Wifi dongles on RockPro64

[Dan Kotowski]

> Hello,
>
> are you using wifi USB adapters on your RockPro64 boards?
>
> I'm trying to use one but without success. The device will disappear as
> soon as it is powered up.
>
> Example:
>
> ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev run0
>
> ===================================
>
> run0 on uhub0
> run0: <1.0> on usbus2
> run0: MAC/BBP RT5390 (rev 0x0502), RF RT5370 (MIMO 1T1R), address
> 00:c1:40:61:01:cb
> run0: [HT] Enabling 802.11n
> ieee80211_load_module: load the wlan_amrr module by hand for now.
> wlan0: Ethernet address: 00:c1:40:61:01:cb
>
> ifconfig wlan0 up
>
> ==================
>
> wlan0: Ethernet address: 00:c1:40:61:01:cb
> run0: firmware RT3071 ver. 0.33 loaded
> run0: at uhub0, port 1, addr 2 (disconnected)
>
> It seems it's not a FreeBSD issue. I've tested it on NetBSD and Linux and
> it fails too. The adapter is working fine, I've tested on my laptop. Maybe
> it's an issue related to voltage regulation or some board limitation. So
> I'm curious, is anybody successfully using wifi dongles on this board?
>
> Thanks.

Is the wlan_amrr module loaded? It looks like you may need that.

kldstat -v | grep wlan_amrr

Looks like you may need to load by hand:

kldload wlan_amrr

Or via /boot/loader.conf:

wlan_amrr_load="YES"

If that doesn't help, you may just want to try a different dongle. run(4) explicitly mentions the RT5390 MAC and RT5370 radio, but not the overall RT3071 chip specifically.

I just got a handful of Edimax EW-7811UN dongles for US$15 each which are supported and use the urtwn driver.

https://deviwiki.com/wiki/Edimax_EW-7811Un

https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=urtwn&apropos=0&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+12.1-RELEASE+and+Ports&arch=default&format=html

You can even find them actually sold and shipped by Amazon, not one of the 3rd-party scammers that have been swamping their site the past couple years!