This article is designate for people which want use USB Wi-Fi adapter on QNAP NAS and doesn’t have officially supported adapter for any reason. SSH/telnet service should be enabled on box and basic Linux knowledge is suppose.
Manually configure Wi-Fi adapter
I check supported Wi-Fi adapters on QNAP web site and all use various Ralink chipsets. This mean that in system are drivers supported different Ralink chipsets and the Linux drivers are independent on vendors in this case. Use http://www.wikidevi.com to get info about chipsets in the USB Wi-Fi adapters before buying.
List all recognized connected USB devices. One of them will be your USB Wi-Fi adapter which contains Ralink in name and version of chipset:
[~] # lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 148f:5370 Ralink Technology, Corp.
I have TP-Link TL-WN727N v3 with chipset Ralink 5370.
List the directory with kernel modules. There should be modules for most of Ralink chipsets:
[~] # ls /lib/modules/others/ | grep rt
rt2870sta.ko
rt3070sta.ko
rt3572sta.ko
rt5370sta.ko
There is also according configuration files, e.g. form my Ralink 5370 is:
/lib/modules/others/RT5370STA.dat
Try to find match of your chipset and rt<chipset-name>sta.ko module.
Next step is find value of parameter assign to your chipset in the file:
/etc/hotplug/usb.agent
Use script with founded parameter to run the correct module:
[~] # /etc/init.d/wireless_modules.sh start WIFI_RT5370
You can check if module is loaded and working:
[~] # lsmod | grep rt
rt5370sta 778643 1 - Live 0xbf4fa000
Finally manually start Wi-Fi application:
[~] # /etc/init.d/wireless.sh restart
In QNAP administration page should be visible in „Wi-Fi Network Connection“ panel with your Wi-Fi adapter now. You can create network profile, configure connection, change IP etc. now. For more info about configuration go to official QNAP manual page http://docs.qnap.com/nas/en/index.html?network.htm.
Configuration of wireless networks are stored in:
/etc/config/wireless.conf
How to setup automatic detection
You have to modify file /etc/init.d/usb_device_check.sh for automatically detection of USB Wi-Fi adapter after start.
My USB adapter has VendorID=148f and ProductID=5370. I modify following lines in script file:
RT5370_Vid=(2001 148f)
RT5370_Pid=(3c19 5370)
Edited usb_device_check.sh is valid until system restart. You have to create or edit script to modify and start usb_device_check.sh during system boot. You can add to some QPKG module start-up script following line to modify USB device check:
#### modify and start USB device check
sed -i 's/RT5370_Vid=(.*)/RT5370_Vid=(2001 148f)/g' /etc/init.d/usb_device_check.sh
sed -i 's/RT5370_Pid=(.*)/RT5370_Pid=(3c19 5370)/g' /etc/init.d/usb_device_check.sh
/etc/init.d/usb_device_check.sh
#### modify and start USB device check
Now QNAP recognize my device after restart and WI-FI is fully working.
HI I tried to check lsusb amd it give me this
[~] # lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0411:01fd MelCo., Inc.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
my usb dongle is a buffalo WLI-UC-G450-EU and on wiki there is no chipset displayed…
is there any other way to make this usb dongle work ?
thanks a lot!
Hi, if you follow the http://www.wikidevi.com/wiki/Buffalo_WLI-UC-G450, you can find the info about possible chipsets – rt2800usb (in compat-wireless) or rt2870sta. Now it’s on you to try drivers for this chipset and try if it will works.
😛 Great write up, I had the same chipset and it worked perfectly. Thank you
Hi, i’m trying to solve the issue with my adapted, Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. ,can you help me to solve?The adapter is not recognized by the nas…
[~] # ls /lib/modules/others/ | grep rt
rt2870.bin
Thanks.
QNAP has in implemented only driver for Ralink chipsets. You adapter has Realtek chipset and QNAP doesn’t have driver for this vendor.