Many Thanks

Lots of people, myself included, use the Edimax EW-7811UN with no problems, although there are occasional posts from unlucky people who do have problems with them. It is based on the Ralink RTL8188CUS chipset and has been supported 'out of the box' by Raspbian since the September 2012 release of Raspbian.ElectronicsGeek wrote:I am going to buy a Model B Pi very soon, and I have found that WiFi is going to be the only way I can connect my Pi to the internet. I have heard that there are a small handful of WiFi dongles that are actually compatible, for that reason, can anyone recommend a reliable and cheap WiFi dongle, and if possible, explain how to set it up on the Pi.
Many Thanks
Unlikely, since a 'B' with the same power supply works perfectly and the 'A' pulls a lot less current.ElectronicsGeek wrote:I think that might be a power supply problem
You have no problems whatsoever with wireless on Linux? Every time I install a new distro, I have to find the right package for the wireless chipset in my netbook. I have come across only a few distros that give you 'out-of-the-box' support.Theres not much wrong with linux, all the wifi adaptors I've tried with Ubuntu on a PC just work, It comes up with a list of available access points, select one, type in the wifi Key and it goes. The Pi has a couple of problems, its lack of power means that the desktop on the Pi is limited as to what it can handle and so a lot of stuff is left to the command line, it has USB issues which means a lot of USB stuff that works perfectly on Linux on another platform, half works or doesn't work at all on the Pi. Like my sig says.....
I agree, that would be an excellent idea.Seems to me a wizard or some data on setting up wifi dongles would be in order. I can understand pulling too much current can cause issues but it looks like there is a lot of middle ground for versions of board and dongle type types issues and problems aside from things 'browning out'.
Wifi being almost as important as a keyboard and screen it seems to need sorting out.
>>>How about a new line on the Raspi_Config startup setting options anyone ?<<<
~ Andrew
you're doing something wrong there, maybe your distro's are a bit naff like suse or something? i've not bought any hardware in the last decade or so that didn't work out-of-the-box on linux.ElectronicsGeek wrote:You have no problems whatsoever with wireless on Linux? Every time I install a new distro, I have to find the right package for the wireless chipset in my netbook. I have come across only a few distros that give you 'out-of-the-box' support.
Code: Select all
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid xxxxxxx
wpa-psk xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I would hardly call my choice of distros naff, the problem is the b43 chipset in my laptop. Linux Mint XFCE didn't support it until I downloaded a few packages.sej7278 wrote:you're doing something wrong there, maybe your distro's are a bit naff like suse or something? i've not bought any hardware in the last decade or so that didn't work out-of-the-box on linux.ElectronicsGeek wrote:You have no problems whatsoever with wireless on Linux? Every time I install a new distro, I have to find the right package for the wireless chipset in my netbook. I have come across only a few distros that give you 'out-of-the-box' support.
as for wifi you must have some weird netbook as pretty much any ralink, realtek or intel chip will work on linux and that's pretty much all you ever get these days, which is why the wifi dongle's "Just Work" (TM) with the pi.
The GUI 'Wifi Config' utility/wizard already supplied on the desktop could hardly be more user friendly than it is already. However, I can see a case for your idea of putting a wifi setup option in raspi-config as well, for those people who don't ever use the desktop.Bright Sparks NZ wrote:
Seems to me a wizard or some data on setting up wifi dongles would be in order.
Problem is, for every 99 people for whom something (like the Edimax 7811UN being discussed here) works perfectly, there is always one person seemingly with the exact same setup who has problems - so it's difficult for advice to be more than general. It never seems to be possible to state that hardware x + hardware y + hardware z WILL definitely work for everybody.Bright Sparks NZ wrote: I can understand pulling too much current can cause issues but it looks like there is a lot of middle ground for versions of board and dongle type types issues and problems aside from things 'browning out'.
~ Andrew