Linksys WUSB54GSC Woes (SOLVED - sort of...)

[heywoodj]

I've had good luck running various PCMCIA wireless network cards on Puppy on this machine, but I'm evaluating this USB card for future use.

This usb network adapter, Linksys WUSB54GSC, is giving me trouble. Apparently version 1, it appears to have the Broadcom BCM43xx chipset, not the Ralink as in the similar sounding model, WUSB54GC (See here:http://www.modem-help.co.uk/Linksys/WUS ... apter.html)

Network Wizard does not auto-load an interface. Manually trying various modules loads the modules, but no interface is ever detected.

Yet, it did setup and run properly in Windows (obligatory "Yuck!"), which tells me :1. the USB port is good; 2. the network adapter is good; and 3. the drivers are good.

From there I rebooted into Puppy and ran Network Wizard to try ndiswrapper. Ndiswrapper installation then claims invalid drivers.

So, what's the next step? I've also tried via LuPu, but still no joy.

System: Toshiba PII laptop w/192 MB running Turbopup Extreme (4.2.1 variant) on full install.
Network card: Linksys WUSB54GSC ; FCC ID : Q87 WUSB54GSC

[tempestuous]

Wifi devices with Broadcom USB chipsets are supported by the rndis_wlan driver.

See here:http://www.modem-help.co.uk/Linksys/WUS ... apter.html)

That link indicates this device ID: USB\VID_13B1&PID_0026
which is definitely supported by the rndis_wlan module, so it's a question of whether you have the same device ID.
You can check with this command -

Code: Select all

cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

If you have the same device ID, you could manually load the driver like this

Code: Select all

modprobe rndis_wlan

then run the "dmesg" command to look for any errors relating to the rndis_wlan module.

[heywoodj]

Good call on the rndis_wlan module, thank you, tempestuous.

After verifying device ID, Network Wizard was happy with rndis_wlan, and saw available networks and connected and negotiated DHCP properly.... as long as the network was unencrypted.

Now, WPA stops everything. The wizard times-out during the "use this profile" step, although the LED on the adapter is blinking madly.

Is my next step to try and connect from the commandline? I haven't needed to do that for some time.

[heywoodj]

Getting it to be work with WPA was giving me fits. I found a guy in the Gentoo forum who solved it by going to a newer kernel from 2.6.25.x to 2.6.26.x, I believe it was.

Since I was running TurboPup Extreme with the 2.6.25.16 kernel, I tried LuPu 5.0 Live with the 2.6.33.2. Network Wizard didn't auto-detect, but loading the rndis_wlan module allowed me to see and connect to the WPA encrypted network, where I am right now.

WooHoo!

However, this puts me in a predicament -- I'm running TurboPup because it allows my low-spec laptop to run decently. I was considering using this network card on an even lower-spec machine.

LuPu is nice, but the system requirements are more demanding than TurboPup. So, what to do....Suggestions? (Short of junking my junkboxes,that is!)

Edit:Something in my system-- usb port, wireless adapter, other hardware or software -- flaked out and stopped connecting. It's taken me a while to reconnect.

To be continued...

[alberik]

dmesg show me

usbcore: registered new interface driver rndis_wlan but I don't know how to access.

The wizard network show again:
puppy cannot see any active networks interfaces

Do I did something wrong ? i did exactly the same process than heywoodj