I recently purchased a cheap USB Wi-Fi adapter, but it doesn't seem to be recognized by my Linux system. I've tried using network tools like `nmcli` and `iwctl`, but they don't show the adapter as a network device. When I run `lsusb`, I see it listed as "Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0e8d:7603 MediaTek Inc. 802.11 n WLAN." I couldn't find much information online about this specific adapter, nor can I locate the product for further details. If anyone knows if this adapter is supported on Linux or has suggestions on how to get it working, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
Update: It turns out the issue was with the adapter itself, which had power problems. I suspect it isn't a driver issue, but I couldn't validate whether the MT7603 drivers work on Linux. For my replacement, I got a USB Wi-Fi adapter using Realtek drivers, and that one worked seamlessly out of the box. Thanks again!
1 Answer
The Mediatek MT7603 should actually be supported out of the box in Linux since kernel version 4.15, thanks to the mt76 driver. It's a pretty common chipset and should typically work without any special setup. Have you checked if it shows up in `rfkill`? That might help determine if it’s blocked for some reason.
Thanks for the info! I checked `rfkill`, but it doesn’t list any blocked devices. I'm on kernel 6.xx, so the drivers should definitely be included. It’s still not being recognized. Any suggestions on how I might troubleshoot further?