BBB WiFi Issue

[rudybuddy]

Purchased a couple of BBB with USB WiFi and can not get one of them to connect to WiFi. Re-imaged a number of times, swapped out USB WiFi, tried connecting to both home and show network. I'm not familiar with logs and was hoping someone could get lead me in the right direction.

[Poporacer]

How about a little more detail of your overall network configuration? You mentioned home and show network? Describe those set ups and how they are communicating with each other? How about screenshots of your network configuration pages?

[pixelpuppy]

What brand and model of USB WiFi adapter did you get?  FPP does not have the drivers to support all the different brands and models that are out there.  Many of them only have windows or MAC drivers, but not linux drivers.

[rudybuddy]

Setup is a pi player w/5 BBB remotes on a WiFi network. Eth(0) static ip is set to a spare router used for initial BBB/pi setup. BBB and EDUP adapter from KulpLights.

EDIT: After playing around with it, slapped on a WiFi adapter from another BBB and it worked.

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[rayster]

The one thing I see most often is people do not change the Driver setting to Linux Kernel. The Linux kernel supports a lot of different devices. If the unit you are using says Linux compatible then the kernel drivers should work.

[K-State Fan]

The one thing I see most often is people do not change the Driver setting to Linux Kernel. The Linux kernel supports a lot of different devices. If the unit you are using says Linux compatible then the kernel drivers should work.

Why is that better then the external drivers?

[Poporacer]

The one thing I see most often is people do not change the Driver setting to Linux Kernel.

That is usually the wrong thing to do.

The Linux kernel supports a lot of different devices. If the unit you are using says Linux compatible then the kernel drivers should work.

The Linux drivers are generic. The External Drivers option uses the drivers that are on the USB device itself and are typically a better option since the drivers are specific to that particular device (but not all drivers on the USB device works with Linux/FPP, so that is why there is the option!)

[Poporacer]

Why is that better then the external drivers?

It isn't as I posted above.

[K-State Fan]

Why is that better then the external drivers?

It isn't as I posted above.

I thought that external was the recommended setting and is how I have all of mine set.

[pixelpuppy]

External versus Linux Kernel drivers:

Its like the unicast/multicast choice for FPP sync.  People like things simple and want to hear that you should "always set it this way".  But the reality is each method has pros and cons.  If one choice was always better or right, then we wouldn't have multiple choices.  Sometimes you just need to try it both ways to find out which is better in your particular situation

External drivers is usually the better choice IF you have a WiFi adapter with a chipset supported by the external drivers.  That includes the WiFi adapters sold on the KulpLights website.  Some ebay and amazon adapters are more generic and may work better with the generic Linux drivers.  The best thing is to try External drivers first and if you're having issues then try it with the Linux Kernel drivers to see if it works better.   There is no harm in flipping back and forth to try each method.

[Poporacer]

I thought that external was the recommended setting and is how I have all of mine set.

Where did you get that information? 


To clarify,
 
External Drivers uses the drivers that the manufacturer of the Wi-Fi adapter wrote specifically for that device and are installed on that device (External to FPP) But not all devices have compatible drivers that work with Linux/FPP

Linux Kernel uses generic drivers that should work with most devices that are compatible with Linux/FPP

Like Mark said, if the chipset has the drivers installed that work with Linux, then that is usually the better option to use the External drivers (the drivers written specifically for that device are usually better than a generic driver). Most of the more popular and readily available devices have compatible drivers installed.

Most devices will work with either driver selected, using the External driver will use the driver specific for that device and might have some performance improvements over the generic driver. But the BEST option is to choose the one that works best for you in your particular situation, and this might not be the best option for others.

[K-State Fan]

I thought that external was the recommended setting and is how I have all of mine set.

Where did you get that information?

I am sure I had asked the question here before but can not search post now.
Page 28 of the FPP 5.0 manual


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[jnealand]

I too tended to set mine to all external based lots of forum comments in the past.  Lately, if wifi comes up ok, I just leave it to whatever it is and I do not even look to see what that is set to.

[Poporacer]

Page 28 of the FPP 5.0 manual

This part? LOL
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[K-State Fan]

Page 28 of the FPP 5.0 manual

This part? LOL
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Yes. Is that not correct?