUS EEEPC may help.
The below post mentions that 32-bit antiX 17 works.
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/32bit-antix-and-kernels/#post-55601
2) You may consider loading old(er)/new(er) kernels onto the live USB, remaster/re-base and try the modified live USB.

[Moderator caprea]

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Danathar wrote:

The kernels available in Antix will not enable the onboard wifi, MX Kernels do but I’d rather not have to load MX Kernels on Antix

As long as it has not been tried here whether the MX-kernel in antiX actually solves the problem or the antiX-kernel in MX would cause the error, it is not at all clear that it is a kernel problem.
Could possibly also be a problem with the software for wifi in antiX.

A suggestion would be you first post your hardware here and which antiX is running etc..
inxi -zv7

[Member Danathar]

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I actually have another thread on this in the MX forums.

https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?p=627703#p627703

It’s more basic. The Adapter itself does not present itself when the PCI bus is scanned. Nothing in lspci or any other hardware scanner I’ve used. MX kernel does detect it, Antix kernel doesn’t. Frankly it’s REALLY bizarre. I had thought that even if a kernel driver was not compiled in that at the very LEAST lspci with the right switches would show something as it iterates through the bus, but it does’nt on the Antix kernel. Weird. Nothing in the kernel messages via dmesg, or the logs…it’s like the device does not exist at all to the Antix kernel.

Well, probably not weird. it just means I don’t really understand how devices are discovered and why they wouldn’t be from kernel to kernel.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Danathar.

[Moderator christophe]

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Please give us what caprea requested, copy & paste the inxi output between “CODE” tags, if possible:

A suggestion would be you first post your hardware here and which antiX is running etc..
inxi -zv7

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by christophe.

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member Danathar]

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christophe wrote:

Please give us what caprea requested, copy & paste the inxi output between “CODE” tags, if possible:

A suggestion would be you first post your hardware here and which antiX is running etc..
inxi -zv7

Would you like the output from both the Antix running Kernel and when I boot up MX Linux (for comparison)?

[Moderator christophe]

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That sounds good.

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member Xecure]

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Post the
lspci -nnk
output, so we can also see all devices and device ID (and current kernel modules used/available).

Also, check the dmesg output for errors related to wifi, ath, 802.11 so we can see if the kernel detects the device and if it encounters problems (like missing firmware).
sudo dmesg | grep -i "wifi\|ath\|802.11"

You never provided (not here nor in the mxlinux.org forums) the device ID (or device code) of the PCI wireless card. You say in the mxlinux forum post:

The device on Antix simply doesn’t list at all (no listing for 01:00.0).

“01:00.0” is not the device ID, but just the slot position displayed in lspci. We need the Device ID. Example:
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0034] (rev 01)
This tells me that the device ID/code is 168c:0034, which I can later search to see if there are any problems related to this device or if the driver changes from one kernel to another.
With this we would be able to be sure which is the correct driver module and its availability in the kernel.

Note on “MX Linux kernel works”, MX Linux kernels are simply Debian kernels (sometimes backported from newer Debian releases), but nothing else. If you suspect something is missing in the antiX kernel, install a Debian fallback kernel in antiX and this gives the exact same results as using a “MX kernel”. You can either install it from the package installer (Kernel-Debian_32bit) or from synaptic/apt (PAE: linux-image-4.19.0-14-686-pae and linux-headers-4.19.0-14-686-pae; NON-PAE: linux-image-4.19.0-14-686 and linux-headers-4.19.0-14-686 or newer).

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Xecure.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member Danathar]

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Xecure wrote:

Post the
lspci -nnk
output, so we can also see all devices and device ID (and current kernel modules used/available).

Also, check the dmesg output for errors related to wifi, ath, 802.11 so we can see if the kernel detects the device and if it encounters problems (like missing firmware).
sudo dmesg | grep -i "wifi\|ath\|802.11"

You never provided (not here nor in the mxlinux.org forums) the device ID (or device code) of the PCI wireless card. You say in the mxlinux forum post:

The device on Antix simply doesn’t list at all (no listing for 01:00.0).

“01:00.0” is not the device ID, but just the slot position displayed in lspci. We need the Device ID. Example:
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0034] (rev 01)
This tells me that the device ID/code is 168c:0034, which I can later search to see if there are any problems related to this device or if the driver changes from one kernel to another.
With this we would be able to be sure which is the correct driver module and its availability in the kernel.

Note on “MX Linux kernel works”, MX Linux kernels are simply Debian kernels (sometimes backported from newer Debian releases), but nothing else. If you suspect something is missing in the antiX kernel, install a Debian fallback kernel in antiX and this gives the exact same results as using a “MX kernel”. You can either install it from the package installer (Kernel-Debian_32bit) or from synaptic/apt (PAE: linux-image-4.19.0-14-686-pae and linux-headers-4.19.0-14-686-pae; NON-PAE: linux-image-4.19.0-14-686 linux-headers-4.19.0-14-686 or newer).

Got it! I’ll get on that later on today (both getting the right info and doing the fallback Debian kernel). Appreciate the assistance.

[Member seaken64]

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https://linuxhint.com/linux_compatible_wireless_network_adapters/

I have no idea if that is a good site or not. But I found several sources of info by using a web search engine (google search in this case)

search string I used: wifi dongle known to work in debian 10

seaken64

[Member sybok]

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May be, this Debian wi-fi USB link may help.
If it is related to drivers, output of a modprobe command with appropriate switch(es) might be useful as well.

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi Danathar
I have a CSL stick with dual antenne which I think is same as panda device.
Amazon description: CSL – 300Mbit USB WLAN Adapter mit 2 Antennen Dual-Band – MiMo Technik – Frequenz 2,4GHz 5GHz – hohe Reichweite – WPS – für (for) Windows PC Apple Mac Raspberry Pi Not the fastest but works for me.

And TP Llink TL-WN821N which has up to now worked on every linux box I plugged it in to. Also much cheaper. Available on amazon too.

A tiny TP Link adapter gave weak reception in my case, in the end I plugged it with a high quality usb cable.

[Member Danathar]

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Apologies for taking so long on this.

Antix 19.4 has fixed the problem. Whatever drivers were back ported looks to have fixed the wireless issue.

I wish conman had scrollbars though. I can’t use it because the EEPC does not have the resolution for the page where you put in the passphrase. Had to fall back to command line to get wifi working.

[Member PPC]

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Danathar wrote:

I wish conman had scrollbars though. I can’t use it because the EEPC does not have the resolution for the page where you put in the passphrase. Had to fall back to command line to get wifi working.

I had the very same problem on my netbook – press “alt + K” after entering the passphrase to try to connect… (it’s the shortcut to the OK button on that window).

P.

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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alt + left click was my friend on tiny screens. It allows me to drag the window that is open upwards so I can get to the buttons on the bottom of a open window that is too big for small screen. Learned that trick on my eepc 701sd with a 7 inch screen.

Trick works on big screens also.

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How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

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