 Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me. |
Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Wi - Fi dongles
| Author | Message | ||||
hitsware2 Guru  Joined: 03/08/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 719 |
Are USB WiFi dongles universal ? I . E .... Will this ... Work with this .... ? my site |
||||
| mclout999 Guru Joined: 05/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 490 |
NO! Simply put, it depends on the device and its in-built support of devices, and that is why you must always go to the support forum for your device. You should search for compatibility of anything you want to use with it. Just like we do here for all the MMBasic devices. When I got my first Rasberry PI 2 I had a dozen or so different WI/FI dongles laying around and none of them worked so I had to order one with a supported chipset I found on the Raspberry Pi Foundation site. Edited 2021-10-01 13:33 by mclout999 |
||||
| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4044 |
Do you know why they didn't work? E.g. what happened when plugged in? E.g. what did dmesg show? John |
||||
| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5091 |
As far as I have been able to get this situation is that many WIFI dongles come without firmware. They are simply SOC's without firmware. Reason behind it can be that WIFI is so diverse and under constant development that ROM based versions are obsolete before launch. In linux part of the distribution contains "firmwares" for a set of WIFI chips, famous is the Broadcom B43 chipset, famous for the fact that many versions exist. Most of these firmwares are "binary blobs" and the content is proprietary. Edited 2021-10-01 17:26 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
||||
Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 7938 |
The important point is this: Support for just about all dongles is either already in Windows or is easily available for it. Manufacturers very rarely produce any drivers for any other operating systems (apart from, in some cases, Apple). They won't generally release details for other people to produce drivers either. Linux users have reverse-engineered the drivers of a lot of devices to get generic drivers for the chipset, not for a particular make or model. You sort out what chipset is being used and use the appropriate driver for that. It's not always easy and lists of compatible devices are always out of date. Sometimes linux support is partial, not all the facilities of a particular chipset are used. That's usually because the driver has only been written for the core facilities of a range of similar chipsets. In the true spirit of linux, get a dongle, test it out on one or more systems and publish the results (including any error messages) on a linux forum so that others can learn from your experience! :) Incidentally, the above applies to a lot of stuff! One of the great things about Brother printers is that Brother produce *full* drivers for linux, there's no need to use generic ones. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
||||
| hitsware2 Guru Joined: 03/08/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 719 |
Thank You ( s ) ... I think I ' ll just move this board nearer my router , and consider that before buying any more SBC ' s .... my site |
||||
| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4044 |
Yes... but I thought that would only be for chips visible by the main CPU (i.e. on the mobo or an add-on board but NOT on USB). I don't see how such would apply to the USB kind (as posted in this thread). John |
||||
| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 7938 |
Think of USB (or an expansion port for that matter) as an ordinary serial port. The CPU will try to communicate with the binary blob on the dongle, but unless it knows the correct commands it's not going to work. The transfer over the port should work properly both ways - it's a standard - but the language that the blob understands is proprietary. The driver converts what you want to do into "blob language" and back again. It's no use shouting "WAKE UP!" at a blob that only understands Chinese. :) When a blob is incorporated on the board it will *usually* be supported by the language supplied for that board. It might be a special version of it, but it will probably support the on-board blob. You risk losing that support if you change the language, of course. This is one of the risks if you buy "odd but powerful" boards. It might be up to you to find a language with drivers to support its facilities. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
||||
| hitsware2 Guru Joined: 03/08/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 719 |
I was thinking of USB cameras and/or microphones , which seem to be fairly ' generic ' my site |
||||
| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 7938 |
Yep, they are. That's because they are treated file or audio devices, both of which have Windows standards. It doesn't prevent someone formatting a USB stick in a format that Windows doesn't recognise though - the interface is the same standard but the data is wrong. It can actually be a pig to get some webcams and USB microscopes to work under linux even though Windows recognises them immediately and they are still "ordinary" video devices. If the chipset can't be sorted out you have the blob communication problem. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
||||
| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5091 |
Usb knows device classes. The most well known are HID (human interface device) containing mice and keyboard. Memory devices, such as usb flash sticks, serial ports ( basically a register map of a 16550 uart emulated) but also sound devices. There is a sound device class for a soundblaster16 card, emulated, that is. And of coarse network classes. Most device classes emulate an existing chip, so drivers can be adapted easily from pci to usb. Firmwares that are reverse engineered by the linux community work as far as the community wants to go. On example for many wifi/bluetooth combi chips only the wifi part in available in linux. PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
||||
| hitsware2 Guru Joined: 03/08/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 719 |
Duh ...  ... Forgot the most obvious ...my site |
||||
 Print this page |
 |
The Back Shed's forum code is written, and hosted, in Australia. | © JAQ Software 2025 |
