On Fri, 3 Jun 2016, Justin Brown wrote:

  It has to be an older one -- not a brand new one or you run into the same 
problem of having a too-new adapter.

That's not true. It varies device by device. Some new devices have
excellent drivers. Always check http://linuxwireless.org/.

===
Gavin,

Many drivers have debug mode, which will output to the kernel logger
(`journalctl -k` or `dmesg`). It varies by driver, and you'll have to
poke around in /sys to find it, and probably write 1 to a file.
Additionally, putting wpa supplicant in debug mode `-dd` option to
`/usr/lib/systemd/system/wpa_supplicant.service` might get you more
information.


Well, yes and no.  Sure, if you know what chipset you are looking at, etc. you 
can look it up.  But...

1) That list isn't 100%.  I have bought a few adapters after looking them up 
that were supposed to work and didn't.

2) I'm one of those guys that tends to collect computer detritus.  I'm the guy who 
"just happens" to have the HDMI to micro-HDMI adapter in his backpack when 
someone can't hook up their laptop for a PowerPoint presentation.  Just because.  Oh, you 
want a parallel printer cable?  A Zip drive?   I just happen to have one here somewhere...

Folk like me seem to come in two flavors, I've observed.  It's like buying power 
lawnmowers.  I have friends who buy these $1000 push lawnmowers and say "It's worth 
it!  These things will last 30 years if you take care of them," and they carefully 
do all the maintenance things you are supposed to do -- only use ethanol-free gas, keep 
them sparkly clean, sharpen the blades so you could shave by sticking your face in the 
rotors, etc.  Then there's folk like me, who go to Walmart and buy the cheapest damn 
piece of shit that works for $100 bucks.  Then I use it until it fails (usually 1-2 
years) and then go out and buy another.

Which way is better?  It depends on how good $100 lawnmowers are in 2045.  
Because I'll be in Walmart buying a new one, and my friend won't.

Same thing is true with computers.  Some folk go out and buy the $5000 laptops 
because, you know, they are the best and you can keep them for 10 years (I 
actually fell for that in the late 1970s when a selling point for the first 
8-bit personal computers was that the motherboards used gold solder so the 
computer would last 20 years.  I paid an extra so I could get an Exidy 
Sorcerer, I think it was, with a custom motherboard.)  I stopped doing that in 
1980.  Other folk (like me) make a point of buying last year's laptops for $500 
(and preferably a demo from Staples for $300), and get a new one every year.

And the same thing's true for these kinds of accessories.  There are these guys and gals 
who go out and buy the $300 usb wifi adapters and the $200 cables and stuff because, you 
know, that's the "good stuff."  And there's people like me who go on Ebay and 
buy 10 cheap things that are borderline disposable with the idea that if one of them 
works, you're ahead.

And when you do it the second way, you don't always know what chipset you are 
getting.  God only knows what they shove in those little toys they make with 
child slave labor in those sweatshops in Guangzhow and sell for $1.99 with free 
shipping.   However, you do know that if they were selling the same thing last 
year, it's probably old enough so that the current linux drivers support it.  
And if you buy 5 different kinds, at least two will work.

billo
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