#1 2018-11-11 10:07:00

pamir

Member

Registered: 2018-02-02

Posts: 43

2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

In Bunsenlabs, when there is an internal wifi card and an external usb wifi, then neither will connect.

Is there a simple work around to disable on wifi card in OS, or should i just disable the internal one in BIOS?

ohnonot

...again

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 5,592

Re: 2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

why can't you just use the internal?

have you tried disabling it in bios?

also: https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=24

DeepDayze

Like sands through an hourglass...

From: In Linux Land

Registered: 2017-05-28

Posts: 1,901

Re: 2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

Why use 2 wifi cards? What is the make/model of the internal one?

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onlain

Member

Registered: 2016-04-22

Posts: 39

Re: 2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

In Bunsenlabs, when there is an internal wifi card and an external usb wifi, then neither will connect.

Well, I used to do it in BL before and worked fine for me. Could be a module conflict?

Is there a simple work around to disable on wifi card in OS, or should i just disable the internal one in BIOS?

Find your built-in interfaces name with iwconfig. Assuming it is "wlan0", open /etc/network/interfaces and change (or add) it to manual, like this:

iface wlan0 inet manual

save it and reboot or restart network-manager services.

If dont work, the interfaces man page got anothers useful options. Good luck.

Last edited by onlain (2018-11-12 06:35:13)

pamir

Member

Registered: 2018-02-02

Posts: 43

Re: 2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

onlain

Thank you for your suggestion :

iwconfig.

Assuming it is "wlan0",

open /etc/network/interfaces

But that did not work.

I problem solved what it could be. In Helium Bunsenlabs it only works with the internal wifi only, any dongle for wifi will not connect to a ESSID.

I also have Deutrium Bunsenlabs on a older machine and that in fact does connect with a secondary wifi dongle.

I now made a USB boot up with Xubuntu on the laptop that does not work with Helium. That does connect with the secondary wifi dongle.

The problem is that Helium can show other wifi networks on a second dongle, but never connect to a wifi network.

(For the other people asking why I use 2 wifi dongles, well one is internal in a laptop, and the second wifi dongle i use because it is wired to a booster when i have to connect to a wifi router that is further away)

I hope we find a workaround a i hate using Xubuntu !

stevep

MX Linux Developer

Registered: 2016-08-08

Posts: 381

Re: 2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

Sometimes you have to do some extra steps, especially if your hardware is from good ol' Broadcom, or it's newer wifi hardware.

What's in the laptop where the internal wi-fi doesn't work? A lot of laptops have to list the wi-fi FCC hardware code ID on a sticker on the back or in a battery compartment, but if you can't find that, it should appear in the output of lspci, or rarely lsusb.

DeepDayze

Like sands through an hourglass...

From: In Linux Land

Registered: 2017-05-28

Posts: 1,901

Re: 2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

@Pamir what is the output of

lsusb

and

lspci

?

Last edited by DeepDayze (2018-11-14 01:14:21)

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pamir

Member

Registered: 2018-02-02

Posts: 43

Re: 2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

DeepDayze

Thank you. I ran

lsusb

found that usb wifi dongle was RT5372 chipset, which is known to not work.

I found of another thread this solved which was:

sudo geany /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

adding:

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

terminal:
sudo service network-manager restart

it all works fine, phew

damo

....moderator....

Registered: 2015-08-20

Posts: 6,734

Re: 2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

Glad you got it working

Please edit the title of your first post and add "[SOLVED]", to help others who may be searching for a solution.

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onlain

Member

Registered: 2016-04-22

Posts: 39

Re: 2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

Good news, Pamir! Thanks for sharing the solution.

DeepDayze

Like sands through an hourglass...

From: In Linux Land

Registered: 2017-05-28

Posts: 1,901

Re: 2 wifi dongles on laptop and neither work!

DeepDayze

Thank you. I ran

lsusb

found that usb wifi dongle was RT5372 chipset, which is known to not work.

I found of another thread this solved which was:

sudo geany /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

adding:

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

terminal:
sudo service network-manager restart

it all works fine, phew

There you go (takes a deep bow ) and glad to help you get this solved. Yes that RT5372 chipset is rather buggy and the driver itself is not that well written as the firmware is rather not that good either.

Those tweaks to NetworkManager really help resolve many hard to pin down issues with connecting via wifi.

Last edited by DeepDayze (2018-11-17 03:26:56)

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