Additional Wi-Fi Drivers?

Product support balenaOS
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1

Hi,

Is it possible to compile drivers and use those for wi-fi adaptors not supported out of the box?

Thanks

5

While this is possible, it is not recommended. If the container does not start for some reason, then the WiFi driver won’t be loaded. If the WiFi dongle does not have to provide Internet access, but for example acts as an access point, then it is fine to do that. You may use the following template: https://github.com/balena-os/kernel-module-build

One important facet to point out is that Linux support for a lot of WiFi dongles is really poor, so make sure you test the particular dongle well, since the chance of it not working well is much much bigger than finding a properly working one.

7

Thanks,

So far this dongle works out of the box on Ubuntu 20.04, but not Raspberry Pi OS nor Balena OS so I suspect it’s outdated kernels.

However the fact that it would be in the container could be an issue, the dongle would be to provide the unit internet connection so I think it would then indeed be better for us to use dongles that work out of the box and only do this as a last resort if it comes to it.