(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Can Puppy be configured to detect and run my USB connected Linksys WUSB11 wireless adapter. I would really like this to work if possible.

If it can, can you please explain in simple steps for a Linux newbie how to activate it?

Thanks for you time.

Let me just say that this is a frequent question on a lot of forums, about your Linksys device USB wireless in general.

Did you look in start-->setup-->wizard wizard-->connecting to the Internet... to see if the device is seen by Puppy?

What version of Puppy are you using right now?

Posting what exact model number and version number of your device would also tell folks what chipset is on the hardware, which would determine if the ndiswrapper would actually work. This confuses some folks, as different versions of the same model could have different chipsets that drive the device.

Wireless is currently being worked on in Puppy and there are some issues that make this difficult for new Linux users. Right now, your Linksys model is not listed as working using ndiswrapper, which is the package that allows you to use the Windows driver (that came with the device) to work in Linux.

Just keep in mind, that wireless cards are designed to work in Windows and few manufacturers write Linux drivers. Some currently work and others do not.

USB devices add another problem to the mix.

Let's see if one of the wireless experts can give you some better information.

Now, if this was a Linksys PCI card, I could give you a lot of information!

I am using XP to get on the Internet so the version of Puppy I used is 1 week old, whatever that version was at the time.

The linksys wusb11 is version 2.8.

Interesting you should say that ndiswrapper does not support the wusb11, is that confirmed anywhere as such? And it would explain why I am having difficulties making it work with a more comprehensive distribution of Mepis (where I have left the same sort of question on their forum).

Mepis respond with the following instructions:

ndiswrapper -i netusb.inf
ndiswrapper -l to confirm its loaded and running (which it was)
modprobe ndiswrapper
iwconfig
ifconfig wlan0 up

where at this point I am greeted with the error message 'ERROR while getting interface flags: no such device'.

The linksys pcmcia adapter worked fine however (with mepis at least, I did not try with Puppy).

Known working cards are on the ndiswrapper wiki page, located here.

Yours is not listed. There are three versions that I found;

2.5 = Prism chipset
2.6 = ATMEL chipset
2.8 = yours. I'm not sure what chipset it is.

cdgeorge wrote:Mepis respond with the following instructions:

ndiswrapper -i netusb.inf
ndiswrapper -l to confirm its loaded and running (which it was)
modprobe ndiswrapper
iwconfig
ifconfig wlan0 up

where at this point I am greeted with the error message 'ERROR while getting interface flags: no such device'.

The linksys pcmcia adapter worked fine however (with mepis at least, I did not try with Puppy).

ndiswrapper -i configures the windows driver

ndiswrapper -l just lets you know that the driver is present

modprobe ndiswrapper actually loads the driver.

If you use dmesg this will tell you some information. It should be at the bottom of the output. Look to see if you get a series of messages that lead you to believe that it is working, or if there is an error.

Does typing in iwconfig show any wireless interfaces? Say wlan0 or whatever?

ifconfig wlan0 Puppy uses dhcpcd to get the interface up. In any case, if using ifconfig, and you get an error message, like you did, something is wrong anyway.

To get an idea, see my article located here. Remember, mine is a PCI card and USB, I believe, is a little different.

You also have to use iwconfig to set any special settings, say if the router is using WEP, or you have an essid that has to be set. If you know this already, ignore my comment.

The Linksys WUSB11 is listed here http://at76c503a.berlios.de/devices.html
That means it should be supported by the ATMEL drivers in Puppy 1.0.1.
Try modprobe at76c503-rfmd in 1.0.1 and then check if it is seen with usbview.
If not try modprobe at76c505-rfmd2958
or modprobe at76c503-i3861
The reason for the cut and fit approach is that Linksys used different radios in various levels of the WUSB11.
You may be able to short-circuit that if there is a marking on the device telling you which version it is.
Those drivers are not in 1.0.2, hopefully they will return in 1.0.3.
I have had no luck with USB ATMEL devices and ndiswrapper.
If/when the device is claimed by a driver, then you can configure it. There is some howto advice in the wiki on that topic.

Hope this helps.

Sorry for taking a while to respond, but I have been flitting from Linux forum to forum trying to find the answer about my Linksys dongle. The answer lies here:

http://forum.kanotix.net/viewtopic.php? ... sys+wusb11

And I did indeed try the Kanotix live CD and I can now connect successfully because Kanotix auto-detects it straight from boot. Yippee! But it would really be cool if a tiny distribution like Puppy could do the same thing!

I hope this has give you enough clues as to the sort of drivers I need and how I could activate them in Puppy. The speeeeeeeeed of Puppy is phenomenal!

Oh and if you are looking in 'puppy master' I know you are improving the wireless support for the next release - so can you please include the atmel drivers mentioned above so I can use my Linksys WUSB11 v2.8.

Thanks!

1.0.3 has those atc503 modules.