UPDATE: Attached.
Also see: https://sites.google.com/site/maemo4repo/home

Success!

This thread is about using an external USB wireless card with a Realtek RTL8187 chipset (Alfa 500mW b/g or knock-off) with a N8X0 (N800 or N810).

There are a few old threads such as:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=30542
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=30471
However, I felt rather than bumping an old thread, I would create a new one and post it in General for the greatest benefit of Nokia Internet Tablet users.

I would like to start off by thanking the following users (they did all the work!): paulkoan, qwerty12 and pupnik. Without pupnik requesting the drivers, qwerty12 compiling and paulkoan adding a startup script and so kindly sending me the driver, this would not be possible.

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I'm hosting the archive file with the compiled driver and such:

http://www.box.net/os2008/1/38267044/393254972

perhaps someone can "package" it and upload to Maemo Extras or even nudge team Nokia to add it to a SSU (if we ever get another for N8X0).
I whipped together a quick readme file which I included in the archive. Edit: Updated the readme (re-upped the .zip)
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Unzip the file, chmod a+x the script netup, plug in your set up, lsusb, and install wirelesss-tools and bash and
aircrack-ng and libnl.

I have a knock-off of the Alfa 500mW that I purchased at Defcon for $25.


connected to a y-cable (in this case a male full-size [to N8X0] split to a male mini [to usb device] and a male full-size [to power])



with the "to N8X0" end connected to a male micro=>full-size female USB OTG cable.

Now I should mention the voltage issue. The NITs don't output 5V over usb because the USB host mode is unofficial and uses On-The-Go which is meant for things like flash drives and keyboards. Harddrives, wifi cards, certain memory card readers, etc. may use more voltage than the N8X0 gives (which is far less than 5V). A powered hub (a non-AC one is rare) or y-cable attached to a laptop's usb port, usb => AC adapter, or a 5V lithium usb battery can compensate.

For all that talk about wiring external antenna connectors, why not leave the stock antenna alone? (;

and


# lsusb recognizing the device


Don't forget you can attach other usb devices too (;


I'd also like to mention that paulkoan's script shouldn't be modified. What I mean by that is that if the device is not connected (with proper voltage to be recognized) then /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-1/bConfigurationValue will not exist. It is autogenerated. Instead in /sys/bus/usb/devices you will only see the folders 1-1:1.0 and usb1. usb1 contains a file called bConfigurationValue. I stupidly altered his script to echo to that file. This causes some weird issues - freezes xterm and some usb chargers seem to actually draw power from the N810, oh and it doesn't trick the N810 to allow the use of a y-cable.

@ gmgfarrand

Please see the wiki page (I still haven't gotten the chance to finish up all the methods): http://wiki.maemo.org/Networking_(Diablo)

For use with a y-cable:
and thank Paulkoan, not me, for this script.

For use with a powered hub (either AC or a Brando hub w/ built-in y-cable)
The difference in the scripts is simply the former, issues a command telling the N810 to not worry that it is not receiving a message about how much power it is receiving. Thus if you run the latter using a y-cable it just won't work. If you run the former with a usb hub then you will get more error messages than normal.

Save the appropriate script in the directory containing the drivers you extracted, using whatever filename you wish. and don't forget to make it executable with #chmod +x scriptname. Run as # ./scriptname

Keep in mind sometimes you need to unplug all the cables from one another and back together a few times before the N8X0 recognizes it (you should the USB removable device applet appear as well as few error messages)

In conclusion: this thread, wiki and another thread

Has anyone gotten it to work?

alpha 500mw
N800 (or better even N900)
external battery to power WIFI alpha 500MW

Any pics somewhere?

What do you mean? This works great for me.
Photos and setup in this thread: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=31117

Enjoy.

As far as the N800 goes, everything should be identical except that you need a mini-usb OTG adapter instead of micro. Search "N800 otg" there are a few sites plus ebay.

There are reports that a regular adapter is sufficient with the newest version of the OTG software component but I can not verify.

At this time the N900 does not support OTG and thus not even a usb keyboard will work. The community hopes this changes in the future.

I should also ask, what chipset does your Alfa usb card use? If it is a RTL8187L (detects as RTL8187) then you are golden, the RTL8187B is a crappier version and uses a different driver. lsusb + the model # should suffice.

alpha 500mw = the RTL8187L (AWUS036H 500mw)

no OTG -> U mean that we can't connect the external wifi 500mw? Is that what ur trying to say? For keyboard, bluetooth is fine.

Yes qwerty12 compiled the driver for that card/dongle for OS2008 Diablo. It supports injection and such. The only issue I have is that connecting to routers with it is unreliable (DHCP issue) but I am working on finding a solution.

The N900 does not have micro-usb AB connector nor a USB OTG integrated chip. Thus at this point, no the N900 does not have OTG. However, surely someone will figure out a workaround. I'm waiting for the N900s successor and hope Nokia wakes up for that device.

I mentioned keyboard as a plain usb keyboard uses very very little power. I recently built a usb drawbox but don't have the measurement handy and would have to borrow a multimeter to check. A thumbdrive is another example.

Also I read in another thread that out-of-the-box Fremantle doesn't include a bluetooth keyboard profile (HID). So yeah.

Makes me want to stick to the N8XXs.

http://p7230.homelinux.com/os2008/rtl8187_diablo.zip
I am sorry to tell you that the link is dead

Sorry, it's on my NAS. I have been having internet issues plus the NAS likes to change internal IPs breaking DMZ support. It's up now, sorry about that. If someone wants to mirror feel free.

Anyway it is up now.

Unfortunately while monitor mode works great, lack of a non-Nokia Network Manager (and thus lack of support for wlan1) makes use in Managed (normal) mode is kinda blah. Yes it can be done via CLI but is extremely unreliable and tends to freeze device. I've tried to cross-compile some alternative network managers, but dependencies are many -_-

can i use "alfa awus036h" with n810?

Yes, most definitely. The usb "dongle" pictured is a knock-off I have of the alfa awus036h. I got it for half the price of an Alfa. Anyway what you need to know is that this driver is compatible only with the RTL8187L chipset (NOT the RTL8187b)