Seems that my Realtek RTL8192CU WLAN dongle is no longer recognised either, albeit it did work back end of last year. I usually use the RPi device with the LAN cable hooked up to the network…
Here the contents of the /var/log/syslog file when plugging in the dongle:
`Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox kernel: [ 190.056228] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8178
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox kernel: [ 190.056256] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox kernel: [ 190.056273] usb 1-1.2: Product: 802.11n WLAN Adapter
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox kernel: [ 190.056288] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: Realtek
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox kernel: [ 190.056303] usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: 00e04c000001
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 4: "/sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2"
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 4 was not an MTP device
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.381271] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8192cu
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.412458] rtl8192cu 1-1.2:1.0 enx00e04c817843: renamed from wlan0
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.462278] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <error> [1453278041.552487] [platform/wifi/wifi-utils-wext.c:519] wext_get_range(): (wlan0): couldn't get driver range information (19).
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <info> (wlan0): driver WEXT range request failed
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <warn> (wlan0): failed to initialize WiFi driver
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <warn> wlan0: factory failed to create device: (unknown)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <info> devices added (path: /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/net/enx00e04c817843, iface: enx00e04c817843)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <info> device added (path: /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/net/enx00e04c817843, iface: enx00e04c817843): no ifupdown configuration found.
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: (NetworkManager:375): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: object NMDeviceWifi 0x19e82b0 finalized while still in-construction
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: (NetworkManager:375): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: Custom constructor for class NMDeviceWifi returned NULL (which is invalid). Please use GInitable instead.
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529708] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529735] cfg80211: DFS Master region: unset
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529748] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529765] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529799] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529814] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529832] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529850] cfg80211: (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529866] cfg80211: (5490000 KHz - 5730000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529882] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 80000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529897] cfg80211: (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 0 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:44 ubox ModemManager[320]: <info> Couldn't find support for device at '/sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2': not supported by any plugin
`
The only explanation I have right now is that something has changed. For sure, in the meantime I have updated the kernel to the latest version:
Linux ubox 4.1.15-v7+ #831 SMP Tue Jan 19 18:39:46 GMT 2016 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux
I may want to consider to reflash the SD card with UbuntuMATE 15.10, and stick to the older kernel version…