I originally set up IPFire on a Raspberry Pi 3 using IPFire ipfire-2.27-core174 or a little older.
Some USB WiFi dongles work as a single, but the older kernel did not like 2 of them installed and ignored the second. Certain WiFi USB dongles worked with a pair installed, but only in 2.4GHZ mode.
I wanted something that I can switch between 2.4 & 5GHZ as the location may not like one or the other.
As I bought a few USB manufacturers WiFi Sticks to test, I finally settled on a BrosTrend AC650. This has 5GHZ and 2.4GHZ with a 5dBi Antenna (wired). 2 of these installed will work on a RPI 3, 4 & 5, including the older kernels below the current 2.9 (older 2.x)
While they do not fit side by side, they DO work in a staggered installation (one low on USB and 1 high on the other USB (1 on usb 3 and 1 on usb 2)
If you sanded down the USB Cap for the antenna, you can get these to fit.
I have not tried with a USB expansion port on a USB 3. Might work. Will try and update this post.
The BrosTrend is on Amazon:
“BrosTrend 650Mbps Linux Compatible WiFi Adapter Supports Kali Linux, Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Kubuntu, Zorin, PureOS, Raspberry Pi 2+, Windows, Dual Band USB Wireless Adapter w/ Long Range WiFi Antenna”
I’ve used these as the Red & Blue Wifi Interfaces and they work very well. I can set the blue as 2.4 and the red as 5 or both as 2.4 or both as 5.
They show up in the Setup as:
RED : “usb: Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 802.11ac NIC”
BLUE : “usb: Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 802.11ac NIC”
For those looking to get a reliable USB WiFi dongle, I’d suggest looking into these.
Cheers!