Banana Pi M2 Pro - possible defective WiFi

[RayKnight]

I have recently acquired a BPI-M2 Pro with what is supposed to be USB WiFi (Realtek RTL8821CU).  I am running Armbian 22.08.7 Bullseye.  armbian-config does not recognize any WiFi.  The output from lsusb -t also does not show the presence of USB WiFi as expected.

 

root@bananapi-m2p:~# lsusb -t
/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-hcd/1p, 5000M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-hcd/2p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M

 

Do I have a defective device, or is the WiFi not actually a USB module?  Is there something else I need to try to enable WiFi?

 

Thanks,

Ray

[Werner]

Providing logs with 

armbianmonitor -u

 helps with troubleshooting and significantly raises chances that issue gets addressed.

[RayKnight]

Output of armbianmonitor -u is now at:

 

https://paste.armbian.com/wotuxihezo

 

Which does have the output from lsusb which doesn't indicate any USB WiFi device. 🙁

[Werner]

Do other USB devices like a keyboard or a stick work on the same USB slot?

 

Try using dmesg -w

and watch output closely when you plug in and out your WiFi dongle.

[RayKnight]

I think you are misunderstanding my issue.  The BPI-M2 PRO has an onboard RTL8821CU WiFi which is supposed to be available on the USB bus.   Plugging in devices on the 2 USB 3.0 Ports and the USB OTG port have the desired results.   The onboard RTL8821CU WiFi just is not recognized.  I'm suspect I have a defective board, but was hoping perhaps I was missing something! 

[Igor]

This is our test device:
 

Spoiler

 ____  ____  _   __  __ ____    ____  __ ____  ____  
| __ )|  _ \(_) |  \/  | ___|  / /  \/  |___ \|  _ \ 
|  _ \| |_) | | | |\/| |___ \ / /| |\/| | __) | |_) |
| |_) |  __/| | | |  | |___) / / | |  | |/ __/|  __/ 
|____/|_|   |_| |_|  |_|____/_/  |_|  |_|_____|_|    
                                                     
Welcome to Armbian 22.11.0-trunk.0123 Jammy with bleeding edge Linux 5.19.16-meson64

No end-user support: untested automated build

System load:   2%           	Up time:       36 min	
Memory usage:  18% of 1.90G  	IP:	       10.0.30.141
CPU temp:      42°C           	Usage of /:    46% of 15G    	

[ Kernel and firmware upgrades disabled: armbian-config ]
Last check: 2022-11-17 18:17

bananapim5:~:% iwconfig 
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlx60fb00480eb0  unassociated  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Sensitivity:0/0  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

 

Full logs: https://paste.armbian.com/qeqisakege (sudo armbianmonitor -u)

 

How do you power this board?

[RayKnight]

I'm powering with a 5V 3A barrel plug power supply.   I'm reasonably sure its not a power issue as it has no problem simultaneously supporting 2 USB 3 thumb drives on the USB 3 ports and an SD card reader via the OTG port.   I see your lsusb output has:

 

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:c820 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 802.11ac NIC

 

Which is what is missing from mine.  So it appears I have a defective board!  Thanks for the quick responses.  Much more helpful than the bananapi forums!

Edited November 19, 2022 by RayKnight

[Werner]

27 minutes ago, RayKnight said:

  The BPI-M2 PRO has an onboard RTL8821CU WiFi which is supposed to be available on the USB bus.  

Ah my bad then. Didn't get that it was onboard.

[RayKnight]

I have both the BPI-M2 Pro and the BPI-M5 and very much appreciate that Armbian is available for them as it is a huge improvement over stock firmware!

 

Ray