WiFi extremely slow… [partially solved]

[Stefan]

Hi!
I am pretty new to Linux, so please forgive me when I fail to see something "obvious" at some point…

I have several MSI CUBI N BN3150 micro-PCs here.
They are supposed to boot into Porteus, display a website with video and keep playing that video in loop.
So far, so good, this all works perfectly - with ethernet.

Turns out that the WiFi module does not really perform well with Porteus.

I made a little debugging site that tells me how far the buffering has gone and windows10 buffers around 5 to 15 sec material per second. So it instantly plays fine, without any hickups.
In Porteus though I get way below real-time. Every second of video needs about 2 to 8 seconds to buffer. Again: Ethernet displays the page perfectly and instantly.
Once buffered, the video loops just fine.

The WiFi board is a AzureWave AW-NE199NF - sporting a Realtek RTL8188EE (1T1R Solo 802.11bgn) BT 4.0 (2.4GHz Band only)
My FritzBox tells me these connection details: 2,4 GHz / n / 20 MHz / WPA2. The accesspoint is about 10 feet away from the PC.
My installer is: Porteus-Kiosk-3.6.0-i486.iso
I have three of those CUBI N PCs here and all of them show this behavior.

I also have another micro-PC here - an Intel NUC 5PGYH.
This one has Intel dual-band WiFi and works like a charm with Porteus.

Is this a known problem or a bug.
And can I do anything to fix it, test anything, run SSH and poke at it?

Any help / feedback welcome!

Thanks

Stefan

[fanthom]

Hello Stefan,

Perhaps this Realtek driver has poor quality. Only kernel developers can improve it.

I would suggest waiting about a month for next kiosk release which will have 4.4.x kernel.

You could also boot Ubuntu live CD and check if it handles you WiFi chipset better. If yes then it must be a kiosk fault and I should be able to fix this bug.

Thank you.

[Stefan]

I would suggest waiting about a month for next kiosk release which will have 4.4.x kernel.
You could also boot Ubuntu live CD and check if it handles you WiFi chipset better. If yes then it must be a kiosk fault and I should be able to fix this bug.

Ah cool, thanks for the quick answer!
can you recommend a basic Ubuntu ISO that is easy to burn onto a stick using OSX?

[Stefan]

OK scratch that.
I managed to put Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS on my stick an boot it.
After fiddling with FF to get video support up and running, it turns out that it is indeed a problem with Ubuntu. At least the speeds I get are similar to Porteus.
Crap

Maybe I should look for replacement-cards to put in the PCIe slot…

Or could I use an external USB-WiFi stick?
those seem to be way cheaper…

[Stefan]

So it seems that Ubuntu has problems with this Chip all along...
https://www.google.de/search?client=saf ... buntu+slow
There seem to be solutions, but I don't have the expertise to tell if it is something you can fix in the Porteus-distribution...

[fanthom]

I would suggest changing adapter. Here are the ones with best support under Linux:
http://www.wirelesshack.org/top-kali-li ... -2015.html

You can find much cheaper ones for 5$ but i cant guarantee positive results.

[Stefan]

I just ordered a bunch of used cards off ebay.
Let's hope one of them works

i will report back when I know more…

[Stefan]

So the cards I ordered were PCI-e - the one I need has a M.2 2230 connector.
You never stop learning…
Anyways I pulled the Intel 3160NGW card from another Mico-PC I have laying around and it turns out that it works like a charm!
Didn't even have to re-install Porteus.
This one has two antenna-sockets, but using only the MAIN one works fine.

So now I spent another € 10,– per kiosk, but that is ok, as long as it works.

Hope this posting will help someone with the same problem.

Cheers