Cannot get WiFi dongle to work - Asus USB-N10 Nano, RPi 2, LibreElec 9.2.8

    Hi, I've just bought Asus USB-N10 Nano Wifi dongle for RPi 2 thinking it will be a pretty straightorward wireless upgrade, no luck.

    I've been battling this for a couple of days now, any help would be greatly appreciated.

    If i go through the LibreElec GUI, there's not Wireless connection found.

    I've tried poking around in the command line, i.e.
    1) loading a module with "modprobe 8188eu", similarly to this thread (https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=12330), didn't seem to do much
    2) "connmanctl enable wifi" - I get "WiFi not available"

    The underlying chip, identifies as 0b05:18f0 ASUSTek Computer, Inc., should be Realtek 8188EUS (according to this: https://devicehunt.com/view/type/usb/vendor/0B05/device/18F0).

    Here's what the system shows in the output, which I collected based on other threads with similar issues:

    Code
    echo "0b05 18f0" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/<module>/new_id

    The kernel probes for USB hardware and the dongle is visible on the USB bus, but the driver is not being loaded; so the driver in that (rather old) 4.19 kernel doesn't support the card. The ^ above approach used to be supported for adding unknown IDs to a driver from userspace but I didn't use it in years so no idea if it still works. You need to replace <module> with the module name. NB: In current kernels (Linux 6.6) the correct module name is "r8188eu" not "8188eu" but this is likely the newer in-kernel module and not some older realtek vendor driver (prob. with a different module name) that might be in older LE images.

    I'd start with a current LE12 nightly image as that kernel should support the card. If you then need to go backwards in time for better RPi2 hardware support move to LE 9.2.8 and retest again. I have no recollection now of what LE release used 4.19 kernels.

    OK, as far as I understand, the module r8188eu is not present on this build (kernel 4.19.127, LibreElec 9.2.8), but 8188eu is there.

    As per your advice, I've tried running:
    echo "0b05 18f0" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/8188eu/new_id

    which gives:
    -sh: can't create /sys/bus/usb/drivers/8188eu/new_id: nonexistent directory

    2) Also, I've found the driver package on Asus site, but that needs building, which I am not sure how to do on RPi:
    https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wirel…B-N10%20Nano_B1

    Pardon me if I'm being a noob here, Linux is not my strong suit :/.

    I guess I'll try reimaging the box with the newest LE build.

    3) By the way, would it be possible to take a driver from the newer Kernel and force feed it to an older one?

    I have reimaged RPi 2 with the last nightly build as of today. No wireless devices show up in the GUI.

    Again, tried poking around the internals, here's the diagnostic output from the command line:

    Well, a quick follow up - I couldn't get the Asus adapter to work.
    Therefore, I bought Edimax EW-7811ULC, because the forum threads seem to have suggested that Edimax will surely work.
    Well, it didn't (both LE 9.8.2 and latest 11.x builds)
    So, I'm giving up on finding a WiFi adapter for RPi2/LibreELEC that works.

    For such hard cases I suggest an Ethernet-to-WiFi adapter. Something like this:

    VONETS WiFi to Wired WiFi Bridge Ethernet/Signal Repeater Mini Industrial 2.4GHz 300Mbps 1 RJ45 Male USB/DC Powered for Monitoring,Electronic Scales,IP Printer,Robots,Medical Devices VAP11G-300
    VONETS WiFi to Wired WiFi Bridge Ethernet/Signal Repeater Mini Industrial 2.4GHz 300Mbps 1 RJ45 Male USB/DC Powered for Monitoring,Electronic Scales,IP…
    www.amazon.com

    The cheaper ones of that site only have 2.4GHz, the newer, expansive ones also have 5GHz. They use the Ethernet driver, so they have to work. :)

    I have a few Apple airport express devices that I use as WiFi > Ethernet bridges to make board testing easier. They're not the fastest things for streaming (but that's true of most WiFi things anyway). The last one I bought from eBay(UK) was about £12.