Adding USB Wi-Fi to Brume2?

alzhao · 2023-01-12T04:46:27.385Z

Maybe try install a supported WiFi dongle (like old 2.4G only dongles) and install the driver and the config will be there.

razorhead · 2023-07-18T04:04:48.978Z

Hello Could you please link to the USB wifi that worked for you on the Brume 2. Thank you very much. I am trying to get an USB wifi to work with my Brume 2 as well.

ad-d · 2024-10-08T16:20:58.883Z

Hi Alzhao, Do you know what wifi dongles are usable with Brume 2 and if it would definitely bring up the wireless page automatically once a usable device connected and recognised? I have a couple of Brume 2 that I'm now looking to repurpose, would make decent travel router option (is smallest device I own capable of decent openvpn speeds, sadly my AR300Ms whilst perfect travel size are just too underpowered - would be amazing if gl.inet could release an updated version with the same footprint, any wifi (internal) and chip capable of 30/40mbps openvpn as client! - would be the ultimate travel router).

I also have a Brume 1 and have a small RTL8821 device that is immediately recognised once plugged in and works perfectly since drivers for this were added into Brume 1 firmware, I tried it on the Brume 2 though and it doesn't look to be recognised even after installing plug-ins I found that sounded promising (kmod-rtl8821ae (which also installed rtl8821ae-firmware), I later installed kmod-rtl8812au-ct as well (thought I had one of those somewhere but can't find it to test with), has not helped - after reboot wireless page does not appear and wifi isn't usable from Luci either). From SSH to brume 2 my RTL8821 device shows as obda:0811 if that helps.

I know wifi was not part of the brume 2 original use case but I love gl.inet devices as they're so versatile and they're obviously more than capable hardware wise, only missing wifi. The Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) looks to be near identical to the Brume 2, same chip etc but less ram and storage. If I thought forcing GL-MT3000 firmware onto GL-MT2500 would work to get some working wifi drivers of some description I'd do so immediately even if lost half the ram but can't see that working!!?

Are there any known working usb dongle chipsets I can try with the Brume 2 if my RTL8821 (obda:0811) device isn't going to work? I was testing from latest Brume 2 v4.6.4 firmware.

I'm really not looking to buy a GL-MT3000 given I have two spare GL-MT2500 and the GL-MT3000 is huge, the Brume 2 is already quite a large device for travel and GL-MT3000 is significantly bigger than that (not far off some standard home router sizes), it also has flimsy wifi aerials that will just get snapped. The GL-MT3000 is also very expensive where I live, even if I sold both Brume 2 I'd still need a fair bit more cash to get a GL-MT3000 which I'm sure would break soon after. All in all Brume 2 + usb wifi adapter would be a far more sensible choice, just need some help getting it to work.

-> Even if it doesn't get officially supported could an unofficial one off firmware be compiled with wifi drivers in it like the Brume 1 officially got just to help out those of us desperate to get this to work? That would make the gl.inet community very very happy, I've seen a fair few requests and wishes around the net for such a thing. I wouldn't think it would be a massive job to include a very limited few, like the Brume 1 only got three chipsets added in I believe, the same three for Brume 2 would be perfect.

I could keep an AR300M and use as wifi for the Brume 2 (still smaller than a chunky GL-MT3000!) but that's a really inelegant bodge solution I don't really want to try. Taking the Brume 1 and working usb wifi adapter as travel router is also an option but that's not exactly 'small and portable' (AR300M -> Brume 2 is quite a jump in volume already, Brume 1 is even bigger) and I use that for something else due to the extra lan port. Brume 1 is also getting an old device soon to lose gl.inet support, I'd rather have a working solution with current much newer hardware.

Sorry for such a long post but to sum up: The gl.inet community would be extremely happy if wifi could be made to work with Brume 2!

Thanks

alzhao · 2024-10-09T04:39:36.110Z

Thanks for your suggestion.

To make the router small and powerful is always our goal. We have choosen the best solution as we could. If there is any room for improvement we will do it.

Compatibility is very difficult so we'd not to support external wifi dongles. These dongles itself also upgrade from time to time so hard to maintain and support.

I am not saying that we will not do the above. We will do what we can but I cannot give any promises.

mkdr · 2024-10-28T11:11:51.394Z

It is very easy because of using Openwrt to support all kinds of hardware through USB. You could just implement a few usb drivers into update cataloge, which are there anyway already for Openwrt or Linux, like RTL8821 and others. The moment the driver is loaded, you dont need to do anything anymore execpt unhide the Wifi page, edit a few config files.

glinoob · 2024-10-28T18:37:30.975Z

I've used Brume 2 with an unsupported dongle for uplink and it worked great for several days of heavy usage, however, the GLi interface doesn't realize that it has a functioning uplink connection, so certain functions do not work properly. See also A mt76 wifi dongle success

It would be nice if the GLi firmware, on Brume 1 and 2, would at least support having uplink from an unsupported source, in other words, just act like there's a working uplink when there's a working uplink, even if it's via an unexpected device, rather than staying in "No internet connection! Find a network to reconnect" mode.

ad-d · 2024-10-28T19:10:43.666Z

Glad I'm not the only one who sees sense here, no-one is asking for gl.inet to support a never ending list of wifi dongles as seemed to be mentioned - the Brume 1 has a very limited selection of supported dongle chipsets (out the box, within gl.inet firmware) and that's all I was asking for - support for the exact same wifi dongles as Brume 1 would be perfect as then my wifi devices would work with either router. As with Brume 1 the community already understands for anything else they'd be on your own trying to make it work which is perfectly fair but at least give us a chance. Since gl.inet already added wifi dongle support for a limited selection of chipsets in Brume 1 I really can't see why it is suddenly impossible to even consider for Brume 2, seems a very odd decision especially given how often I've seen it listed as a want from the user community - surely a quick win gaining much goodwill from your users with minimal effort expended.

@alzhao

admon · 2024-10-28T19:28:57.211Z

Of course, it would be great if that support were available. But let's be honest: buying a router without Wi-Fi and then wanting to add it via USB? It seems a bit contradictory.

I get where the idea comes from, and yes, it would be a nice feature if the device supported that. But ultimately, GL.iNet has to work within its available developer resources – and there are likely higher-priority issues than adding a function that was consciously left out in the first place.

Somehow everyone imagines software development to be so easy, just because you can achieve what you want with a few lines of code at home.

But this is usually neither reproducible nor tested ...

ad-d · 2024-10-28T19:29:15.435Z

Yes I had seen your post and it gave me some hope, seems for the most part it's working and very little needed from gl.inet to get from what you experienced to genuine wifi support. Sadly the wifi dongle I bought that works perfectly with Brume 1 didn't seem to be recognised in Brume 2 even when I tried installing plug-ins for RTL8821, maybe gl.inet did some extra magic for working RTL8821 in Brume 1 vs the plug-in available on Brume 2?

If gl.inet fixed the wifi page etc but required buying a new mt76 wifi dongle for working wifi on Brume 2 then I guess that wouldn't be the end of the world but it would be an odd choice given original support for RTL8821 on Brume 1 (and pointless hardware purchasing duplication) - gives a much more professional appearance to the company to make consistent choices across models (and if they stick to the same RTL devices for official support then everyone understands where the line has been drawn and stop requests for other chipsets etc which I understand gl.inet not wanting to waste too much time with). Of course if gl.inet fixed the wifi page behaviour etc then those who choose to go deeper can still get fully working wifi experience on Brume 2 using mt76 wifi dongle with the plug-in as you did, all seems perfectly reasonable to me and follows the same path gl.inet have already been walking.

ad-d · 2024-10-28T20:00:14.310Z

If Brume 1 didn't exist that argument could make some sense but given gl.inet already released a device that didn't have built in wifi but then added support for wifi due to very popular customer demand then I can't see it being entirely unreasonable to hope the same could be done for Brume 2 - it literally has the same 'Brume' product name so to say it's entirely doable for the mk1 but an utterly impossible ask for the mk2 is a difficult statement to comprehend.

As mentioned a few times this is NOT a request for major quantities of work from gl.inet, just give us support for a handful of chipsets and then move on, under no circumstances should gl.inet be wasting their time adding official support for a long list of chipsets and updating as new get released etc, that's certainly not what anyone has requested - just that the functionality that's clearly 99% already there given 'glinoob' feedback is basically bug fixed (and then wifi support standardised across products - even that part isn't essential although it would look significantly more professional if they did, chopping and changing support across models isn't a great look and from an eco point of view it's a lot of waste double buying wifi adapters).

As an added bonus by supporting wifi on the Brume 2 gl.inet would have a true portable 'travel' router in their product listing other than the GL-AR300M which is really getting quite old now (everything they sell in the 'travel router' category is such a bloated size I can't see how they can call them travel routers, no way I'd want to carry any of them in my pocket (if they'd even fit) vs an GL-AR300M or Brume 2 which are both significantly smaller). I see there is now a Slate 7 coming but it looks to follow the same bloated form factor as the others with the same flimsy plastic aerials that wouldn't last 5 minutes (if you have to carry it in a case making the carrying size even larger just so it doesn't get easy damaged in transit that's a major design flaw for a travel router), might even turn out bigger than the GL-MT3000 which isn't too far off a small sized home router now. This is all a different debate I guess but for a company that specialises in travel routers it's odd they've stopped making them travel sized (and then neglected wifi on their only travel sized recent product).

alzhao · 2024-10-29T07:03:23.081Z

Thanks for all the suggestions. Currently it is better to use Luci. Luci is designed for compatibility.

mkdr · 2024-10-29T08:03:45.674Z

admon:

But let's be honest: buying a router without Wi-Fi and then wanting to add it via USB? It seems a bit contradictory.

The Brume 2 is a perfect size, perfect hardware with strong ARM CPU, storage, RAM, has great Wireguard performance and so on, but lacks the possibility to add Wifi to it. It would be an amazing travel router if you could add a small Wifi dongle via USB. Way better than all the other travel routers by Glinet. Everytime a new Glinet product comes out I am like oh great, but then wait a second... why does it have a potato CPU again, or why does it lack this or that. Flint 2 is a great example how it lacks Wifi6e or Wifi7 in general. The 4g and 5g routers are all either way to expensive, or have potato CPU with horrible Wireguard performance. If you bring out a 5g router then add a proper CPU which at least can do 1gbit/s Wireguard pass through and have at least 4-8gb emmc and 2-4gb RAM.

Glinet has no other device like the Brume 2 with Wifi. All the "travel routers" by Glinet so far are totally way to big and unhandy to travel with, lack proper hardware and performance, or have other flaws.

At least bring out an updated GL-MT300N-V2 as Version 3, with the same CPU or better as Brume 2, same strorage space and RAM but with inbuild Wifi 2.4+5Ghz. That would be an insta buy, for around $60-80.

Therfor I am thinking of buying a Nanopi R5C Mini-WiFi. It would be nice if Glinet could bring out a device like that. HDMI is not needed though.

https://wiki.friendlyelec.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_R5C

SoC: Rockchip RK3568B2
CPU: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 CPU, up to 2.0GHz
RAM: 4GB LPDDR4X
Flash: 32GB eMMC
Ethernet: two PCIe 2.5Gbps Ethernet
USB: two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports
M2 Slot for Wifi

It could easily be done to bring out a product like this for that price.

hecatae · 2024-10-29T11:42:15.188Z

Yet solutions exist to add WiFi in a similar style to the GL-M2 development board.

glinoob · 2024-10-30T20:48:53.147Z

I believe GLi did expend significant effort to make the RTL8821 chipset work well with Brume 1. I don't know if all their fixes have made it upstream (or ever will).

ad-d · 2024-10-31T00:37:09.867Z

Who knows but if that's the case even more perplexing they'd just throw away all that hard work, the Brume 1 is getting quite old after all and they'll stop supporting it fairly soon I guess.

At the very least can we please have a non crippled firmware from gl.inet that's capable of actually working with wifi? As glinoob has proven even when the wifi device is recognised there's missing pages and other odd behaviour, they seem to have removed things for wifi that work with the other routers and was better left alone.

@alzhao -> There's an op24 version being worked on for the MT3000 which is basically an identical device to the MT2500 +wifi (and that massive outer case of course which is the main problem but chipwise etc it's very close), when the MT2500 gets a turn for op24 can we PLEASE get the uncrippled version with the wifi support left intact?! Since this involves LESS effort than screwing around with it to take things out no one at gl.inet can complain that's extra work, far from it, it saves you time and reduces support complexity since both devices would have basically the same code. That still leaves us with no official wifi chipset support but at least things wouldn't be broken for the wifi chipset already proven by glinoob to work and without missing wifi pages - or better yet tell us what wifi chipset the MT3000 is using and we can try and find devices using that which would work fine.

I remember when the AR300M got released (was it NINE? years ago?) and I was very impressed, bought one immediately, never thought I'd be waiting what's fast approaching a decade from them to release their second travel sized router. The AR300M is still a current product even after all this time because it still sells well - it does so because there is absolutely nothing gl.inet sell that's even remotely close to that true travel size, only thing vaguely close is the Brume 2 which has been sadly neglected (and given some of the deals I've seen recently it probably isn't selling that well?). Who would have thought releasing their smallest travel sized product in many many years and then NOT giving it wifi would have caused sales to be far lower than they would have been? Oh hang on, actually...

I'd genuinely love to be in the room when gl.inet come up with their new product ideas to see where everything goes wrong, someone needs to speak up and put forward the 'shocking' idea that every new product doesn't have to be even larger than the last, is well out of hand now.

beniamin · 2024-10-31T03:40:31.917Z

If I could give the brume1 internal WiFi 5 (similar to AR750), 4 cpu cores (SlateAX cpu), and 2gb ram, 8gb nand, It would be my dream portable device to take to Starbucks.

glinoob · 2024-10-31T04:35:12.199Z

I personally would love to see tacit 'unofficial' support for wifi uplink in Brume 2, even if Access Point mode is never supported. At least to the point where the GLi layer detects that it has uplink and acts accordingly.

I know obviously some people will want AP mode (perhaps including me in the future) but perhaps unofficial quasi-support for uplink is an easier possibility ... it still opens up a new niche for Brume 2 to be useful.

beniamin · 2024-10-31T04:58:59.070Z

It will need both. I don't see client version only. It needs AP mode to be worthwhile.

Most devices don't have Ethernet ports in 2024. Ethernet ports will be eliminate and will only be found on server / network devices.

beniamin · 2024-10-31T17:28:04.477Z

So interesting. If I connect my USB WiFi via Luci as a client, it shows up under tethering.

Screenshot_20241031-1026111080×2400 135 KB

PXL_20241031_1732268922268×4032 1.35 MB

PXL_20241031_1732223682268×4032 1.29 MB

PXL_20241031_1732086722268×4032 1.3 MB

PXL_20241031_1731577592268×4032 1.26 MB

ad-d · 2024-11-01T21:48:10.930Z

Really sounds like we're so close and wouldn't take long to fix the minor bugs (in fact they're probably not even real bugs and actually just caused by gl.inet removing things from the Brume 2 build that it needs, therefore even quicker to solve), I bet they could resolve what you and glinoob have found for it to work as expected in an afternoon if they tried.

@alzhao