WiFi Issue (rtw_8821cu)

mossman1120 · December 13, 2023 at 8:22 PM

I am using a Libre Computer Renegade with 4GB of RAM and their GenBasic WiFi 5 BT 4 USB Mini Wireless Network Dongle Adapter. I am running LibreELEC (official): 11.0.3 (RK3328.arm). I set the wireless password via SSH and after doing so it connects however on reboot it does not auto connect. If I use the GUI / CLI and ask it connect it does so. I took a look at the output of dmesg and noticed the following:

Code: dmesg

[   16.512517] input: gpio_ir_recv as /devices/platform/ir-receiver/rc/rc0/input3
[   16.724971] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[   16.725349] NET: Registered PF_BLUETOOTH protocol family
[   16.725389] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[   16.725426] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[   16.725443] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[   16.725512] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[   16.851348] rtw_8821cu 1-1:1.2: Firmware version 24.11.0, H2C version 12
[   17.460090] input: eventlircd as /devices/virtual/input/input4
[   17.501021] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtw_8821cu
[   17.516799] usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb
[   17.544544] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: examining hci_ver=08 hci_rev=000c lmp_ver=08 lmp_subver=8821
[   17.545579] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: rom_version status=0 version=1
[   17.545635] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8821c_fw.bin
[   17.568654] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8821c_config.bin
[   17.570182] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: cfg_sz 10, total sz 34926
[   18.041522] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: fw version 0x75b8f098
[   18.106846] Bluetooth: MGMT ver 1.22
[   19.295490] rtw_8821cu 1-1:1.2: failed to download firmware <--
[   19.303943] rtw_8821cu 1-1:1.2: leave idle state failed <--
[   19.316729] rtw_8821cu 1-1:1.2: failed to leave ips state <--
[   19.316770] rtw_8821cu 1-1:1.2: failed to leave idle state <--
[   19.814325] rk_gmac-dwmac ff540000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control off
[   19.814436] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[   19.843273] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8

Display More

Is this adaptor not supported? Is this a known issue? Thanks.

frakkin64 · December 13, 2023 at 10:43 PM

rtw88 driver had a lot of issues with Linux 6.1, never used 8821cu myself but have seen similar problems with 8822bu. LE12 nightly has a lot of updates for this driver from Linux 6.6, so would suggest trying LE12 nightly and see (it's built on Kodi 21 beta 2, and has been very stable for me).

mossman1120 · December 14, 2023 at 5:58 AM

Quote from frakkin64

rtw88 driver had a lot of issues with Linux 6.1, never used 8821cu myself but have seen similar problems with 8822bu. LE12 nightly has a lot of updates for this driver from Linux 6.6, so would suggest trying LE12 nightly and see (it's built on Kodi 21 beta 2, and has been very stable for me).

Thanks for the tip. I will attempt the upgrade in the next day or so and report back.

mossman1120 · December 15, 2023 at 9:56 PM

So I tried one of the nightly build and it didn't change anything, in fact it might have actually made them slightly worse. The Kodi splash screen has weird colors / distortations and the wireless still doesn't work right. After one reboot I needed to unplug it and plug it back in. On reboots where it showed up it still wouldn't autoconnect.

frakkin64 · December 15, 2023 at 11:51 PM

Quote from mossman1120

So I tried one of the nightly build and it didn't change anything, in fact it might have actually made them slightly worse. The Kodi splash screen has weird colors / distortations and the wireless still doesn't work right. After one reboot I needed to unplug it and plug it back in. On reboots where it showed up it still wouldn't autoconnect.

The splash screen is by design. So, you have to attach logs, so we can actually get a clue what the current situation is. If it is the same, then your problem still exists and if you want to use that USB wifi dongle then you will probably have to get support from the Linux kernel maintainer. If you don't want to do that, then your only option is to buy a different device to connect to your network and continue to play the wifi roulette.

By the way, I have had good results with TP-Link T3U (aka AC1300), which uses the same driver just a different chipset (RTL8822BU). Half the battle is finding a device that actually works with Linux, then other half is wireless itself.

mossman1120 · December 16, 2023 at 4:29 AM

I am going to revert back to stable version and just table the wireless module for now. I do have the ability to connect via ethernet so I think I will just do that instead for the time being.

As far as you know Libre Computer Renegade shouldn't have any issue playing back 4K 60 FPS HDR content running version 11.0.3?