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This method does not work on any recent kernels(11.4+) as RTL8192SU was dropped in favor of r8712u. This new driver is even more stable and works out-of-the-box considering you have the linux-firmware package installed. Debian users have to copy the firmware manually(copy the rtlwifi folder from the ubuntu package to /lib/firmware).
Also, link to firmware has been updated for you <= 10.10 users out there, as posted and tested in this thread.
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I recently purchased a Belkin F7D1101 Basic Wireless USB Adapter just to find it preforms poorly with ndiswrapper and Ubuntu does not support it out-of-the-box. Luckily, it is possible to get this chipset running natively.
1.) First I had to add the device to r8192s_usb(both files are likely empty):
Use this command in the terminal to open the first file:
and add this line:sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/network_drivers.rules
Save it then run this command to open the second file:ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="050d", ATTR{idProduct}=="945a", RUN+="/sbin/modprobe -qba r8192s_usb"
and add this line:sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/network_drivers.conf
install r8192s_usb /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install r8192s_usb $CMDLINE_OPTS; /bin/echo "050d 945a" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/rtl819xU/new_id
2.) Then I obtained the firmware from here:
and copied it to /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU/ with these commands:"http://launchpadlibrarian.net/37387612/rtl8192sfw.bin.gz"
Afterwards, I restarted and all worked well. Perhaps others with this device will be able to get it running well too.wget "http://launchpadlibrarian.net/37387612/rtl8192sfw.bin.gz"
gunzip rtl8192sfw.bin.gz
sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU
sudo cp rtl8192sfw.bin /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU
To expand on this process further, r8192s_usb is the kernel module("device driver") for devices with the RTL8192SU chipset. Since the module does not contain the device id for the wireless card, we use the trick demonstrated above to add it to the module without having to recompile it. This works on most distros newer than the stable branch of debian. On some like Suse, you have to install the staging package first(kmod-staging). I also had to add the firmware, dmesg is good for debugging that part. This same process can be used with other devices as long as you can find a module for the chipset and change the info in the lines accordingly.
Alternatives:
compile closed source Realtek 8192SU driver - preforms like windows xp; good signal, not very stable
use ndiswrapper with the windows driver - poor signal, not very stable
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