DWA-171 (WiFi dongle) identifies as mass storage device

kernash · 08-02-2019, 06:36 AM

Hi,

I'm trying to get the wifi dongle working. I'm running debian testing.

However, the dongle doesn't show up as wifi device:

dmesg when I plug it in:

Code:

[216138.343400] usb 2-7: new high-speed USB device number 59 using xhci_hcd
[216138.491639] usb 2-7: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=1a2b, bcdDevice= 2.00
[216138.491640] usb 2-7: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[216138.491641] usb 2-7: Product: DISK
[216138.491642] usb 2-7: Manufacturer: D-Link Corporation
[216138.492504] usb-storage 2-7:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[216138.503415] scsi host6: usb-storage 2-7:1.0
[216139.509915] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Realtek  Driver Storage   1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[216139.510151] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[216139.510524] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 16000 512-byte logical blocks: (8.19 MB/7.81 MiB)
[216139.512960] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is on
[216139.512961] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 80 00
[216139.516237] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[216139.516241] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[216139.525975]  sdb:
[216139.531375] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

lsusb -v:

Code:

Bus 002 Device 059: ID 0bda:1a2b Realtek Semiconductor Corp. DISK
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x0bda Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
  idProduct          0x1a2b 
  bcdDevice            2.00
  iManufacturer           1 D-Link Corporation
  iProduct                2 DISK
  iSerial                 0 
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength       0x0020
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0xa0
      (Bus Powered)
      Remote Wakeup
    MaxPower              500mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           2
      bInterfaceClass         8 Mass Storage
      bInterfaceSubClass      6 SCSI
      bInterfaceProtocol     80 Bulk-Only
      iInterface              0 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x8a  EP 10 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x0b  EP 11 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
Device Qualifier (for other device speed):
  bLength                10
  bDescriptorType         6
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  bNumConfigurations      1
can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable
Device Status:     0x0000
  (Bus Powered)

fdisk -l:

Code:

# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 7.8 MiB, 8192000 bytes, 16000 sectors
Disk model: Driver Storage  
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x6f20736b

Device     Boot      Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1        778135908 1919645538 1141509631 544.3G 72 unknown
/dev/sdb2        168689522 2104717761 1936028240 923.2G 65 Novell Netware 386
/dev/sdb3       1869881465 3805909656 1936028192 923.2G 79 unknown
/dev/sdb4                0 3637226495 3637226496   1.7T  d unknown

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Ideas?

syg00 · 08-02-2019, 07:06 AM

I've always liked D-Link devices, and also bought one of these a few weeks (months ?) back. Surprisingly, this is as it is designed to be.
You plug it into a Windoze machine and the setup runs to reconfigure the device as the network dongle that you thought you bought originally. And of course it's a Realtek chip with a "Linux" driver that hasn't been updated since the dark ages.
What a f'ing joke - I took mine back for a refund the next day.

You might find a (source) driver on github that'll work, but I was so pissed off I gave up after looking at a couple of them.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

kernash · 08-02-2019, 07:32 AM

Thanks.

Wow, that's annoying.

At least I found out how to turn the "storage device" to a wifi-dongle using usb_modeswitch. non-persistent, apparently.
But I haven't found a working driver yet.

syg00 · 08-02-2019, 07:39 AM

Yeah I looked at that too, but ISTR that most of what I found on the 'net was for the version 1 of the dongle - before they remodelled it as a disk.
Need to look at my notes on that machine - maybe tomorrow.

kernash · 08-02-2019, 07:44 AM

Nevermind, that's not what I wanted when I bought a wifi-dongle. I'll try to return it.

dugan · 03-29-2020, 09:23 PM

I just bought one of these (D-Link DWA-171 Revision C) devices. Setting them up is still not trouble-free, so it's not surprising to me that we have a number of threads about them. Anyway, I just got it working on my Fedora 31 box, and this seems as good a thread as any to update.

First, I installed the driver:

Code:

git clone https://github.com/brektrou/rtl8821CU.git
cd rtl8821CU
chmod +x dkms-install.sh
sudo ./dkms-install.sh

This is from here: https://askubuntu.com/a/1164982

Then, I wrote a script to load the driver and switch the device from "Flash disk mode(default) to active adapter mode", as the official drivers put it. Respect to D-Link for providing official Linux drivers, but, well, they don't work. The repo above did. Anyway, here's the script, which is at /usr/local/bin/dwa171:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
/usr/sbin/modprobe 8821cu
/usr/sbin/usb_modeswitch -K -v 0bda -p 1a2b > /dev/null

And then I wrote a udev rule to load that script when the adapter is detected. It's at /etc/udev/rules.d/99-dwa171.rules

Code:

ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bda", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1a2b", RUN+="/usr/local/bin/dwa171"

I have no idea if this is the best way to do it; it's just the first working setup I stumbled across.

syg00 · 03-29-2020, 10:38 PM

Thanks for the update.