Wireless network very slow to start

[odonnell]

When I boot, I often wait many minutes for the wireless to configure and connect to the house network. I sometimes unplug and replug the dongle, which might speed things up, or it might be random.

 

I suspect that this is a problem in DietPi configuration, but I don't have any clear evidence for a diagnosis. More detail in case it's relevant:

 

I am running DietPi with the Allo GUI on USBridge Sig with eMMC memory. My wireless is the RTL8192EU dongle provided by Allo (https://www.allo.com/sparky/usb-wifi-dongle.html#features), probably mainly intended for the Sparky. I have the dongle attached through a powered external USB hub with a Seagate 5TB Backup Plus disk also on the hub. After fixing /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rtl8xxxu.conf, which prevented the driver module from starting, I configured the Wireless service through dietpi-config, and it appeared to be straightforward. I found my two house networks and enabled both. One has password security and DNS service for the .local network, and I have always ended up connected to that one. The other is a backup unprotected network, and I don't think the system has ever connected to that one.

[odonnell]

I understand that Allo is looking into known delays due to the driver.

 

In my case, I am suspecting that the DHCP client is part or all of the problem. There were also delays bringing up the network over wired Ethernet, but I was configuring my laptop as a router/DNS/DHCP server so there was more confusion. I also noticed that the problem occurs with repeated rebooting for testing purposes, and not in the first boot up in the morning.