Laptops without Ethernet ports and the issue of installing WIFI.

drsnx60

drsnx60

I have noticed an increase in questions of ' how do i install my WIFI' from users with laptops with only WIFI connection.
A machine without an Ethernet port can not connect to the internet if the user cant install the WIFI drivers.
To day the WIFI packages are included on the DVD1 release image, but not on the smaller release images.
There should either be a USB-stick version of the DVD1 release image or the WIFI drivers should also be present on the DISC1 release image and Memstick release image.

This would lower the barrier of entry for users with low-cost laptops , or ultra-portable laptops.
 
Or a better list of USB dongles. Plenty of them based on RealTek hardware that while not ideal, could serve as a bridge during bringup.
I always try to keep one or three on hand for work.
 
drsnx60 said:
There should either be a USB-stick version of the DVD1 release image
Click to expand...
I don't see the point.
It's been years I burnt my last DVD image to an actual DVD and booted a live system or started an installation from it. I simply dd them to a USB flashdrive, no matter if the image is named "memstick", "CD", "DVD", or whatever.
And by now they all worked fine. No difference in usage. In contrary: Today's USB 3 memsticks are faster, and I have to toss no discs into garbage no more. (Beancounter prevention: Yes, I also have and used rewritable discs. today are just dust collectors.)
The only thing I would prefer is there were 1...8 GB sticks to buy for under a buck. For most things I use a flashdrive for 4.7 G is max what I need.
 
Maturin said:
I simply dd them to a USB flashdrive, no matter if the image is named "memstick", "CD", "DVD", or whatever.
Click to expand...
And the announcement page for at leat 15.1R says that explicitly for AMD64, DVD1, Disc1.

I'm not sure if that also applies to other architectures.
 
drsnx60
Hi
Whether a user is a novice or advanced, it is highly beneficial to use the DVD1 image "burned" to a USB drive.
The documentation clearly explains the benefits of doing this and how to go about it : https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.1R/announce/

"The purpose of the images provided as part of the release are as follows:

dvd1
This contains everything necessary to install the base FreeBSD operating system, the documentation, debugging distribution sets, and a small set of pre-built packages aimed at getting a graphical workstation up and running.It also supports booting into a "livefs" based rescue mode.This should be all you need if you can burn and use DVD-sized media.

Additionally, this can be written to a USB memory stick (flash drive) for the amd64 architecture and used to do an install on machines capable of booting off USB drives.It also supports booting into a "livefs" based rescue mode.
As one example of how to use the dvd1 image, assuming the USB drive appears as /dev/da0 on your machine something like this should work:
# dd if=FreeBSD-15.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso \
of=/dev/da0 bs=1m conv=sync
Be careful to make sure you get the target (of=) correct."
Click to expand...
 
drsnx60 said:
There should either be a USB-stick version of the DVD1 release image or the WIFI drivers should also be present on the DISC1 release image and Memstick release image.
Click to expand...
This should be applied to bootonly and mini-memstick images, with non-bootstrap (ports) version of pkg.

And nowadays, physical optical drives become harder to find as before.

So, kinda full-memstick image with ALL pkgs built explicitly for the specific release (excluding anything prohibited by license) would be wanted. Memsticks larger than 4.7GB is easier to find than physical DVD drives with writing capabilities. (Still easier to find than Bluray, though.)
 
At the root of this is the firmware, some manufacturer's, specifically Intel, refuse to allow the firmware on install media. I'm not sure about FreeBSD, but OpenBSD was able to negotiate with RealTek and include the firmware. There are also some older RaLink rt2400 usb dongles rum(4) that do no use firmware. The RealTek dongles are pretty cheap, but you need to be sure you get a supported chipset. Some later RaLink/MediaTek dongles also do not have the firmware restriction.
 
covacat said:
in your router / ap
you just need a cable
and will work even if your wifi is not supported or slow
Click to expand...
As long as the laptop has a physical ethernet port. A lot of them are dropping them so you need to use a dock; a lot are USB-C to network, external video, USB-A
 
MrBSD said:
I use USB tether from my android phone. Works great if you dont have your USB LAN dongle with you. But yes. I agree, drivers should be included.
Click to expand...
For the AMD64 architecture, the 15.1 Announcement page explicitly says you can dd the dvd1 image to a USB device and use it to install. That was pointed above.
As for SLIM laptops, very short cost (walmart nominally $20 to $40 USD) to get a USB "dock" that is USB-C at the laptop, then provides HDMI video, a few USB-A ports and an RJ45 network. I would consider something like that a mandatory accessory for that type of laptop.
 
MrBSD said:
I use USB tether from my android phone. Works great if you dont have your USB LAN dongle with you. But yes. I agree, drivers should be included.
Click to expand...
For the AMD64 architecture, the 15.1 Announcement page explicitly says you can dd the dvd1 image to a USB device and use it to install. That was pointed above.
As for SLIM laptops, very short cost (walmart nominally $20 to $40 USD) to get a USB "dock" that is USB-C at the laptop, then provides HDMI video, a few USB-A ports and an RJ45 network. I would consider something like that a mandatory accessory for that type of laptop.
 
Hi
I cannot use the internal Wi-Fi card on my Dell laptop.
I bought an Edimax EW-7811Un V2 - Nano USB Wi-Fi 4 N150 dongle.
It works perfectly.
The dongle is recognized as RTL8188EU, and rtwn_usb loaded automatically. This chipset is well supported by rtwn(4).

I use it manually when I am away from home.
Example:

Code: 
vi /usr/local/etc/devd/edimax.conf
attach 100 {
device-name "rtwn0";
action "/usr/bin/logger -t devd 'Edimax rtwn0 detected — manual Wi-Fi activation'";
};

I do this because sometimes it was detected merely as a generic USB device.

service netif start wlan0

And I have Wi-Fi.
Scripts :

Code: 
/root/bin/wifi-on

#!/bin/sh

if ! sysctl -n net.wlan.devices 2>/dev/null | grep -qw rtwn0; then
echo "Edimax missing: plug in the dongle."
exit 1
fi

service netif stop re0
service netif start wlan0

echo
ifconfig wlan0 | egrep 'ssid|status:|inet '
route -n get 1.1.1.1 | egrep 'gateway:|interface:'
Switching back to Ethernet

/root/bin/ethernet-on


Code: 
#!/bin/sh

service netif stop wlan0
service netif start re0

echo
ifconfig re0 | egrep 'status:|inet '
route -n get 1.1.1.1 | egrep 'gateway:|interface:'
 
If you don't hesitate to let USB WiFi dongle always connected and want failover to WiFi once wired connection is somehow unavailable, then fall back to wired once it become available, you'd want lagg(4) configured.

Note that, in this configuration (failover mode), both wired and WiFi interface need to have exactly the same MAC address. So at least one of the interface need to have capability to override its MAC address to whatever you want.

I had configuration below in my /etc/rc.conf years ago (already not using for years). Yes, it's old (iwn!). And used at home (failover when I take the computer to another room that wired network is not installed). So same local network.

Code: 
## Network configurations for failover using lagg
ifconfig_em0="up"
ifconfig_iwn0="ether **:**:**:**:**:**"
wlans_iwn0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA"
cloned_interfaces="lagg0"
ifconfig_lagg0="laggproto failover laggport em0 laggport wlan0 192.168.***.*** netmask 255.255.255.0"
 
fjdlr said:
I cannot use the internal Wi-Fi card on my Dell laptop.
I bought an Edimax EW-7811Un V2 - Nano USB Wi-Fi 4 N150 dongle.
It works perfectly.
Click to expand...
Buying an USB wifi dongle is the easiest way, to do it. Since my ASUS laptop's internal wifis adapter wasn't supported by FreeBSD neither, I also bought one of those. Works perfectly.
Then I decided to exchange the internal Realtek card by an Intel one - felt more proper somehow.
To replace the internal wifi adapter is very alike adding RAM, replace the NVME or SSD, so not really that vexed assembly job if you don't have hooves as hands. You'll find foolproof detailed step-by-step installation videos for almost any hardware easily on the web.
1791291923071.png
1791292681353.png


Such an Intel wifi card cost something 15 to 20 bucks.
Chosing Intel for [W]LAN adapters is quasi certain they are supported by FreeBSD.
Tip: Get a plectrum, too. Those are very handy for opening laptop cases scratchless.
 
Maturin said:
Buying an USB wifi dongle is the easiest way, to do it.
Click to expand...

Not really, because you need to find a product that works with FreeBSD. Product descriptions are generally insufficient to figure that out. And changes to the product without changes to the product description are common.

Too bad Intel never put their wifi chips into USB dongles.
 
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