ONLY BUY FROM HARDWARE VENDORS THAT SUPPORT FREE & OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE!
(release the sources for their drivers and documentation for their hardware)
“Currently there are only a few modern wifi chipsets readily available that work with free software systems.
For USB wifi devices this list includes the
- Realtek RTL8187B chipset (802.11G)
- Atheros AR9170 chipset (802.11N)
- why is it then recommended/required under this wiki page to install non-free atheros firmware? (a bit inconsistent documentation, Debian?)
- also for the newer Atheros AR9271 chipset non-free atheros firmware is needed?
- (was able to only find one product with this chipset from “Wifi Nation“)
- For Mini PCIe all cards with an Atheros chipset are supported
Wifi has always been a problem for free software users. USB Wifi cards are becoming less free. With the older 802.11G standard many USB wifi cards had free drivers and did not require non-free firmware. With 802.11N there is only one chipset on the market, from Atheros, which is completely free.
One company which specializes in free software and sells 802.11N USB wifi cards, ThinkPenguin.com, has indicated the availability of free software supported 802.11N USB wifi cards is disappearing. Solving this problem will require more demand than currently exists.“
src: https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi
… one just reinstalled (of course with LVM + encrypted partition) the giada f300 (very fine machine unfortunately “they” stopped building it).
screw Realtek, what one wants is should work out of the box with recent Linux kernels on Open Source drivers only:
https://dwaves.de/2019/07/03/recommended-tested-hardware-superb-wifi-wlan-adapter-chipset-atheros-ar9285-mini-pcie-for-gnu-linux-debian-10-ubuntu-and-trisquel-8-0-test-run-on-lenovo-t440-and-librebooted-lenovo-x60s/
(the wonderful galaxy background images are missing if one uses the minimal core version and not the full version (comes with LibreOffice and all))
Even with closed source blob drivers AND the gnome network manager under MATE Desktop one is unable to connect to any WIFI network.
Workaround: “manual” bash terminal connect version BUT the problem is (again) that “network manager” tries to take over control and resets the connection every 10minutes or so.
so if one wants to utilize the manual bash terminal connect to wifi way, which works, even in Debian 10 Buster, one probably needs to uninstall any network manager.
dpkg -l|grep network|grep manager
ii gir1.2-networkmanager-1.0:amd64 1.6.2-3+deb9u2 amd64 GObject introspection data for NetworkManager
ii network-manager 1.6.2-3+deb9u2 amd64 network management framework (daemon and userspace tools)
ii network-manager-gnome 1.4.4-1+deb9u1 amd64 network management framework (GNOME frontend)
so hook up the LAN and use THE debug script(s (one has color (nice! one can instantly spot errors) the other allows one to scroll (also nice…)) to debug the problem.
what have one got?
apt-get install network-manager-gnome cat /etc/debian_version 10.1 root@debian10:~# hostnamectl Static hostname: debian10 Icon name: computer-laptop Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-6-amd64 Architecture: x86-64 dmesg|grep rt2 [ 17.239184] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00_set_rt: Info - RT chipset 5592, rev 0222 detected [ 17.260075] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00_set_rf: Info - RF chipset 000f detected [ 17.275119] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2800usb [ 17.279153] rt2800usb 1-3:1.0 wlx24050fe57825: renamed from wlan0 [ 17.814623] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt2870.bin' [ 17.815256] rt2800usb 1-3:1.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware rt2870.bin [ 17.815268] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Firmware detected - version: 0.36
error message of the day:
wlx24050fe57825: SME: Deauth request to the driver failed
solution:
use terminal based wifi auth (tested)
# install tools and firmware (if not already) # modify to add closed source evil to ones system vim /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/debian/ buster main contrib non-free deb-src http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/debian/ buster main contrib non-free apt update apt install firmware-ralink apt-get install wireless-tools wpasupplicant; # what is the name of one's wifi adapter iwconfig wlx24050fe57825 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:off/any Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry short long limit:2 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:off lo no wireless extensions. eno1 no wireless extensions. iwlist scan wlx24050fe57825 Scan completed : Cell 01 - Address: 98:DE:D0:D6:18:9C Channel:6 Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6) Quality=68/70 Signal level=-42 dBm Encryption key:on ESSID:"TP-LINK_189C" Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s Mode:Master # if it says "busy" try: # (warning: will reset all network connections!) service networking restart # check available drivers wpa_supplicant drivers: nl80211 = Linux nl80211/cfg80211 wext = Linux wireless extensions (generic) wired = Wired Ethernet driver macsec_linux = MACsec Ethernet driver for Linux none = no driver (RADIUS server/WPS ER) # generate passphrase conf wpa_passphrase 'TP-LINK_189C' 'super_long_and_secret_pwd' > /etc/wpa_supplicant/example.conf # connect to wifi wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211 -i wlx24050fe57825 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/example.conf # get ip address from dhcp router dhclient wlx24050fe57825 ping yahoo.com # HURRAY :) CELEBRATION! # remove network manager # (will reset one's connection every x minutes = connection lost) apt-get --purge remove network-manager; apt-get --purge remove network-manager-gnome; apt-get clean; # pack it all into a script vim /scripts/wlan_connect_tp_link.sh wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211 -i wlx24050fe57825 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/example.conf dhclient wlx24050fe57825
or ceni (untested)
apt info ceni
Package: ceni
Version: 2.33-2
Priority: optional
Section: net
Maintainer: Dmitry Bogatov <KAction@debian.org>
Installed-Size: 133 kB
Depends: perl, libcurses-ui-perl, libexpect-perl, libterm-readkey-perl, ifupdown, wpasupplicant
Recommends: resolvconf
Suggests: wpagui
Homepage: https://github.com/fullstory/ceni
Download-Size: 46.7 kB
APT-Sources: http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/debian buster/main amd64 Packages
Description: Curses interface to /etc/network/interfaces
A Curses user interface for configuring network interfaces with ifupdown.
Ceni can manage basic network interface ifupdown configuration stanzas for
ethernet and wireless devices.
more privacy by mac randomization
this seems to be a pretty new feature also introduced to linux, makes sense… additional to this would disable ipv6, because ipv6 hates NAT and wants to be able to identify every single device on this planet.
“Starting in Android 8.0, Android devices use randomized MAC addresses when probing for new networks while not currently associated with a network. In Android 9, you can enable a developer option (it’s disabled by default) to cause the device to use a randomized MAC address when connecting to a Wi-Fi network.
In Android 10, MAC randomization is enabled by default for client mode, SoftAp, and Wi-Fi Direct.
MAC randomization prevents listeners from using MAC addresses to build a history of device activity, thus increasing user privacy.
Additionally, MAC addresses are randomized as part of Wi-Fi Aware and Wi-Fi RTT operations.” (src)
more info:
apt info network-manager Package: network-manager Version: 1.14.6-2 Priority: optional Section: net Maintainer: Utopia Maintenance Team <pkg-utopia-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org> Installed-Size: 11.9 MB Pre-Depends: init-system-helpers (>= 1.54~) Depends: libaudit1 (>= 1:2.2.1), libbluetooth3 (>= 4.91), libc6 (>= 2.26), libcurl3-gnutls (>= 7.16.3), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.43.2), libgnutls30 (>= 3.6.5), libjansson4 (>= 2.0.1), libmm-glib0 (>= 1.0.0), libndp0 (>= 1.2), libnewt0.52 (>= 0.52.20), libnm0 (= 1.14.6-2), libpolkit-agent-1-0 (>= 0.99), libpolkit-gobject-1-0 (>= 0.104), libpsl5 (>= 0.13.0), libreadline7 (>= 6.0), libselinux1 (>= 1.32), libsystemd0 (>= 221), libteamdctl0 (>= 1.9), libudev1 (>= 183), libuuid1 (>= 2.16), lsb-base, wpasupplicant, dbus, udev, adduser, libpam-systemd, policykit-1 Recommends: ppp, dnsmasq-base, iptables, modemmanager, crda, isc-dhcp-client Suggests: libteam-utils Breaks: ppp (>= 2.4.7-3~), ppp (<< 2.4.7-2+~) Homepage: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/NetworkManager Tag: implemented-in::c, interface::daemon, network::configuration, protocol::dhcp, protocol::ip, role::program, use::configuring Download-Size: 2,373 kB APT-Manual-Installed: no APT-Sources: http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/debian buster/main amd64 Packages Description: network management framework (daemon and userspace tools) NetworkManager is a system network service that manages your network devices and connections, attempting to keep active network connectivity when available. It manages ethernet, WiFi, mobile broadband (WWAN), and PPPoE devices, and provides VPN integration with a variety of different VPN services. . This package provides the userspace daemons and a command line interface to interact with NetworkManager. . Optional dependencies: * ppp: Required for establishing dial-up connections (e.g. via GSM). * dnsmasq-base/iptables: Required for creating Ad-hoc connections and connection sharing. address configuration. * libteam-utils: Network Team driver allows multiple network interfaces to be teamed together and act like a single one. This process is called "ethernet bonding", "channel teaming" or "link aggregation". apt info network-manager-gnome Package: network-manager-gnome Version: 1.8.20-1.1 Priority: optional Section: gnome Source: network-manager-applet Maintainer: Utopia Maintenance Team <pkg-utopia-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org> Installed-Size: 6,063 kB Depends: libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.12.4), libayatana-appindicator3-1 (>= 0.4.90), libc6 (>= 2.14), libcairo2 (>= 1.2.4), libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.43.2), libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.10), libjansson4 (>= 2.0.1), libmm-glib0 (>= 0.7.991), libnm0 (>= 1.11.3), libnma0 (= 1.8.20-1.1), libnotify4 (>= 0.7.0), libpango-1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0), libpangocairo-1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0), libsecret-1-0 (>= 0.7), libselinux1 (>= 2.1.9), dconf-gsettings-backend | gsettings-backend, network-manager (>= 1.8), policykit-1-gnome | polkit-1-auth-agent, default-dbus-session-bus | dbus-session-bus Recommends: notification-daemon, gnome-keyring, mobile-broadband-provider-info, iso-codes Suggests: network-manager-openconnect-gnome, network-manager-openvpn-gnome, network-manager-vpnc-gnome, network-manager-pptp-gnome Homepage: https://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/ Tag: implemented-in::c, interface::daemon, interface::graphical, interface::x11, network::configuration, protocol::dhcp, protocol::ip, role::program, suite::gnome, uitoolkit::gtk, use::configuring, x11::application Download-Size: 1,030 kB APT-Manual-Installed: yes APT-Sources: http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/debian buster/main amd64 Packages Description: network management framework (GNOME frontend) NetworkManager is a system network service that manages your network devices and connections, attempting to keep active network connectivity when available. It manages ethernet, WiFi, mobile broadband (WWAN), and PPPoE devices, and provides VPN integration with a variety of different VPN services. . This package contains a systray applet for GNOME's notification area but it also works for other desktop environments which provide a systray like KDE or Xfce. It displays the available networks and allows users to easily switch between them. For encrypted networks it will prompt the user for the key/passphrase and it can optionally store them in the gnome-keyring.
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