Complete loss of firmware when updating to latest Stellarmate OS

[teoria_del_big_bang]

I recently did a Update and Upgrade on my StellarMate OS RPi4 after which it tried to reboot itself but never came back on and whatever I did I could not seem to get it working again,
After plugging a monitor into the RPi every time I rebooted it said there was no firmware.

So having no other choice I reloaded StellarMate OS on my SSD drive. For some reason I did not have my original download of Stellarmate OS so had to download the latest version from their website which of course will have the latest RPi operating software included, which appears to be 5.10.17 V7L.

This worked fine and got Ekos / KStars etc all up and working but I could not load the drivers for my WiFi dongle which has been a Godsend boosting the Wifi and meaning I could discard the 50M Ethernet cable I used to use.
No matter what I tried I could not get the WiFi dongle to work anymore, I even tried several drivers that supposedly work with this dongle bit all complained of missing Kernel headers. Tis is all a bot beyond my capabilities with RPi's and linux. But I did search about loading Kernel headers and had a go but to no avail.

I also looked for another dongle that may use different drivers but unless I use the mini dongles that are not great I think I may have the same issue with them all as I found this warning on Pi Hut:

 So not sure what I can do. I do not have any old versions of StellarMate and on website there is only the latest version available for download, no archives.

I could try going to Astroberry as I think waits a while to make sure there are no issues with new software before including it with their downloads, or go back to using Ethernet andhope it does not affect anything any other third part software on my RPi.

Steve

 

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I don't use wifi, and I'm not sure what OS Stellarmate is based on, but have you considered installing a version of Ubuntu Mate (https://ubuntu-mate.org/download/) & manually installing KStars/Ekos/Indi etc. 

You may well find that a standard version of Ubuntu, will be able to support your adaptor or have drivers available.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Yes that is one of my other options. I do actually have a fanless small computer already loaded up with Ubuntu and KStars that I haven't used for a while.

It is just that the RPI4 has done everything I wanted, was very small and I had 3D printed a nice base that connected to my tripod.
But worth resurrecting it and at least seeing if I can use the dongle with it.

Steve
 

[JamesF]

Is it worth emailing Jasem and asking if he can make a previous release available for you to download?

James

[teoria_del_big_bang]

I just downloaded the current version of Astroberry and that allows me to install the dongle just fine, so not sure why StellarMate would not but all seemed to point to missing Kernel headers.

I am not really so up on Kernels and such but when I type the command uname -a it returns 5.4.51 -V7L+ when I first boot up Astroberry and after a full-upgrade this then returns 5.10.52 V7L+, but Stellarmate returned 5.10.17 V7L+.
What all that means I am not sure but the different Kernels seems to be what was preventing me getting the driver for the dongle to load.

Maybe @RadekK can offer some thoughts ?

[RadekK]

Do your wifi dongle comes with binary drivers? If so, it could be the case that the drivers are compiled for a specific kernel version. That would be dead end if you cannot recompile them for a new kernel.

You can try using open source drivers instead and forget vendor provided binaries. You need to identify your hardware (run: lsusb -v). Then try to find your device on a compatibility list like this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported or this https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi

 

 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

24 minutes ago, RadekK said:

Do your wifi dongle comes with binary drivers? If so, it could be the case that the drivers are compiled for a specific kernel version. That would be dead end if you cannot recompile them for a new kernel.

You can try using open source drivers instead and forget vendor provided binaries. You need to identify your hardware (run: lsusb -v). Then try to find your device on a compatibility list like this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported or this https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi

 

 

Thanksfor the reply, I have no idea what type of driver I just normally download it with the following command:

sh -c 'wget deb.trendtechcn.com/install -O /tmp/install && sh /tmp/install'

And if any errors occur do the following then try again:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

But so you are aware I only had the issue with the latest StellarMate download, the Astroberry latest worked fine and so I am using your Astroberry and works fine so not really gone into it any further since I got this to work and abandoned StellarMate.

Steve

 

[david_taurus83]

What version of SM did you last have working? I might have something in my downloads folder on my laptop.