Linksys WUSB300N wireless adapter

[ProLine 21]

I have a Linksys usb wireless adaptor ( WUSB 300N ), and I cant figure out how best to install its drivers. I have the install disk that came with it, with the XP drivers, with folders; setup.exe, install.exe, Drivers and others. I'm thinking those are the important folders/files to mention here... I'm brand-spankin new to Linux and have tried Vector 6, Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick, and am now trying out Fedora 14 32bit as recommended. I was told Wine came in that OS and figured it would be best FOR NOW, to help wean me off Windows. Now, won’t Wine install my drivers from the manufacturers CD by running the setup.exe, or the install.exe? I have many other issues concerning my machine and Fedora/Linux getting along besides this (says my hardware doesn't support 3D acceleration...as if!) but thought that if I could, at least, get on line and educate myself some before asking too many 'dumb' questions I might not be such a burden on everyone. lol I also believe wine doesn't work, but that’s and issue for another post. I NEED to get online asap HELP! Oh, by the way I don’t have an internet connection that I can keep my computer online to DL any more Fedora Packages at the moment. Thats why I need the USB adaptor working asap.

My system: XFX NVidia 750i SLI Motherboard -- Pentium Dual-Core E5200 @2.50 GHz -- 4GB corsair DDR2 RAM -- an XFX 9800GT Graphics card – At the time of this post I’m running Fedora 14 32bit as of 3/22/2011 there are no software updates left for me to get – I updated yesterday and got everything.

Any other questions? Anything I missed to help you understand my problem, don’t hesitate to say so.
P.S. HEEEEEELLLP! <--- so sayeth the newb

[lightman47]

Linksys/Cisco is "in bed with Microsoft" and do not ( and WILL not) support Linux. On two separate occasions I got blown off by them when I asked for info so I could get their devices working.

On the other hand, I ordered one of these, pluged it in and it took right off. You're free to try others as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ore-_-33180017

[stoat]

I also believe wine doesn't work, but that’s and issue for another post.

It does work. Very well for many Window applications. I use it for Quicken, Savings Bond Wizard, Password Safe, etc. Many people use it for Windows-based games. And so on.

Now, won’t Wine install my drivers from the manufacturers CD by running the setup.exe, or the install.exe?

No. That it cannot do. But it's a great thought.

I NEED to get online asap HELP! Oh, by the way I don’t have an internet connection that I can keep my computer online to DL any more Fedora Packages at the moment. Thats why I need the USB adaptor working asap.

I have seen posts where people got this device going with ndiswrapper. It's software that acts sort of like an "adapter" for using a Windows wireless driver in Linux. You can try that if you want to. Use it to install a Windows driver that makes the thing work in XP, W2K, or even W98, but not Vista or Windows 7. You're using 32-bit Fedora, so use 32-bit ndiswrapper and a 32-bit Windows driver.

I used ndiswrapper compiled from source before Linux drivers became available for my Broadcom wireless cards. In your off-line situation, you can install the precompiled version of ndiswrapper from RPM Fusion, or compile it from source. Either way, but I recommend the RPM Fusion version. You can download the three rpm files from RPM Fusion on another computer, transfer them to the wireless computer, and manually install them. I am willing to help, but no promises.

If you want to try this idea, then return and identify your running kernel with this command in a Fedora terminal window...

uname -r

With that, I or somebody will be able to tell you what to download from RPM Fusion and install for ndiswrapper.

Then you will need the SYS and INF files of the Windows XP or W2K driver. See if you can find those on that CD you mentioned.

P.S.: Searching with Google, I read many threads/blogs/articles about your wireless device and people referring to a tarball named wusb300n.tar that has driver files known to work with ndiswrapper. The usually quoted link is now no good, but I found another one. Here is it if you should need it (in case the drivers on the CD are no good)...

http://rapidshare.com/#!download|845...B300N.tar|1679

Actually, I would just start the the tarball driver since there are many reports of it working with ndiswrapper and your wireless device. It would be interesting to try the CD drivers, but it might save time to use the tarball driver.

[ProLine 21]

WOW !! thanks for the response. I didnt really expect to be heard among the hurds/throngs. I too have seen threads about using ndiswrapper and the one which has the old link to a driver, thank you for the link to where it is now at rapidshare. I've downloaded that file and now all I need to do is figure out how to get and install ndiswrapper, should be no problem with RPM fusion, yes? My kernel is 2.6.35.11-83fc14.i686-PAE.
As for wine not working...it didnt until I found it using KPackageKit and installed that package and now it works fine but for some bugs that wont allow EVE Online run. I think thats due to the issues I've read about nvidia vid card drivers in fedora, or if wine is bugged. I'll be able to put the puter online tomorrow and I'm going to try and get things done then. Again, thank you very much for your help. Pray for me Maybe I'm using the wrong OS?? I've also got Ubuntu, Vector, and Open Suse. I've heard or read about an OS taylored more toward gaming, maybe that would get along with nvidia better? But that too has me a bit worried in that I dont want to get constrained by an OS that wont help me through college (Electrical Eng.) either. I'm not sure what OS would be best for me, Linux wise. I would also like to have enough flex in an OS to do some multimedia (TV, DVD, Surround sound and etc.) with my computer. I've also ben told it does't really matter which OS you get, get used to it, get it loaded with software, and go. I figure that means get good at using the terminal too, where the power of unix lies. meh. I'm going to try and get a bug report in on the issues I'm having with Wine, EVE Online, and so far BattleZone II. BZ II runs slow as hell and soon crashes. StarCraft is working fine so far. I had one crash trying to do a multi player thing but that MAY have been due to not having a connection. LOL...

[stoat]

I've downloaded that file and now all I need to do is figure out how to get and install ndiswrapper, should be no problem with RPM fusion, yes? My kernel is 2.6.35.11-83fc14.i686-PAE.

Using another computer or OS (as you are now), click on the three links below to download the files you need from RPM Fusion...

ndiswrapper-1.56-1.fc14.i686.rpm
kmod-ndiswrapper-2.6.35.11-83.fc14.i686.PAE-1.56-1.fc14.1.i686.rpm
kmod-ndiswrapper-PAE-1.56-1.fc14.1.i686.rpm

Somehow transfer them to the Fedora filesystem in the wireless computer. In Fedora, open a terminal and change directories to the folder with the three rpm files. Install them all at once with this (exactly)...

su
rpm -ivh *.rpm

When that's done, untar that tarball you downloaded, find the driver files in there, and install them with ndiswrapper. Help available when that time comes.

Don't forget... no promises of any kind for any of this.

[ProLine 21]

ok ndiswrapper is installed...now what please?

[stoat]

1. Use your Nautilus file manager to extract the WUSB300N.tar file (right-click & "Extract here").

2. Open a terminal and change directories to the new folder that was extracted (WUSB300N). That folder contains several inf, sys, and cat files.

3. Install the driver. In all of the threads/blogs/articles that I read, people used the netmw245.inf file to install the driver. So next...

su
ndiswrapper -i netmw245.inf

4. To test it, manually load the ndiswrapper kernel module and restart NetworkManager...

su
modprobe ndiswrapper
service NetworkManager restart

5. Give NetworkManager time to react (several seconds), and then check for networks (left-click the NetworkManager panel icon).

6. Try to connect.

7. If it's working, a little work is left to be done to make it all happen automatically when you boot. You also will need to install the RPM Fusion repos or you will lose wireless when the kernel updates. Help available.

8. If is not working, then return and describe what you did and observed in detail. Try pasting stuff from the terminal if you think it will help describe what you are seeing. Some additional things to post if it's not working...

ndiswrapper -l
lsmod | sort
ifconfig
iwconfig

[ProLine 21]

I am connected! Now on to the "making sure it keeps working after reboot" part. Thanks so much!

---------- Post added at 04:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:12 PM ----------

And by the way...you ARE the man!

---------- Post added at 04:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:13 PM ----------

And now the rpm fusion repos are up to date....thank you, thank you, thank you!!

[stoat]

This part may involve some trial and error work. Here is my first guess at it...

su
ndiswrapper -mi

Now reboot. The ndiswrapper module should load automatically, NetworkManager should find and list available networks, and it should automatically connect to the last network if it is available. If none of that happens, then return with this...

lsmod | sort
ls /etc/modprobe.d
cat /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper*

[ProLine 21]

I've done a reboot and everything is peachy

[stoat]

The last thing to do is to install the RPM Fusion repos so the kmod stuff will be updated for new kernels. An earlier comment by you seemed to indicate that you did that already. Just in case though (and for future readers), here is where to do that. The simplest way is to follow the instructions for the graphical installation with Firefox...

http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration

If you think you already did that, then you can confirm the installed and enabled repos with this...

yum repolist

Lastly, make sure you keep that WUSB300N.tar file in a safe place. You will need it again someday.

P.S.: Congratulations.

[ProLine 21]

I'll accept your congrats only out of common courtesy. Really all the credit is yours though, I was just your remote input device . Thank you for pushing my buttons.