I can't see my wifi usb adapter with ifconfig

Question

I am using this raspberry Pi

Architecture:                    armv7l
Byte Order:                      Little Endian
CPU(s):                          4
On-line CPU(s) list:             0-3
Thread(s) per core:              1
Core(s) per socket:              4
Socket(s):                       1
Vendor ID:                       ARM
Model:                           5
Model name:                      Cortex-A7
Stepping:                        r0p5
CPU max MHz:                     900.0000
CPU min MHz:                     600.0000
BogoMIPS:                        38.40
Vulnerability Itlb multihit:     Not affected
Vulnerability L1tf:              Not affected
Vulnerability Mds:               Not affected
Vulnerability Meltdown:          Not affected
Vulnerability Mmio stale data:   Not affected
Vulnerability Retbleed:          Not affected
Vulnerability Spec store bypass: Not affected
Vulnerability Spectre v1:        Mitigation; __user pointer sanitization
Vulnerability Spectre v2:        Not affected
Vulnerability Srbds:             Not affected
Vulnerability Tsx async abort:   Not affected
Flags:                           half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm

I plugged in my AC1200 USB-AC53 Nano Wi-Fi adapter and ran dmesg. The result is:

[    4.698502] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0b05, idProduct=184c, bcdDevice= 2.10
[    4.698556] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[    4.698579] usb 1-1.2: Product: 802.11ac NIC
[    4.698597] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: Realtek
[    4.698615] usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: 123456

I installed firmware-realtek, firmware-linux, firmware-linux-free, and firmware-linux-nonfree then when I run ifconfig I don't see my wlan

eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.31  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::fe91:c019:3887:5f22  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        inet6 fd57:c6e2:9acf:479b:3970:b963:a9ca:1d4f  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        ether b8:27:eb:5e:2b:19  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 154  bytes 32643 (31.8 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 78  bytes 9163 (8.9 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 17  bytes 2111 (2.0 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 17  bytes 2111 (2.0 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Any suggestions to help me with making my wifi works?

Thanks Namir

Does this answer your question? How do I set up networking/WiFi/static IP address on Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS? — Milliways, Oct 10 '23 at 21:44
@Milliways I tried it. I set the wireless country. I still can't find the wireless adapter when I run ifconfig — midnight_rambler, Oct 10 '23 at 23:43
You need to explain what you did. ifconfig (which incidentally is deprecated) won't show an unconfigured interface. ls /sys/class/net/ will show what network devices you have. — Milliways, Oct 11 '23 at 00:56
Start using the command ip and to show all interfaces ip a. — MatsK, Oct 11 '23 at 09:34
@Milliways raspberry@satellite-0:/etc/network $ ls /sys/class/net/ eth0 lo — midnight_rambler, Oct 11 '23 at 13:44
I think there are some Wi-Fi adapters that don't work with Raspberry Pi I tried: 1- ASUS USB-AX55 Nano adapter 2- ASUS AC1200 USB-AC53 Nano Wi-Fi adapter 3- TP-LINK Nano 2-in-1 USB WiFi Bluetooth Adapter AC600 all of the above didn't work. I used an adapter written on it "compatible with Raspberry Pi", it is made by MCM electronics. This one worked. — midnight_rambler, Oct 11 '23 at 20:32

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 19 '23 at 12:43

1

I think there are some Wi-Fi adapters that don't work with Raspberry Pi, I have tried:

ASUS USB-AX55 Nano adapter.
ASUS AC1200 USB-AC53 Nano Wi-Fi
TP-LINK Nano 2-in-1 USB WiFi Bluetooth Adapter AC600

All of the above didn't work.

I used an adapter written on it "compatible with Raspberry Pi", it is made by MCM electronics. This one worked.

edited Oct 19 '23 at 12:43

MatsK

2,791
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answered Oct 11 '23 at 20:34

midnight_rambler

21
4

You can accept your own answer as the correct one. You cannot up-vote it, but you can accept it. This is a good idea because it shows others that you found a solution. – Seamus Oct 13 '23 at 17:12

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 19 '23 at 15:01

I can't see my wifi usb adapter with ifconfig

That's because ifconfig doesn't show all available interfaces, as per the documentation (man ifconfig):

If no arguments are given, ifconfig displays the status of the currently active interfaces.

I've emphasized "currently active", which means, more or less, that they are currently connected to a network and have an IP address associated with them. If you want to see all interfaces regardless of state, use -a

-a display all interfaces which are currently available, even if down

Based on the information in your question, you've tried to ensure the drivers are installed, and most likely the device is working. However, this does not automagically cause it to connect to some WLAN -- for that a configuration and password, etc., are required.

You can also try ifconfig wlan0 if you want just that, although that relies on the NIC being labelled that way (if there is only one wireless device and you are using RpiOS it probably will be, just beware that is not necessarily the case).

I can't see my wifi usb adapter with ifconfig

2 Answers2