Want to know if my WiFi and Bluetooth is supported

[bsd007]

Hi,
I had no other choice but to leave OpenBSD coz I had purchased a usb WiFi dongle that was not supported by OpenBSD.

I have purchased a new usb WiFi dongle. This is my new WiFi

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter

I tested thing WiFi dongle using the live mode of GhostBSD and it worked out of the box but my bluetooth was not detected. I cant manage without Bluetooth connectivity.

This is my Bluetooth hardware :

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

OpenBSD doesn't have a live mode like GhostBSD otherwise I would have tested my hardware myself.

[jggimi]

Bluetooth is not available with OpenBSD. BT audio dongles can be used only if they present as an audio device rather than as a BT device: https://jcs.org/2020/11/18/openbsd_btaudio


The RTL8188EUS is recognized by the urtwn(4) driver in /sys/dev/usb/if_urtwn.c, but the best way to know if the chipset works for certain is to test it. To test, install the OS onto a spare drive such as a USB stick, and either obtain the third party firmware through a different NIC or download the firmware package in advance of the install and manually install it with the -p option of fw_update(8).

[bsd007]

Originally Posted by jggimi

Bluetooth is not available with OpenBSD. BT audio dongles can be used only if they present as an audio device rather than as a BT device: https://jcs.org/2020/11/18/openbsd_btaudio

I rarely transfer any files using bluetooth. I pair my BT headphone & listen to music & watch movies. If OpenBSD can do this I will be more than happy.

Originally Posted by jggimi

The RTL8188EUS is recognized by the urtwn(4) driver in /sys/dev/usb/if_urtwn.c, but the best way to know if the chipset works for certain is to test it. To test, install the OS onto a spare drive such as a USB stick, and either obtain the third party firmware through a different NIC or download the firmware package in advance of the install and manually install it with the -p option of fw_update(8).

Before I do the test let me ask something. You mean my WiFi is not supported out of the box? To make it work I need to (a) gain connectivity by some other means & then (b) download the driver & (c) finally install it ?

[bsd007]

@jggimi
Sorry I misunderstood what you meant by BT audio dongles.

Does GhostBSD which as you know is based on FreeBSD has this same issue ?
I am not sure if FreeBSD lacks BT support or its just a matter of installing bluetooth related packages.
When I say packages I mean packages which help in connecting devices using BT. Please see attachment. I am not talking about drivers.

[jggimi]

Originally Posted by bsd007

You mean my WiFi is not supported out of the box?

I am uncertain, as the man page does not list the specific chipset. This is why I suggested testing.

To make it work I need to (a) gain connectivity by some other means & then (b) download the driver & (c) finally install it ?

Realtek hardware requires Realtek firmware be loaded into the hardware by the operating system in order to function. Realtek does not license their firmware so that it can be distributed as a "built-in" firmware module for OpenBSD. It must be installed separately. So yes, you must either have an alternate NIC (such as wired Ethernet or a Wifi dongle that loads its own firmware from its own on-device storage at power-on) in order to download the firmware after installation, or you must download the firmware from a separate system or from a different OS on this system, and put it somewhere the OS can find it after booting, such as on a USB stick formatted with a FAT filesystem. Before you ask, exFAT is not FAT.

So for you test you might need up to 3 different disks, which could be USB sticks: 1) the disk that will hold the OS, 2) the disk that will be installation media, 3) the disk that will hold the NIC's firmware obtained in advance. There are ways to reduce the number of disks but this is the simplest and easiest test method.

Originally Posted by bsd007

Does GhostBSD which as you know is based on FreeBSD has this same issue ?

This is the first hit when I Googled with the keywords "bluetooth" and "ghostbsd": https://forums.ghostbsd.org/viewtopic.php?f=76&p=8058

[jggimi]

A little background on drivers and firmware:

• Drivers are operating system software modules that communicate with and operate hardware components. In OpenBSD, drivers are part of the kernel.
• Firmware is called "firm" because it is neither software nor hardware. Firmware is control programming that run "inside" its specific hardware component. Firmware operation is not software -- in that it is not visible to the CPU, and therefore, it is not visible to the OS. And it isn't exactly hardware, because it is programmatic control. Hardware components that are complex enough to need firmware will sometimes have their firmware permanently embedded, so that it begins operation at power-on, and neither the OS nor any user are aware of it. And sometimes these complex hardware components need the OS to load their firmware into them so that they can start operation. This latter type of firmware is very common among WiFi chipset manufacturers.

[prx]

Hi,
to test OpenBSD, you can use Fuguita : a sort of live mode : http://fuguita.org/

btw, Bluetooth isn't supported on OpenBSD.