Ok, So I'm trying to get a Dlink 8188S WLAN usb adapter working on Mepis MX-14.2. This device should work with the Firmware-Realtek package. I've booted into a live environment using Tails 1.1 and it works without a problem with that firmware. I also checked the Debian Wiki to make sure the device is supported.

The problem is that with the firmware installed in MX-14 the device won't work my network manager says the device is disabled by hardware switch and after reading through many forum postings to see what's wrong I decided to try manually supplying drivers for RTL8192U devices according to the directions here https://wiki.debian.org/rtl819x

This appeared to be the problem and the adapter was working. However, after deleting the leftover files in my home directory and shutting down the computer the adapter was again not functional. I repeated the steps on the wiki page, but it didn't work.

The situation is quite perplexing to me, anyone got any ideas?

Hi,

you can check both the hardware and software switches with rfkill. What is the output of the follow?
You may need to run:
Evo2.

Hi Evo,
Thanks for the feedback. I ran rfkill and got this back:

2: phy2: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

Running "rfkill unblock all" seems to yield no results.

Hi,

ok, was worth a try. I've seen some machines that will actually turn off the wireless device if there is a physical wired connection - can you confirm that you don't have an ethernet cable connected to you machine when you are doing this?

Evo2.

I actually had an HTC EVO phone plugged into the desktop via usb which I used to connect the computer to the router.
However, since my last post I discovered that after running:

sudo rmmod rtl8192cu
sudo modprobe rtl8192cu

Then removing the adapter and plugging it back into the usb port the light came on and it works, but when I restart the computer the adapter does not automatically work and these actions must be repeated. I wonder why that could be?

The folks at the MX-14 forum are very helpful - you should ask your questions there...

http://forum.mepiscommunity.org/viewforum.php?f=91