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R36H: Wifi MediaTek MT7601UN

 ·  🎃 kr0m

In this tutorial, we’re going to install a Wi-Fi chip in our beloved R36H. Unfortunately, this is not possible on an R36S; in that case, we must resort to an external dongle connected via OTG .

Previously, we tried a RTL8188ETV with disastrous results ; now it’s the turn of the MediaTek MT7601UN. The chip in question is this one .
Please note that if we solder the Wi-Fi chip, ArkOS will no longer detect Wi-Fi cards through the USB-OTG port.

Installation:

Here we can see some details of the chip:

Schematic Pinout

In these images, we can see the final result:

If we need to find out the Wi-Fi card’s MAC address, we can retrieve it by checking a system text file:

Options -> 351Files:
/sys/class/net/INTERFACE_NAME(wlan0)/address

Y -> Quit

Let’s verify it works:

NOTE: As shown in the video, the Wi-Fi interference with the speaker persists.

We can also check that it works correctly via the CLI by connecting over SSH .

Check the driver in use:

apt install ethtool
ethtool -i wlan0 | grep driver

driver: mt7601u

Check the status of the interface:

sudo su -l
apt install wireless-tools
iwconfig wlan0

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Synapse"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.432 GHz  Access Point: A1:FA:31:91:01:07
          Bit Rate=39 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=61/70  Signal level=-49 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:22  Invalid misc:120   Missed beacon:0

Check the available access points:

nmcli dev wifi rescan
nmcli dev wifi list

IN-USE  BSSID              SSID                    MODE   CHAN  RATE        SIGNAL  BARS  SECURITY
*       A1:FA:31:91:01:07  Synapse                 Infra  5     130 Mbit/s  85      ▂▄▆█  WPA2
        50:6F:0C:CD:DD:7E  FEMINISMO ES CANCER     Infra  1     16 Mbit/s   100     ____  WPA1 WPA2
        E2:19:54:6D:C4:18  ESTOY CON VOSOTROS      Infra  5     130 Mbit/s  95      ▂▄▆█  WPA2
        C4:EB:39:1F:68:9E  sagemcom6898            Infra  11    195 Mbit/s  95      ▂▄▆█  WPA1 WPA2
        D4:7B:B0:B3:22:E4  MOVISTAR_22E3           Infra  1     130 Mbit/s  92      ▂▄▆█  WPA2
        00:22:5F:62:3E:68  PURO CANCER             Infra  1     130 Mbit/s  100     ▂▄▆█  WPA1 WPA2
        E2:19:54:5D:C4:18  YA TE DIGO              Infra  5     130 Mbit/s  92      ▂▄▆█  WPA2

Performance Tests:

We can install speedtest and run a quick test:

apt install speedtest-cli
speedtest

Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from Digi Spain (79.116.95.143)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by Digimobil (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat) [498.76 km]: 12.529 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 10.94 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 19.45 Mbit/s

Troubleshooting:

If MAC filtering is enabled on the Wi-Fi without allowing the card’s MAC, the console might behave a bit strangely:

See Also