Wireless woes: What must I do to go native?

[Krovas]

Recently, after a system reinstall, I went through the proscribed rigamarole to coax my Broadcom wireless into playing with Ubuntu, and I found it no longer worked. I really wasn't that disappointed; jury-rigging Window$ drivers with ndiswrapper blows anyway.

So, I got a cute little usb wireless nub (with a RealTek chipset, and believe me, I've scoured this forum and the rest of the 'Net about it over the last couple of days merely to get as far as I did.) that was advertised to work natively with Linux. I scrounged 64 bit drivers from the 'Net, which I eventually got to compile, which didn't do anything. I compiled the drivers included on the disk, and now my laptop locks immediately (complete with flashing CAPS LOCK light) upon insertion of the antenna.

Getting desperate and reckless, I bought a Netgear WN111 from Radio Shack, which turns out needs ndiswrapper too. A waste of time, but at least I can return it.

So anyway, please assist. What must I buy/do to be able to merge onto public hotspots as a completely Micro$oft-free Linux native?

[2hot6ft2]

First undo what you have done...

The RealTek RTL8187L is very linux friendly and can be had pretty cheap about $20 on eBay. Search for either Gsky or ALFA, the ALFA is well respected and the Gsky is a little cheaper. They both use the RealTek RTL8187L chipset.
Not the 1000mw version which uses a different chipset and is NOT twice as strong.

I see a Gsky ending in 9 minutes for $14 and Free Shipping.

alfa 500mw usb eBay search
Gsky 500mw usb eBay search

[mark bower]

Out of the box, Ubuntu 9.10, 32-bit, I have had great luck with Belkin USB F5D7050 and Netgear PCI WPN311(a recent purchase for $14 on ebay with atheros chipset). There is a version (chipset) of the Belkin USB which is reported to not work with the linux native drivers. However, I purchased 4 of them over time, and all worked out of the box on 3 different computers. I am currently awaiting the arrival of 2 more WPN311s.

My philosophy, use hardware with native support and avoid the complications. Althoh, a guy chili555 on this forum provides endless support to those who want to retain and use their hardware which does not have native drivers. When/If you purchase natively driven hardware(works out of the box), please post back and spread the word.

mark

[2hot6ft2]

Out of the box, Ubuntu 9.10, 32-bit, I have had great luck with Belkin USB F5D7050 and Netgear PCI WPN311(a recent purchase for $14 on ebay with atheros chipset). There is a version (chipset) of the Belkin USB which is reported to not work with the linux native drivers. However, I purchased 4 of them over time, and all worked out of the box on 3 different computers. I am currently awaiting the arrival of 2 more WPN311s.

My philosophy, use hardware with native support and avoid the complications. Althoh, a guy chili555 on this forum provides endless support to those who want to retain and use their hardware which does not have native drivers. When/If you purchase natively driven hardware(works out of the box), please post back and spread the word.

mark

I have a Belkin USB F5D7053v4001 and got it to work to following a RaLink guide here in the forum, I also have a Gsky that was plug and play along with a noname RTL8187B adapter a AR5001, ar5009 and a dwl520+. chilli555 does contribute a lot on wireless and really knows his beans.

All but the Belkin worked out of the box.

[chili555]

Why, thank you , guys, for your kind comments. I will be glad to help you, Krovas. Do you still have your Realtek?

[servicetech]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833315041
This one just works, no drivers to fiddle with.

[Krovas]

Okay, I appreciate the feedback, I just everybody to keep in mind that I'm running x64 here, which seems to complicate things sometimes.


@ chili555: Yes, I still have the little bugger. I'm also operating a fresh install, so I'm at a zero state. If you could assist me installing drivers, I'd muchly appreciate it.

[chili555]

Alrighty then! Let's identify which Realtek you have. Please insert the device and post:

lsusb

Meanwhile, I have a postit on my screen: x64!

[Krovas]

Alrighty then! Let's identify which Realtek you have. Please insert the device and post:

lsusb

Meanwhile, I have a postit on my screen: x64!

Thank you for getting back to me.

lsusb:

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:8171 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000  
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 045e:0023 Microsoft Corp. Trackball Optical
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 04e8:323a Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd ML-1710 Printer
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04a9:1709 Canon, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 056a:0011 Wacom Co., Ltd Graphire 2
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0451:2046 Texas Instruments, Inc. TUSB2046 Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

[chili555]

This chipset is new enough that there is, as far as I can find no sure-fire way to get it going for a 64-bit system. We are breaking ground here!

Your usb.id 0bda:8171 confirms that it's a Realtek 8192SU chipset. The driver r8192s_usb is built-in, however, it doesn't recognize your exact device ID. There are several reports of adding the ID to the system to get the built-in to work. All of them involve re-compiling the kernel. As fun as that might be, it's going to be a bright sunshiny day here, and we'd both like to get out and enjoy it, so let's try a quicker method.

Please remove the device, open a terminal and do:

sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/network_drivers.rules

The text editor gedit will open ready for you to write a new file. Add one long line:

ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0bda", ATTR{idProduct}=="8171", RUN+="/sbin/modprobe -qba r8192s_usb"

Proofread carefully. Save and close gedit. Now do:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/network_drivers.conf

Add one long line:

install r8192s_usb /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install r8192s_usb $CMDLINE_OPTS; /bin/echo "0bda 8171" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/r8192s/new_id

Proofread, save and close gedit. Re-insert the device. Any signs of life?

As I said, this is a bit experimental; we may have to tweak a bit. We also have a non-ndiswrapper Plan B.