I had to construct an ad -hoc wired network across floors, because the recovery image could not use WiFi on my laptop. Had to transplant the ssd into another computer, which has the TV as display, and therefore is immobile.
Can someone recommend a fast USB WiFi adapter, which the recovery image can use?
Alternatively, can anyone guide me how to make a restore usb stick based on ubuntu live?
Can’t say how fast they are but I’d use one with a Atheros chip. They do have good drivers in Linux. You can also look at sticks with descriptions such as Raspberry PI/OpenWRT support.
I found out, USB Wifi support is all but non-existent right now. The only USB-N stick with free drivers is no longer on the market. And only one older G-standard chipset available.
Wifi has always been a problem for free software users. USB Wifi cards are becoming less free. With the older 802.11G standard many USB wifi cards had free drivers and did not require non-free firmware. With 802.11N there is only one chipset on the market, from Atheros, which is completely free.
I will try my luck with a USB-Ethernet adapter next. Apparently, the TrendNet TU2 ET100 adapter should be supported by a kernel driver.
This one with an Asix chipset might also work
Na, it’s getting better and better. With more and more devices using Linux, chip creators need good Linux drivers in oder to compete.
Debian just has a definition of “free” where everything needs to be open source and a loadable firmware blob is not allowed. This means the firmware needs to be in a special wifi chip device memory (or open source and easily compilable), which increases cost – so nobody does it. The live cd has all kinds of different firmware packages. If one is missing please tell me.
I have received the UGreen branded USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet adapter as linked above on eBay.
I can confirm it has the ASIX AX 88179 chipset. I was able to connect to my Urbackup server using UrBackup Restore CD 2.1.1 (x64). Didn’t test the speed.
So I can recommend this piece of hardware to users of ultrabooks without ethernet ports.
@uroni - I know this is an old thread, but I have a specific use case where I’m interested in getting wifi to work in the bare metal restore environment. I have tried multiple USB WiFI adpaters to no avail. Could you provide a list of USB WiFi devices\chipsets that the restore environment supports?
Edit - I had been using an older version of the Restore ISO. I will try the latest version and report back.
Edit 2 - Success! Using the latest version of the Restore Image worked with a Netgear A6200 I had lying around.
@chizz44 - How did you get your A6200 to connect. I have a Surface Pro 7 I am trying to restore with a USB-C to Ethernet adapter that did not work. I have a Netgear A6200 I pull from an old computer and connected it to the Surface with no luck.
I had been using an old version of the software. Download the latest version and you’ll have no problems.
Restore CD 2.3.1 (x64) right? I tried this version and I get No Wireless Network Found.
Does it boot into a “Live” linux distro? That’s how I used it and it detected the hardware.
I’ve tried everything. Yes, it boots into “Live” distro. Is there another newer version of the restore CD?
Hmmm, I didn’t read this closely; I tested on a PC, connected the AC6200 to a USB port. Test your setup the same way, maybe it has to do with the Surface Pro?
