In RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD, the 2.4GHz wireless interface is a standard R11e-2HnD card installed in mini-PCI-e slot. Which I don't really need.

As an experiment to add some extra storage (for example, to install Dude onto), I replaced that original wireless card with a generic "mPCI-E to USB adapter" USB card, and tried connecting (through a short extender cable routed outside the enclosure) a USB flash drive, and then an SD-Card reader with a card. Neither of the 2 were recognized as "disk" - the system understands that there is a PCI device installed, but seemingly doesn't know what do do with it.

Any ideas if and how it might be possible to make this work?

I think Mikrotik only support that on M.2 slots. I don't think the 4011 has a M.2 slot.

General info: For expanding storage, microSD and a PCIe M.2 slots are needed.

I think Mikrotik only support that on M.2 slots. I don't think the 4011 has a M.2 slot.

General info: For expanding storage, microSD and a PCIe M.2 slots are needed.

Thanks! It seems like a rather strange limitation, suggesting that USB through miniPCIe was not bossible before M.2 was introduced. But if we forget about the storage client device for a moment, the USB interface itself should still be recognized when connected via regular miniPCIe - right? In this case though, ROS doesn't even recognize OHCI / EHCI / xHCI device itself, i.e. the list of USB devices is empty.

I guess I would the re-phrase the original question - should any miniPCIe slot on any Mikrotik device (and specifically RB4011) at least recognize the USB HCI device as such, or it is possible and even likely that the basic kernel USB drivers necessary for that may be absent in ROS system package?

Answer to this question will at least narrow down the problem - to either ROS itself (cannot be fixed), or bad or incompatible miniPCIe-to-USB adapter card (can be fixed).

Any progress with this issue? Maybe with newer ROS it is working? Anybody tried the USB adapter with USB LTE modem or other devices? Thx

ROS doesn't have drivers for regular USB controllers, so it will see the pci-e device but will not be able to use it. I have used "mining" adapter from mini-PCIe to regular PCIe slot and tried various PCI-E cards I had on hand (usb controllers, wlans, serial port adapters, network cards, soundcard,...) and pretty much nothing worked. No kernel drivers for anything in ROS. In system/resources/PCI I could always see pci IDs of the card, but that was it. Only card that somewhat worked was 4 port serial that appeared as usable ports.

This is just limitation of ROS, in openwrt it's possible to either find package with required drivers or compile the module yourself... but ROS is closed and there's nothing we can do, which is a shame. Also thanks to Mikrotik still shipping devices with 16MBs of flash, there's little chance of having build with more kernel drivers included - as they are counting every kilobyte to fit into that small flash now... (but hey... it's totally not a limitation and everything is fine and 16MBs is enough for everybody...)

Hi, thanks for reply. But I think you tried to do something completly different (kinda higer level :D ) - the mPCIe->USB adapter I am thinking to use is just passive device. It only utilizes USB data pins that are (should be) present in mPCIe slot. So it shouldn't need any more drivers but I am not sure if those USB pins are really connected and enabled in software in this model. So I am looking for someone who tried this. I would like to buy RB4011 to replace RB951G but I kinda need USB for LTE modem
The adapter I want to use is this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32980089028.html
It is only passive interconnection and DC/DC converter as in mPCI-E is no 5V - only 3.3V

From my understanding it should be also possible to use the wifi card in the mPCIE slot TOGETHER with this adapter with some mPCIe splitter or soldering. As the wifi cards use PCIe data lines and don't care about the USB. And the LTE cards use USB lines and don't care about the PCIe. And that is also the reason why I am asking - as Mikrotik is not selling this model with LTE capabilities I am not sure if those USB lines are actually there.

I see what you mean, just adapter that routes USB pins to USB connector, not actual USB controller.
But I don't think these are connected in RB4011, it may only have the PCIe pins connected, not USB.
Can you see the new device in system/resources/usb when plugged in? If yes, then it works but ROS doesn't have drivers to use it as a disk... but it should work with LTE modem that is supported on other ROS boards. But if you don't see new USB device (no difference in listed devices) then USB is probably not on the connector.

<rant>
Overall I just completely hate Mikrotik choices when it comes to peripherals. The CPU/SOC have so many great features, but they don't make them available. OK, if having proper USB connector would cost too much (~$0.5?) then at least put header on the PCB, with standard pinout like on the PC motherboard. That would be perfectly acceptable. But no...Same with the UART, make it available and usable.
In RB4xx era, I used RS232 a lot for controlling relays, measuring temperatures, voltages, currents etc. remotely with arduino. Later used USB uart for that, but newest HW often doesn't have console nor USB available or they are disabled in ROS even if pins are present on the boards... really annoying.
</rant>

Great... I just ordered a mpcie to USB3 adapter so I could run Dude on a flash drive and not kill the NAND of my 200$ device. I suppose I can hope they enable it for routerOS 7.,,

Great... I just ordered a mpcie to USB3 adapter so I could run Dude on a flash drive and not kill the NAND of my 200$ device. I suppose I can hope they enable it for routerOS 7.,,

hi t4thfavor have you ended up to get it working? I would like to run some containers but definitly not on the NAND. ....a USB interface would be great.

ROS doesn't have drivers for regular USB controllers, so it will see the pci-e device but will not be able to use it. I have used "mining" adapter from mini-PCIe to regular PCIe slot and tried various PCI-E cards I had on hand (usb controllers, wlans, serial port adapters, network cards, soundcard,...) and pretty much nothing worked. No kernel drivers for anything in ROS. In system/resources/PCI I could always see pci IDs of the card, but that was it. Only card that somewhat worked was 4 port serial that appeared as usable ports.

This is just limitation of ROS, in openwrt it's possible to either find package with required drivers or compile the module yourself... but ROS is closed and there's nothing we can do, which is a shame. Also thanks to Mikrotik still shipping devices with 16MBs of flash, there's little chance of having build with more kernel drivers included - as they are counting every kilobyte to fit into that small flash now... (but hey... it's totally not a limitation and everything is fine and 16MBs is enough for everybody...)

r00t, I really despise hijacking threads, especially a years old one, but the PM functionality of this board is not enabled, leaving me little choice. Please excuse me for doing so.

I am looking to purchase/test some 2 and 4 port RS232 miniPCIe cards and see that you have had at least some success with this in the past, though I cannot tell from this thread what RB model or serial card model you were successful with, nor is there any such cards listed on the MT compatible peripherals page. My dilemma is that the Manufacturer of the ones I am eyeballing (IOCrest) is not responding to requests as to whether their card uses the USB2 pins or the PCIe pins. The RBM33G slots support either, but other RBs like the KNOT LR8/9 only support USB mode (or so the block diagrams would have me believe). In the end, I am hoping to add 4x RS232 ports to the KNOT LR9 by replacing the LoRa miniPCIe card, as it only comes with RS485 but otherwise has everything I want (no need for the LoRa, but you don't get the extra slot unless you spend the extra $100 over the base KNOT model).

Any insight into specific models and successes/failures you had would help me to not spend time and money on paperweights.