Newbie question about Edimax EW-7811UN

Question

I recently installed elementary 0.4 and I haven't downloaded os updates yet. The Edimax EW-7811UN wi-fi usb dongle works right off the bat with elementary.

Problem is, it also used to work with ubuntu, but after a recent kernel update ubuntu would freeze the moment the dongle would try to connect to a wireless signal. I think I read something about that chipset not being compatible with the new kernel anymore.

Ubuntu and elementary both being based on same linux type, I believe, does anybody here know if updated elementary works all-right with this wi-fi usb dongle yet? Are ubuntu and elementary kernel updates related? I'd like to avoid the freezing (and forced restart) siuation if possible.

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

Elementary Loki and Ubuntu 16.04 (which Loki is based on) both operate using Linux kernel 4.4. Though this kernel has incremental updates. Whether these updates would remove hardware support I can't say. But as a test you could force your system to boot using an older kernel. See if the dongle works. If not, try another. If you've exhausted all kernels and it's still not working then it could be cause by something else.

You can give Grub Customizer a shot at setting your boot kernel. Check instructions on how to install and use it here.