Alfa Wifi Card In Laptop, Linux Mint 15 - Driver Issues

Alfa Wifi Card In Laptop, Linux Mint 15 - Driver Issues - Printable Version

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Alfa Wifi Card In Laptop, Linux Mint 15 - Driver Issues - 2Wolves - Feb 25, 2014

I have an Alfa USB adapter hooked into my laptop running linux mint 15. I am having driver issues - the wifi adapter only works for 15 minutes, more or less, before it crashes and my local wifi SSID disappears (and I can't connect to anything else).

I have tried following many fixes to no avail such as:

Following :"Jim said you have to blacklist rt2800usb in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf"
More info: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1453549

I have tried installing the driver I downloaded online as well as the driver that came on the installation CD only to receive make errors which I believe boils down to having a kernel too modern for the driver.

The actual model is AWUS036H

ndiswrapper -l shows "netrtuw : invalid driver!"
I have tried other drivers such as bcmwl5 which came as the standard configuration which also had an invalid driver error.

If the drivers I downloaded for this card can't be installed due to complications in the install process, or compability with my kernel, how do I get this card working? I heard there are preinstalled drivers which should work with this card - can anyone point me in the right direction as to which default driver I can use and how to configure the system to automatically use it?

* - bluehat_ - Feb 26, 2014

I would be interested in the output of "dmesg" at the point in time that the driver falls over, it may point us to what is causing this in the kernel...

* - 2Wolves - Feb 26, 2014

lsusb -v shows the Kernel driver in use is still iwlwifi (the driver for the internal card). I just upgraded my Kernel in attempt to fix this, because nothing else has, but I may have undone the blacklist of the iwlwifi driver. I will blacklist it again now.

Here is the dmesg output of grep rtl8187 while the adapter is online

Code 
[   77.463387] rtl8187: Customer ID is 0xFF

[   77.464070] rtl8187: wireless switch is on

[   77.464107] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8187

[  451.333981] rtl8187: Customer ID is 0xFF

[  451.334584] rtl8187: wireless switch is on

[  832.585710] rtl8187: Customer ID is 0xFF

[  832.586565] rtl8187: wireless switch is on

Here is the full contents of dmesg just after it falls off:

Code 
[ 1159.540217] ieee80211 phy2: wlan1: No probe response from AP cc:35:40:35:ab:19 after 500ms, disconnecting.

[ 1159.544208] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain

[ 1159.549271] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:

[ 1159.549274] cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)

[ 1159.549276] cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)

[ 1159.549278] cfg80211:   (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)

[ 1159.549280] cfg80211:   (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)

[ 1159.549282] cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)

[ 1159.549283] cfg80211:   (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)

[ 1161.467953] wlan1: authenticate with cc:35:40:35:ab:19

[ 1161.526228] wlan1: send auth to cc:35:40:35ab:19 (try 1/3)

[ 1161.726683] wlan1: send auth to cc:35:40:35:ab:19 (try 2/3)

[ 1161.930195] wlan1: send auth to cc:35:40:35:ab:19 (try 3/3)

[ 1162.133692] wlan1: authentication with cc:35:40:35:ab:19 timed out

[ 1175.446820] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready

Annnd once I unplug and replug it.

Code 
[ 1261.017444] usb 1-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 6

[ 1265.558751] usb 1-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci

[ 1265.656827] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8187

[ 1265.656835] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3

[ 1265.656839] usb 1-1.1: Product: RTL8187_Wireless

[ 1265.656843] usb 1-1.1: Manufacturer: Manufacturer_Realtek_RTL8187_

[ 1265.656847] usb 1-1.1: SerialNumber: 00C0CA527838

[ 1265.898440] ieee80211 phy3: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'

[ 1265.898913] ieee80211 phy3: hwaddr 00:c0:ca:52:78:38, RTL8187vB (default) V1 + rtl8225z2, rfkill mask 2

[ 1265.916521] rtl8187: Customer ID is 0xFF

[ 1265.917255] rtl8187: wireless switch is on

[ 1268.176838] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready

[ 1268.177596] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready

[ 1271.992496] wlan1: authenticate with cc:35:40:35:ab:19

[ 1272.049106] wlan1: send auth to cc:35:40:35:ab:19 (try 1/3)

[ 1272.051882] wlan1: authenticated

[ 1272.054145] wlan1: associate with cc:35:40:35:ab:19 (try 1/3)

[ 1272.057490] wlan1: RX AssocResp from cc:35:40:35:ab:19 (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=2)

[ 1272.058642] wlan1: associated

[ 1272.058682] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan1: link becomes ready

Edit: I realize it looks like the AP has issues - this is not the case. It is confirmed good on other devices, and this wifi adapter does this with every AP.