# USB WLAN adapter

## hygge

Im going to buy an USB-based WLAN-adapter. Does anyone got any experience with one of these adapers?

SIEMENS GIGASET W-LAN USB ADAPTER STICK 11G

LINKSYS WUSB54GC W-LAN USB ADAPTER 11G

3COM OFFICECONNECT 11G COMPACT WIRELESS WLAN USB

NETGEAR WG111 WIRELESS USB ADAPTER

D-LINK DWL-G122 AIR WIRELESS ADAPTER USB

Any recomendations?

Hugo

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## jammin

Check here - http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/List for all know compatable cards for ndiswrapper. 

I personally have no experience with those, sorry.

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## snayle

Check out http://www.prism54.org

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## lindegur

I'm writing this post using my new WUSB54GC USB Adapter.  :Laughing: 

I double checked that no other ethernet cable goes to my ZyXel router and now I unplugged all of them  :Rolling Eyes: 

At the moment I have switched off the security and the regular eth0 card. I look forward to have some simple switch between wlan0 and eth0 and of course more security, and user friendly configuration when I travel.  :Wink: 

Of course I have to test it to see how stable it is and I have to re-do the work on my laptop, since here I have a desktop.  :Sad: 

A linux dirver for WUSB54GC exist,  :Laughing:   it supports different cards, therefore check the use flag rt73usb since this is the chip used in the adapter and it is also the name of the driver.  Doing emerge rt2x00 fails probably the first time, but it tells you why. Build a kernel with all missing crypt modules, Wlan and IEEE802.11 support and emerge rt2x00 again.

When the usb adapter is plugged in, then a firmware is downloaded first. Check dmesg |grep rt73 to see if this was successfull. The latest firmware can also be downloaded from http://www.ralinktech.com/supp-1.htm the name of the file is rt73.bin  and it should be put into /lib/firmware/.

I did not use the /etc/conf.d/wireless file at all and have simply put wlan0 instead of eth0 to the /etc/conf.d/net and followed the gentoo manual.  :Wink: 

Goes pretty straight forward when you know where to go  :Exclamation: 

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## _tuxman_

Hi lindegur,

I've bought  one of these wireless adapter(wusb54gc).

I've seen your miniHowto but I cannot make it work yet.

I've emerged rt2x00 successfully but doing "modprobe -l" I cannot see the proper rt73usb module.

```

/lib/modules/2.6.16-gentoo-r12-wacom/net/wireless/rt2400pci.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.16-gentoo-r12-wacom/net/wireless/rt2x00core.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.16-gentoo-r12-wacom/net/wireless/rt2500usb.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.16-gentoo-r12-wacom/net/wireless/rt2500pci.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.16-gentoo-r12-wacom/net/rt2500.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.16-gentoo-r12-wacom/net/ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt_wep.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.16-gentoo-r12-wacom/net/ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt_ccmp.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.16-gentoo-r12-wacom/net/ieee80211/ieee80211.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.16-gentoo-r12-wacom/net/ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.16-gentoo-r12-wacom/net/ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt_tkip.ko

```

Which one should I load?

And it is also true that I cannot see any rt73usb useflag doing "emerge rt2x00 -pv":

```

[ebuild   R   ] net-wireless/rt2x00-2.0.0_beta3  USE="-debug" 0 kB

```

At last this link http://www.ralinktech.com/supp-1.htm is no working anymore.

Could you give me any clue?

Thanks for help.

regards

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## _tuxman_

Ok I've solved parts of my problem but encountered other ones.

I've found that I've to install net-wireless/rt2x00 on version 9999 which correctly has the useflag rt73usb and compile that module.

Now I've also found the firmawe on another internet location, but It keeps kernel panicking when plugging the usb driver in.

I've seen other people with the same problem on this forum and some of them solve it, but none say how!   :Laughing: 

If anyone has any help, It would be really appreciated. Thankyou

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## _tuxman_

I've solved it this way:

The r2x00-9999 driver sucks a little   :Very Happy: 

I've downloaded the rt73-cvs-daily http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz

on my own and now it works.

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## lindegur

In fact the ralinktech linux page has changed. However the firmware rt73.bin can still be found on their page it is inside

http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/data/RT73_Linux_STA_Drv1.0.3.6.tar.gz

Check for RT2571W, since this seems to be the chip inside the WUSB54GC USB Adapter.

Ralink makes a statement on their Linux page that they are very active in the Linux community, and the above tar.gz holds all code for the driver.

It seems that the future points away from the serialmonkey driver, since ralinktech provides all for Linux. What is missing is a gentoo ebuild!

However the way that I took months ago should still work. I have an other kernel source 2.6.18-gentoo-r6. I never observed kernel panics.

I use r2x00-9999.

Now while I'm writing I have seen that you solved the problem on your own. Congratulations _tuxman_!  :Laughing: 

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## _tuxman_

Thanks for helping lindegur anyway, but your last reply make me doubt of something...Haven't we settled before that wusb54gc uses rt73 driver only? I've also seen in the cd given from linksys files like rt73.sys rt73.... and other files  named like those.

So?

Thank you all, anyway.

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## lindegur

As far as I understand, rt73.bin is the firmware running on the microcontroller inside the the wusb54gc adapter and has to be downloaded after each power up. I guess the name of this microcontroller (or chip set) is RT2571W. So it is independent whether Linux, Mac or Windoze runs on the PC. 

For Linux kernel device driver (or module) there seem to be different solutions:

1.) The serialmonkey driver with the gentoo ebuild emerge rt2x00 (this driver is called rt73usb)

2.) The ralinktech driver (this driver is called rt73) an gentoo ebuild is missing, but could be fun to do it.

3.) And maybe emerge rt2570 from serialmonkey (seems to be replaced by rt2x00?)

And those drivers run on the PC.

rt73.sys looks as an old fashion MS-DOS driver

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