I posted, or thought I posted a problem this morning with my WiFi adapter not working when plugged directly into my BeagleBone Black but working fine when plugged in through an unpowered hub. It is running Ubuntu 13.04 (GNU/Linux 3.8.13-bone28 armv7l.
OK - more on this story. I just discovered it doesn’t have to be a hub but an USB extension cable also lets it work. This particular cable is 10’ long. I don’t see how it could be a power issue. If anything a 10’ extension cable would supply even less power to the adapter. It’s almost as if the BBB itself is soaking up the signal from this little miniature WiFi adapter.
Any ideas? One might suspect it’s just intermittent. But after lots of testing, I can say it’s rock solid plugged into either an extension cable or an unpowered hub. On the other hand, it only works about 5% of the time plugged in directly.