Wireless adapter Belkin F7D2102 does not work any longer

Help and Support Raspberry Pi
1

Hi Everyone, I have been running for years:

  • a Raspberry Pi Model B Rev 2 512 MB (Rev 000d)
  • with Raspbmc and later OSMC
  • with a Wireless adapter Belkin F7D2102.

From the outset, the adapter had worked plug & play like a charm.
Just recently performance was degraded and it completely stopped working (I believe it happened after a recent osmc update - not 100% sure, though).

I tried the following:

  • plugged the WiFi adapter to the other RPi USB port - it does not work (I am using a bluetooth mouse that works perfectly on both USB ports)
  • plugged the Rpi via Ethernet - it works fine
  • at this stage I thought the WiFi adapter was dead. I still decided to try it on a Win 7 PC. After installing Belkin recommended driver it worked perfectly (I am currently posting through it).

What shall I do to get the WiFi adapter to work again on my RPi/OSMC?

Thanks

2

Looks like this has a Realtek chipset, so it is no longer supported.

1 Like
3

Thanks Sam. Indeed found this post when looking even deeper

What would you then recommend? Roll back to a previous version/kernel? (How?) Buy a supported WiFi adapter? (Where can find a list?) Use Ethernet if I can? (A nice cable is currently hanging above my living room, which my wife does not like too much :)) Other ideas?

4

You could downgrade the version, but that won’t be an option forever.
There might be an upstream driver which is suitable for your adapter by then, but this seems unlikely currently.

Sam

1 Like
5

Looking closer in that direction I found this other thread

However, it does not seems to indicate how to go back a previous version.
Where should I look for this?
Thanks.

6

to downgrade the kernel RPi2:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure rbp2-image-4.14.78-4-osmc

1 Like
7

@arnedude, thanks for the tip.

In my case it would be
sudo dpkg-reconfigure rbp1-image-4.14.78-4-osmc
(i.e. rbp1 instead of rbp2), based on what I can see in /var/cache/apt/archives

@sam_nazarko, would you please confirm it is safe from your perspective to downgrade the kernel with this command?

8

This is fine.

9

A better solution for the future would be to replace the unsupported adapter with a supported battery adapter

10

Hi Everyone,

I need further help. Sorry first time downgradind a kernel. See below:

root@osmc:/home/osmc# dpkg-reconfigure rbp1-image-4.14.78-4-osmc
dpkg-query: package ‘rbp1-image-4.14.78-4-osmc’ is not installed and no informat ion is available
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: rbp1-image-4.14.78-4-osmc is not installed

root@osmc:/var/cache/apt/archives# ls -l rbp1-image*
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 19990216 Mar 4 2018 rbp1-image-4.14.15-5-osmc_5_armhf.deb
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 19821622 Mar 13 2018 rbp1-image-4.14.26-1-osmc_1_armhf.deb
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 20189064 Mar 15 2018 rbp1-image-4.14.26-2-osmc_2_armhf.deb
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 20234410 Apr 25 2018 rbp1-image-4.14.34-1-osmc_1_armhf.deb
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 20325096 Jun 7 2018 rbp1-image-4.14.34-2-osmc_2_armhf.deb
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 20398240 Jul 20 2018 rbp1-image-4.14.34-4-osmc_4_armhf.deb
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 20405406 Sep 6 2018 rbp1-image-4.14.34-6-osmc_6_armhf.deb
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 20451942 Oct 28 2018 rbp1-image-4.14.78-2-osmc_2_armhf.deb
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 20465934 Dec 12 2018 rbp1-image-4.14.78-4-osmc_4_armhf.deb
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 19984752 Jul 28 00:51 rbp1-image-4.19.55-3-osmc_3_armhf.deb
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 20338148 Nov 4 02:47 rbp1-image-4.19.55-6-osmc_6_armhf.deb

root@osmc:/home/osmc# ls -al /boot/vmlinuz*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8726456 Jul 28 00:02 /boot/vmlinuz-4.19.55-3-osmc
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8726480 Nov 4 01:53 /boot/vmlinuz-4.19.55-6-osmc

Thanks

11

sudo?

12

Thanks but I am ‘root’ already.

13

You’re aiming to create a situation that is unsustainable, in that you’re going to be stuck on the 4.14 kernel. At some point, something must give. Either you’ll need to upgrade the WiFi adapter – or, better still, upgrade the Pi – or OSMC will eventually stop working on the 4.14 kernel.

As you’ve discovered, the dpkg-reconfigure command needs the package to be already installed on the system. It should be possible to reinstall rbp1-image-4.14.78-4-osmc, since you still have the package’s .deb file, though it’s going to be a bit of a hack. Are you sure you want to go down this path?

1 Like
14

I have the same problem. I am trying to find a list of wireless adaptors supported by OSMC for my Raspberry Pi. Any advice? I tried the Wiki and the Shop without any luck.

Thanks.

15

I don’t want to get any hopes up – but it’s possible we can reintroduce support for some adapters soon in a new update. But this is a stop-gap; and once we move off 4.19, we will be in a similar boat. We are only then prolonging the inevitable; but as Pi 4 will be supported by then, we’ll probably see an ever shrinking user base which need to rely on an external Wifi adapter.

20

Hi Sam - Thank you. Spot on: that is exactly what we need - support for this family of adapters until Pi 4 will be supported. My wife is getting crazy with the cable :slight_smile: To manage her expectations, when can we hope to have a new update meeting this need?

21

We’ve found that not specifying release dates is the best way for OSMC to manage expectations. Sorry.

1 Like
22

There is no guarantee whatsoever that support will be re-added. Please re-read my post.