Can't get USB wireless adapter to work with Xubuntu

ajmo · 08-05-2007, 07:33 AM

I'm totally new to Linux and I'm having trouble getting a TP-Link TL-WN321G USB wireless adapter to work with Xubuntu (installed three weeks ago).

The computer is an old Gateway Celeron 433MHz with 192MB RAM which used to run W98.

I've followed heaps of How-To's and Troubleshooting guides, and I think I'm almost there but need a push.

I haven't done anything with it for a few weeks, so I'm a bit rusty on exactly what I have done, but I installed the Ralink drivers, blacklisted various RTx modules and installed ndiswrapper and the windows drivers.

lsusb give me

Code:

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 148f:2573 Ralink Technology, Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 058f:9254 Alcor Micro Corp. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

iwconfig:
(I can set the Channel to 11 and the ESSID, but it doesn't fix the problem)

Code:

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

rausb0    RT73 WLAN  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Auto  Channel=1  Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

ifconfig

Code:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:40:F4:7C:10:D5  
          inet addr:192.168.0.14  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::240:f4ff:fe7c:10d5/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:6847 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:6272 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:4790144 (4.5 MiB)  TX bytes:982761 (959.7 KiB)
          Interrupt:9 Base address:0xec00 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:66 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:66 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:5104 (4.9 KiB)  TX bytes:5104 (4.9 KiB)

rausb0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:14:78:EE:FF:D4  
          inet6 addr: fe80::214:78ff:feee:ffd4/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1616 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:16373 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:118963 (116.1 KiB)  TX bytes:1113568 (1.0 MiB)

rausb0:av Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:14:78:EE:FF:D4  
          inet addr:169.254.11.239  Bcast:169.254.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

lshw -C network: (there's also an eth0 entry which I omitted)

Code:

  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: rausb0
       serial: 00:14:78:ee:ff:d4
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=RT73 WLAN

My understanding (from help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide#lshw) is that there isn't a driver associated with the device (the configuration line should be showing it).

I can ping the computer and the loopback but not the router.

Any suggestions or requests for more info?

ajmo · 08-05-2007, 07:41 AM

I just realised there's a Wireless Networking forum that I should have posted this in.

Further to my post:
The xfce Network Settings dialogue shows the Essid, and the connection is enabled;
WEP is turned off;
Could the machine be too old to handle a wireless usb adapter? A usb external hard drive works OK.