Trendnet TEW-645UB usb wireless card not supported?

**jscott1** · January 28th, 2010

New to Ubuntu and trying to get my wireless capabilities up and running. I didnt find my TEW-645UB usb wireless adapter on the list of supported ones, so I guess there is no way for me to get online with my desktop.

Also have a Sony Vaio laptop with an Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG card that i believe is supported. What are the basic steps to getting online with Ubuntu. I will search the forums but i would also appreciate any help as I am new to linux.

**chili555** · January 28th, 2010

New to Ubuntu and trying to get my wireless capabilities up and running. I didnt find my TEW-645UB usb wireless adapter on the list of supported ones, so I guess there is no way for me to get online with my desktop.

Au contraire, mon frere!

I believe it has the rt2870 chipset. Please open a terminal and do:

Code:

lsusb

Compare the device ID to the ones listed here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1342593

If it matches, please do:

Code:

sudo modprobe rt2870sta

Does your wireless come to life?

Also have a Sony Vaio laptop with an Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG card that i believe is supported. What are the basic steps to getting online with Ubuntu.

Make sure the wireless switch is on and click the Network Manager icon, see your network, supply any WEP, WPA, etc. passwords and connect.

Post back if it's not quite that easy!!

**jscott1** · January 28th, 2010

When I lsusb on my desktop I get 157e:3013 The only one close to that on the supported list says 157e:300e I think. Is this close enough?

On my laptop I am using Backtrack 4, and the network manager icon is Wicd Network Manager, but when I click this nothing happens...

**chili555** · January 28th, 2010

Let's take one at a time; unless you disagree, let's try the desktop first. The ID needs to match exactly. I have looked around at the various modules in the rt2xxx and rt3xxx family and none match. We are sure this is a Ralink 2870, because the Windows XP driver I downloaded from Trendnet's site says, in part:

Provider = %Ralink%

Compatible = 1

DriverVer = 01/09/2009, 1.04.00.0000

CatalogFile = rt2870.cat ;for WHQL certified

[ControlFlags]

;***********Ralink 802.11 n board ***********

;ExcludeFromSelect = USB\VID_157E&PID_3013

Let's install it with ndiswrapper. Drop the Ubuntu install CD in the tray and do:

Code:

sudp apt-cdrom add
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

Open your Home folder, create a folder called Trend and drag and drop the files on the Trendnet CD into Trend.You are looking for TEW-645UB (020609)/Drivers/XP_2000/Win2KXP. In that folder will be rt2870.inf.

Next, do:

Code:

ndiswrapper -i ~/Trend/TEW-645UB (020609)/Drivers/XP_2000/Win2KXP/rt2870.inf

If the driver is installed correctly, you should see the following output:

Installed ndis drivers:
{name of driver} driver present, hardware present

Then do:

Code:

sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

You should then have a wireless interface. Post back with any errors or problems.

**jscott1** · January 29th, 2010

First of all, thank you for your assistance, it is much appreciated. I am determined to make this work and learn linux so I can eventually leave windows behind.

To recap, I have a desktop running windows xp with a Trendnet TEW-645UB usb wireless adapter, and also I have a Sony Vaio laptop with an Intel Pro/Wireless 3945abg adapter. I burned backtrack 4 and am running it live, to my understanding this is a Debian/Ubuntu op system, correct? Just want to make sure i am in the right forum...

Do I need to use sudo?

Okay, I agree we can work on desktop first, but my problem is when I do the sudo apt-cdrom add it says

Using CD-ROM mount point /cdrom/
Unmounting CD-ROM
Waiting for disc...
Please insert a Disc in the drive and press enter
Mounting CD-Rom...
Identifying.. [4805dcdc4af3e51957db2e06ecf30cea-2]
Scanning disc for index files..
Found 0 package indexes, 0 source indexes, 0 translation indexes and 0 signatures
E: unable to locate any package files, perhaps this is not a Debian Disc

Another question is can i update the driver without being online?

**chili555** · January 29th, 2010

I burned backtrack 4 and am running it live, to my understanding this is a Debian/Ubuntu op system, correct?

Correct.

Just want to make sure i am in the right forum...

Some of us, but not me, know a lot about Backtrack 4. If things are not working as expected, I don't really have any suggestions, except to try Backtrack's forums. http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forums/

Would you like to skip forward to the Vaio?