LinuxQuestions.org - Is WUSB54GS (SpeedBooster) linux-friendly?

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Is WUSB54GS (SpeedBooster) linux-friendly?

Currently I have a Linksys WUSB54G (non-speedbooster) USB 2.0 adapter. On netio I'm only getting 500-700 kb/s to my WRT54GS router. Since I already have a speedbooster router, would I get a noticeable performance increase if I used a WUSB54GS instead of a WUSB54G?

And most importantly, is it compatible with linux? What chipset does it use? The ndiswrapper wiki's list doesn't have an entry for the WUSB54GS.

If anyone has any experience with this particular model, please post.

Have a look here for more info on the chipsets that card uses (there is more than one possibility).

I'm not sure what you mean by "speedbooster" routers. Is that one of those pre-802.11n beasties? If it is, I'm not sure if you would get any boost by switching cards or not. One other alternative might be to get some higher-gain antennaes for your router to boost the signal strength.

No, the router's box claims that the SpeedBooster enhancement is fully 802.11g compliant. It is not a MIMO router.

Does anybody know if there are drivers for this usb adapter?
I can't find anything on google! Neither the chipset! The link above refers to WRT54GS (router) and not to WUSB45GS (usb adapter).
I tried to use the windows driver with NdisWrapper but it says "Invalid drivers!".
*sob* *sigh*:(

Have a look at this thread on the Ndiswrapper forum. It is for a different, but related, card. The upshot is that you may be using the wrong driver. According to that thread the lsbcmnds.inf file might be the one to use.

I'd also go yell at Linksys for not supporting Linux. Hell, they use Linux to run their routers but the scum can't be bothered to offer Linux drivers for their cards.

I am having the same issue. I have live Knoppix (also tried live Mepis) and i want to get Linksys WUSB54GS (wireless adapter, not router) to work with either Linux distros. I tried using original Windows .inf drivers that came with the adapter, yet had no luck. Also tried following steps on this post http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/f...topic.php?t=79 and still no luck. Did anyone figure this out, i.e if WUSB54GS can be used under Linux and if so, which distro and how to get it to work?! Thanks to all

WUSB54GS in Linux

Thanks for posting that link. I don't really know if it works or not. I have since abandoned Knoppix and went Fedora Core 4 full time. I completely unloaded Windows off my system and am a Linux user now. I have burchased a miniPCI (i have a laptop) broadcom wifi card with an internal antenna and installed them. The miniPCI card i got works perfectly under ndiswrapper. But i could never get the WUSB54GS under Knoppix. Maybe i didn't try hard enough. Let me know if you have any luck. It'd be beneficial to know.
Thanks again.
-=G=-

gvigorus, for the record do you know the serial no
and the version of that WUSB54GS.

I am going to try to make mine work, but this does not seem easy.

I am after the serial no to version table (just to check if
the hardware version matters).
Have asked there as well if anybody can decipher serial No
tagging to this thread
"Newbie need help - LinkSys WUSB54GS Wireless "
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=40299

WUSB54GS serial number

Emmanuel, are you on Ubuntu? I don't have the usb wifi adapter handy, but i'll look it up later today.

Thanks.
I use mandriva mostly, but learning a bit of debian as well on my way. I will use this post to summarise versions against serial number (S/N).

WUSB54GS v1.0
13b1:000e guessed from 2 posts, serial number?
guessed from http://www.suseforums.net/index.php?...0&#entry129358
confirmed via ubuntu user(thanks)SN is MI00000xxxxxx, the USBID is 13b1:000e

WUSB54GS v1.1

WUSB54GS v2.0
ID 13b1:0014 (reported in sourceforge ndiswrapper wiki)

WUSB54GS v2.1
ID 13b1:0014 serial number starts with MI010F (manufactured 03/06 and 06/06).
reported by Emmanuel_UK and DJ binks and banz

[Last update 21/12/2006]

In case this interests anybody
#lsusb -v

Code:

Bus 003 Device 003: ID 13b1:0014

Device Descriptor:

bLength                18

bDescriptorType        1

bcdUSB              2.00

bDeviceClass            2 Communications

bDeviceSubClass        0

bDeviceProtocol        0

bMaxPacketSize0        64

idVendor          0x13b1

idProduct          0x0014

bcdDevice            0.06

iManufacturer          1 Broadcom

iProduct                2 Linksys Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with

SpeedBooster

iSerial                3 8057

bNumConfigurations      1

Configuration Descriptor:

bLength                9

bDescriptorType        2

wTotalLength          48

bNumInterfaces          2

bConfigurationValue    1

iConfiguration          0

bmAttributes        0x80

MaxPower              500mA

Interface Descriptor:

bLength                9

bDescriptorType        4

bInterfaceNumber        0

bAlternateSetting      0

bNumEndpoints          1

bInterfaceClass        2 Communications

bInterfaceSubClass      2 Abstract (modem)

bInterfaceProtocol    255 Vendor Specific (MSFT RNDIS?)

iInterface              0

Endpoint Descriptor:

bLength                7

bDescriptorType        5

bEndpointAddress    0x81  EP 1 IN

bmAttributes            3

Transfer Type            Interrupt

Synch Type              None

Usage Type              Data

wMaxPacketSize    0x0010  1x 16 bytes

bInterval              4

Interface Descriptor:

bLength                9

bDescriptorType        4

bInterfaceNumber        1

bAlternateSetting      0

bNumEndpoints          2

bInterfaceClass        10 Data

bInterfaceSubClass      0 Unused

bInterfaceProtocol      0

iInterface              0

Endpoint Descriptor:

bLength                7

bDescriptorType        5

bEndpointAddress    0x82  EP 2 IN

bmAttributes            2

Transfer Type            Bulk

Synch Type              None

Usage Type              Data

wMaxPacketSize    0x0200  1x 512 bytes

bInterval              0

Endpoint Descriptor:

bLength                7

bDescriptorType        5

bEndpointAddress    0x03  EP 3 OUT

bmAttributes            2

Transfer Type            Bulk

Synch Type              None

Usage Type              Data

wMaxPacketSize    0x0200  1x 512 bytes

bInterval              1

Device Qualifier (for other device speed):

bLength                10

bDescriptorType        6

bcdUSB              2.00

bDeviceClass            2 Communications

bDeviceSubClass        0

bDeviceProtocol        0

bMaxPacketSize0        64

bNumConfigurations      1

kernel freezes when plugging device wusb54gs (kernel 2.6.8, ndiswrapper 1.8)

kernel freezes when plugging device (kernel 2.6.11 or 2.6.8, mandy 2005 LE, ndiswrapper 1.8)
So here goes, questions and after what I did exactly

My questions first. Any advice or feedback or anybody trying similar things, please let me know
0) At what stage are we supposed to plug the usb device?
1) Is ndiswrapper -d 13b1:0014 needed with method 2?
2) “advice not using the drivers off the cd that came with it, they never work.”
Can anybody confirm this? Which driver then? That from linksys download?
3) methode2 says “Used snapshot from 13/02/2006”
Is this meant to be the ndiswrapper version?
4) >>the wusb54gs.inf worked seamlessly
Which one of this do we need to perform, or both
Ndiswrapper –i ~wireless/WUSB54GSv2.inf
Ndiswrapper –i ~wireless/WUSB54GS.inf
Literally it would be ~wireless/WUSB54GS.inf, no?

I used method2 with a WUSB54GS ID 13b1:0014 (version 2.0)
kernel 2.6.8 (mandriva LE 2005)
Copy all drives files from linksys driver CD to ~wireless
Copy the 2 sys files from usr5420 (needed windows, wine did not work to unpack) ~wireless
Compiled ndiswrapper and installed OK (version 1.8) http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/
version 1.8 is 16/01/06, so may have too old a version... DOh!
Ndiswrapper –i ~wireless/WUSB54GSv2.inf
Ndiswrapper –l says driver installed
Noticed the 2 sys files were not copied to /etc/ndiswrapper/wusb54gsv2 so I copied them
Noticed one of the file in /etc/ndiswrapper/wusb54gsv2 has for filename the right ID 13b1:0014
Modprobe ndiswrapper (no error in syslog)
Plug device to USB and kernel freeze (note USB 2.0 mobo, hotplug running)

Also tried
Ndiswrapper –i ~wireless/WUSB54GS.inf
Ndiswrapper –l says driver installed
Noticed sys files *were* copied to /etc/ndiswrapper/wusb54gsv
Noticed one of the file in /etc/ndiswrapper/wusb54gs has for name the *wrong* ID 13b1:sthg
I do not think I had the kernel crash (cannot remember)

My options:
try newest ndiswrapper and mandy 2005
Try stock ndiswrapper and mandy 2006 (2.6.12-14mdk)
try newest ndiswrapper and mandy 2006 (2.6.12-14mdk)
try both inf files! :(
(buy a new device?)

the wiki instructions:

Quote:

Card: Linksys #[WUSB54GSv2], 802.11b/g, USB 2.0 -- [link here|List#WUSB54GS]
Chipset: Broadcom - BCM4320SKFBG
usbid: 13b1:0014
Driver: You can install this driver by either of the following two methods.
Method1: The driver for this RNDIS card doesn't include two .sys files required (usb8023k.sys and rndismpk.sys or usb8023x.sys and rndismpx.sys), as they are part of Windows installation and don't need to be installed in Windows. However, other drivers for different cards based on RNDIS include these .sys files. One is Belkin F5D7051uk at [47]. You can install this driver with BCMRNDIS.INF, which installs the required .sys files. You then need to inform ndiswrapper that this driver, bcmrndis, should be used for usbid of WUSB54GSv2 (13b1:0014), by executing 'ndiswrapper -d 13b1:0014 bcmrndis'
Method2: Used the inf file from the CD, and the .SYS files from usr5420 available at www.usr.com http://www.usr-emea.com/support/s-pr...unkg&prod=5420. Used snapshot from 13/02/2006, along with the usr system files that i had to install on a windows machine to extract. Then copied the wusb54gs.inf and wusb54gsv2.inf to the folder with the sys files - the wusb54gs.inf worked seamlessly with my device on the snapshot.!

Interesting point from the wiki

Quote:

Until the card is powered up, ndiswrapper will not work. For some cards it is enough to change/add setting in /etc/ndiswrapper/<driver>/.conf files to 1. For example, SMC cards have a setting 'EnableRadio|0' which means radio is off. Change that line to 'EnableRadio|1'.

from a thread on the net:

Quote:

Also, be sure you're not using the drivers off the cd that came with it, they never work.

Also read that (but WUSB54G not GS, anyway in /etc/ndiswrapper/infname RadioState is 0
for conffile in /etc/ndiswrapper/WUSB54G/*.conf; do
sudo cat $conffile | sed -e 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/' > $conffile
done

Suse 9.3 was ok, but not 10.0 (no solution)
http://prism54.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=1418
Suse 10 unsolved
http://www.linuxforum.com/forums/ind...owtopic=177495

wusb54gs success howto install wusb54gsv2 linux

I have it to work :) with method2 for ndis and method1 for the driver file
Link to wiki:
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...dex.php/List#L

Warnings:
The HOWTO: WUSB54GS v1 (only?) on (X)(K?)Ubuntu is at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=225206
(I contributed to it, it is rather good)
- On newer kernel you can now have a power issue (Thanks Banz)
- No report yet of this working with a device version 1.0 (most people seem to have a v 2.0)
- Latest report of working with kernel is 2.6.18-rc5 and ndiswrapper 1.18
- Nearly there with suse 10.0 see http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=449823
- I tried with suse 10.1, even less luck.
- Ubuntu ok, for a version 1.0 device see http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...light=wusb54gs
So depending how much time you have, be aware that it seems easier to make it work
with some distro / kernel than other ones (at this stage anyway)

Had to find a damn PC with zindows to install usr5420 and copy sys file to a floppy.
NB: if you use method1 F5D7051 you need Zindows NT service pack 4.0 at least.
In practice unshield, cabextract, and unzip in linux work with the exe to extract the sys file.

Edit must have mixed up filename when going back to linux
so in fact I used files from method 1 then.
Create d directory and put F5D7051.exe in it
get hold of unshield-0.4-3mdk.rpm or equivalent
unzip F5D7051.exe (method 1)
unshield x DATA1.CAB
unshield x DATA2.CAB
then the driver I would have used
2Kdriver/usb8023k.sys
# ls -l 2Kdriver/
total 48
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 29184 May 19 23:11 RNDISMPK.sys
This matches the instruction below

root terminal with tail -f /var/log/syslog
root another terminal make uninstall of old ndiswrapper
[edit you also must delete /etc/ndiswrapper by hand if you did not guess or try]
plug wusb54gs
localhost kernel: usb 3-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
mkdir wusb54gs
copy Zindows 2 sys files to ~wusb54gs
copy everything from drivers directory of linksys CD to wusb54gs

unpack and go to ndiswrapper1-8
make
make install
you will see last line
install -m 644 ndiswrapper.8 /usr/share/man/man8

Quote:

I may have confused people with versions. 1.8 is utils, 1.14 is the ndiswrapper tarball.
#ndiswrapper -v
utils version: 1.8
driver version: 1.14
vermagic: 2.6.11-6mdk 686 gcc-3.4

# ndiswrapper -v
utils version: 1.8
driver version: 1.14
vermagic: 2.6.11-6mdk 686 gcc-3.4
# ls -l wusb54gs/
total 104
These are definetely the 2 files to use (size and case correct, but date unimportant)
-rw-rw-r-- 1 29184 Apr 25 00:49 RNDISMPK.sys
-rw-rw-r-- 1 13824 Apr 25 00:49 usb8023k.sys
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7419 Nov 11 15:57 WUSB54GS.cat*
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 6237 Nov 11 15:57 WUSB54GS.inf*
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7423 Nov 11 15:57 WUSB54GSv2.cat*
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 31845 Nov 11 15:58 WUSB54GSv2.inf*
# ndiswrapper -i wusb54gs/WUSB54GSv2.inf
Installing wusb54gsv2
# ndiswrapper -l
Installed drivers:
wusb54gsv2 invalid driver!
# ls -l /etc/ndiswrapper/wusb54gsv2/
13B1:0014.F.conf wusb54gsv2.inf
# cp wusb54gs/*.sys /etc/ndiswrapper/wusb54gsv2/
# ndiswrapper -l
Installed drivers:
wusb54gsv2 driver installed, hardware present
# modprobe ndiswrapper

Code:

some date localhost kernel: ndiswrapper version 1.14 loaded (preempt=no,smp=no)

some date localhost kernel: ndiswrapper: driver wusb54gsv2 (Linksys,01/25/2005, 4.01.20.0) loaded

some date localhost netplugd[16933]: wlan0: ignoring event

some date localhost kernel: wlan0: vendor: 'Linksys Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with SpeedBooster'

some date localhost kernel: wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device someMAC address using driver wusb54gsv2, 13B1:0014.F.conf

some date localhost kernel: wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK

some date localhost kernel: usbcore: registered new driver ndiswrapper

some date localhost net.agent[7312]: how do I bring interfaces up on this distro?

some date localhost net.agent[7312]: add event not handled

some date localhost netplugd[16933]: wlan0: ignoring event

some date localhost netplugd[16933]: wlan0: ignoring event

localhost kernel: wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

If you get this usbcore: registered new driver ndiswrapper
and nothing afterwards in the dmesg. It means that the kernel thinks you do not have enough amp on your usb.
It doesn't show any error message and iwconfig doesnt show you have a wireless device.
However, looking into syslog if you see "usb 1-1: no configuration chosen from 1 choice"
cf http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=285873
Then entere the command echo -n 1 > /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-1/bConfigurationValue
Note 1-1 must be replaced by whatever is in the line "usb 1-1: no configuration chosen from 1 choice"

# iwconfig
sit0 no wireless extensions.

Warning: Driver for device wlan0 recommend version 18 of Wireless Extension,
but has been compiled with version 17, therefore some driver features
may not be available...

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0

#ndiswrapper -m

Not bad after starting linux about 1 year ago ;)
If this helped you, and you are happy and feel good, if you can:
- make a donation to ndiswrapper
- make a donation to medecin sans frontiere or whoever, or just enjoy your connection
- do not forget to write to linksys and ask for a linux driver
Linux rocks!

{Last edit to include power supply issues)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emmanuel_uk

Thanks.

WUSB54GS v2.0
ID 13b1:0014 (reported in sourceforge ndiswrapper wiki)
ID 13b1:0014 serial number starts with MI010F (manufactured 03/06) Unable to tell if this is a 2.0 or 2.1 (reported by Emmanuel_UK)

WUSB54GS v2.1

I have one, maufactured 03/06 serial starts with MI010F tis version 2.1 :)

Cant get it to work with ubuntu though! :scratch: :cry:

DJ Binks welcome to LQ. Thanks for your post
How did you find out it was a 2.1.
I looked on the box but could not tell.

What did you try? Did you do it step by step? did you use the latest ndiswrapper?
What version of ubuntu? What error messages, what syslog? I imagine you are
not new to forums, so you know asking a "good" question is important.
I have very limited time for now, so I am not sure I can help, but anybody
being linux-savy should be able to help