# Zyxel G-202 USB Wifi Adapter

## humbletech99

I've got a Zyxel G-202 USB Wifi Adapter which uses a ZD12xx chipset. I have compiled a static kernel with both the zd1201 and the zd1211 drivers and emerged the net-wireless/zd1211-firmware and the net-wireless/zd1201-firmware but the machine still doesn't appear.

I don't really understand why I can't get the thing detected, the drivers are in the kernel and the firmware is present but nothing is happening so far. I have no wifi interfaces in iwconfig or ifconfig -a.

Anybody got any ideas on this or can point me in the right direction?

Googling for a while there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of info, I've seen that someone else said he got it working with the zd1211rw driver, is this not the same one as in the kernel I just compiled? I am using the latest gentoo-sources 2.6.20-r8 kernel.

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## humbletech99

the driver is in the kernel and i have emerged the firmware, shouldn't that be it?

This is the usb adapter

```
# lsusb

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0586:3410 ZyXEL Communications Corp.

```

according to the website http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Devices/USB, this model should work with the zd1211rw driver.

Google seems to indicate that only 1 guy has gotten this working so far. I've upgraded to the ~x86 gentoo-sources 2.6.21-r3 and recompiled with my config and rebooted but still no luck.

I could really do with an idea since googling hasn't shown any wikis or howtos.

If all else fails I'll have to try patching a bleeding edge vanilla kernel and see if that makes any difference.

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## humbletech99

dang that didn't work either, I compiled the driver into the 2.6.22-rc3 kernel and rebooted but all I got in dmesg was

```
zd1211rw: probe of 1-3:1.0 failed with error -2
```

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## mimosinnet

In the kernel, I have activated zd1211rw as a module:

```
# grep ZD1211RW /usr/src/linux/.config

CONFIG_ZD1211RW=m
```

I have got a:

```
# lsusb

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0ace:1211 ZyDAS 802.11b/g USB2 WiFi
```

Before emerging the firmware I got:

```
# dmesg | grep zd1211rw

zd1211rw 1-2:1.0: couldn't load firmware. Error number -2

zd1211rw: probe of 1-2:1.0 failed with error -2

usbcore: registered new interface driver zd1211rw
```

After emerging:

```
emerge -av zd1211-firmware
```

I get:

```
# dmesg | grep zd1211rw

zd1211rw 1-2:1.0: firmware version 4605

zd1211rw 1-2:1.0: zd1211 chip 0ace:1211 v4802 high 00-02-72 AL2230_RF pa0 -----

zd1211rw 1-2:1.0: eth1
```

Hope it is of any help.

Cheers!

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## humbletech99

thanks i did get it after fiddling, can't remember what it was, think i was probably missing the firmware...

it would be nice if wifi cards didn't need the firmware...

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## tabanus

Does this device allow you to create a wireless access point? (I need to connect my son's Nintendo DS and this route would be cheaper than buying a wireless router).

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## GNUtoo

 *tabanus wrote:*   

> Does this device allow you to create a wireless access point? (I need to connect my son's Nintendo DS and this route would be cheaper than buying a wireless router).

 

does the  nitendo ds support ad-hoc mode?

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## tabanus

 *GNUtoo wrote:*   

> does the  nitendo ds support ad-hoc mode?

 

No idea, but then again, never having used wifi, I don't even know what that means   :Wink: 

But I do know, if I had an "ordinary" wireless router it should work, because it says so in the instructions. If a USB wireless adapter can turn a PC into an access point then it ought to work.

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## GNUtoo

very few drivers support access point mode...it's even worse on windows...

as far as i know you have:

->prism cards that supports it(and they have a very good range but they are hard to find)

->madwifi(THIS DRIVER USE A PROPRIETARY KERNEL MODULE(HAL) and the version without it (openhal) doesn't work yet for me) cards that support it(don't forget to enable the madwifi USE flag when compiling hostapd)

->MABE some cards using the mac80211 stack that was previously named the deviscape stack...

for the later i had no luck trying with a:

->rt2500

->BCM4318(mabe others model works)

generaly you see it if you have a wlanmaster0 device or something like this when typing ifconfig -a or iwconfig

then you need to try if it realy works

if you don't have a card that have this wlanmaster0 you can set up wifi with the ad-hoc mode...that is a pear to pear mode

simply put the card in ad-hoc mode and proceed with your favorite tools for dhcp+dns(dnsmasq + iptables or bind/named + dhcpcd + iptables)

if you want help on setting up your wireless card to ad-hoc mode and for dnsmasq+iptables just ask

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## humbletech99

why does the state of linux wifi still suck so badly?

I want one champion of wifi gear with great open source drivers and full everything functionality.

I'll pay for that.

My Xyxel does work, although it requires external firmware and I'm still not sure why....

I'd prefer the driver to just be in the kernel and work fully.

Linux is great, amazingly functional and flexible, wifi ap functionality should be well within it's capabilities.

What a shame wifi vendors and drivers hinder it so...

I have also used a dlink with madwifi which is unfortunately a tacked on thing with some proprietary bits but easy enough to do in gentoo... maybe I just need to find better vendors than I have used...

Here is a useful page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open_source_wireless_drivers

ps. stay way from Intel wifi cards that need the ipw3945 driver, it requires a compliance daemon to work!!!

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## GNUtoo

LOL....i created this page,,,so it was useful...

why wifi sucks?

simply because we didn't have the good wifi stack until recently(devicescape/mac80211)

now there is a stack that have all inside includig acess point and wep/wpa but it's very recent and it was included in the kenrel 2.6.22(not all the code)

and so now they are re-writing all the drivers so mabe in the future the acess point will work

and mabe it works with another broadcom card....i'd also like to buy one that work

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## humbletech99

 *GNUtoo wrote:*   

> why wifi sucks?
> 
> ....i'd also like to buy one that work

 

not wifi sucks, wifi support sucks a bit because of stupid vendors.

I'd also like to buy a card that is native, using 100% free software that works in any way we want including access point mode.

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## tabanus

 *humbletech99 wrote:*   

> My Xyxel does work, although it requires external firmware and I'm still not sure why....
> 
> 

 

So...does it allow you to create a wireless access point?

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## MorpheuS.Ibis

 *tabanus wrote:*   

> So...does it allow you to create a wireless access point?

 

get a PRISM2 card with hostap driver. there are only two bad things about them. they are only 11mbit and they are really hard to get (and kinda expensive, compared to atheros, but still half the price of a good wireless router). i had one of them but it stopped working and when i sent it to the reseller for replace, they send me the money i paid for it saying they don't sell those anymore (i used to have Z-COM XI-626). so i took the money and bought a miniPCI atheros card (CM9 to be precise) and PCI-miniPCI bridge card...atheros is good also but i think i had less problems with the prism card (none if i don't count the "stopped working" part)...

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