If your adaptor uses Broadcom chipset you may need to install a piece of firmware to make it work. I had a similar problem with my Linux netbook that had Ralink wifi. It booted up but said that there was no WiFi as no firmware was loaded! After much searching the solution is at http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43.

The B43 package installs the firmware needed to run the Broadcom chipset. As its not GPL it can't be released with any Linux package, but is able to be extracted from the Windows driver. This package is already to go, just install!

I required the firmware-b43-installer package. Not sure if it's in the RasPi repositories as I haven't got mine to play with yet... :-( But the above site it fairly comprehensive!

Hope it works.

i have had issues with broadcom on various laptops using different distro's of linux, this is the best solution i have found so far. i also cant confirm at the moment if the b43 firmware is in the repositories. i will check tonight and see if it is.

i cant actually try this on the R-Pi as i dont have a USB wifi adapter with the broadcom chipset.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10527475&postcount=5

hope this helps.

I think I will take your advice:

"      but at some point I would say you need to cut your losses and possibly think about buying a USB adaptor that is known to work with the Pi, rather  than spending so much time trying to get your current one working ?"

What do you think of this one: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=YN8309

Although it is not branded on the Jaycar website, I think that it is the EW-7811Un which is verified on the wiki [http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#USB_WiFi_Adapters ].

Also, I read on the wiki that someone has made a self-installer (so to speak) which should make it easy to impliment.

Any thoughs before I go -out and buy this wireless adapter?

PS: Should some add the other one to the problem adapter section. 

And as a side not, I think the problem may have been the confusion between the two chips (RT2770 + RT2720) somewhere in the software. or that the hub is not providing enough power and therefore this device is pulling power from the RPi.

Just a though.

The two chips in this device are: Ralink RT2780F chipset with RT2720L as transceiver.  Does this mean anything driver wise?

(I am still going to get a new adapter though)

Mr P wrote:

 

i have had issues with broadcom on various laptops using different distro's of linux, this is the best solution i have found so far. i also cant confirm at the moment if the b43 firmware is in the repositories. i will check tonight and see if it is.

 

i cant actually try this on the R-Pi as i dont have a USB wifi adapter with the broadcom chipset.

 

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10527475&postcount=5

 

hope this helps.

As you can see from the above posts, I don't think that it is a broadcom chipset.

How can I confirm the make if it is a generic brand?

Hello Fergus, although not an answer to the question directly above, have you had a look at the Adafruit distro for the Pi ? From what I remember reading, this has drivers built in for some wireless cards andf may be worth giving a go with your current usb adaptor ?

Morgaine has posted in this forum with links to the distro.

Trying to answer your actual question, have a look at the drivers that come with the adaptor (even if you have got it yet, you can normally find a web page that will supply you the drivers, hopefully from the place you are buying it from) for Windows, and they will give a fair idea. BE something like Drivers\windows\realtek or hopefully something equally as useful.

Steve

I ahev the drivers, I just can't install them becasue I am a Linux n00b.

Could you help with this and this would solve my problem.

Fergus

See: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=13482&p=143746#p143746 for files that I need help with.

Fergus Byrne wrote:

 

I ahev the drivers, I just can't install them becasue I am a Linux n00b.

 

Could you help with this and this would solve my problem.

 

Fergus

 

See: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=13482&p=143746#p143746 for files that I need help with.

Here is the instructions from the readme file that I don't understand/can't find the correct agruments to fill-in.  Could you PLEASE fill-in what I can't and then post back here.  please .

          define the linux kernel source include file path LINUX_SRC

                     modify to meet your need.

3> In os/linux/config.mk

          define the GCC and LD of the target machine

          define the compiler flags CFLAGS

          modify to meet your need.

          ** Build for being controlled by NetworkManager or wpa_supplicant wext functions

             Please set 'HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y' and 'HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y'.

             => #>cd wpa_supplicant-x.x

             => #>./wpa_supplicant -Dwext -ira0 -c wpa_supplicant.conf -d

          ** Build for being controlled by WpaSupplicant with Ralink Driver

             Please set 'HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y' and 'HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=n'.

             => #>cd wpa_supplicant-0.5.7

             => #>./wpa_supplicant -Dralink -ira0 -c wpa_supplicant.conf -d

4> $make

          # compile driver source code

          # To fix "error: too few arguments to function ¡¥iwe_stream_add_event"

            => $patch -i os/linux/sta_ioctl.c.patch os/linux/sta_ioctl.c

5> $cp RT2870STA.dat  /etc/Wireless/RT2870STA/RT2870STA.dat

6> load driver, go to "os/linux/" directory.

    #[kernel 2.4]

    #    $/sbin/insmod rt2870sta.o

    #    $/sbin/ifconfig ra0 inet YOUR_IP up

    #[kernel 2.6]

    #    $/sbin/insmod rt2870sta.ko

    #    $/sbin/ifconfig ra0 inet YOUR_IP up

7> unload driver   

    $/sbin/ifconfig ra0 down

          $/sbin/rmmod rt2870sta

Hello Fergus, i'm afraid as I said above, i'm very much a Linux noob too, and other than looking like those instructions are for re-compiling the kernal with the drivers included (and even that is probably wrong) I can't help much

All I can say is that to get my USB stick working, I didn't have to do any this, just the instructions I posted a way back up this thread. I think there must be an easier way than doing the above.

Thats ok.  but I found this site which looks interesting, I am posting it here so I can find it later

http://linux.die.net/man/8/iwconfig

For fixing a file I messed up.

http://elinux.org/RPi_Peripherals#Wireless:_TP-Link_TL-WN722N_USB_wireless_adapter_.28Debian_6.29

I bought the Edimax EW-7811Un but I need help setting it up, Steve, could you please help me with this one.  The RPi wiki says that it is verified but there is no guide to set-up this device for Raspbian.  I found this guide: http://www.ctrl-alt-del.cc/2012/05/raspberry-pi-meets-edimax-ew-7811un-wireless-ada.html but it has not worked for my RPi.  I think it has something to do with me not being able to get the rpi-update thing.  I tried to get this but failed.  Everytime I run rpi-update it returns:

/usr/bin/rpi-update: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'

/usr/bin/rpi-update: line 1: `<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Trans                                                                             itional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">'

Can this be fixed so that I can update the firmware?

Wireless card help would be nice as well .

I bought the Edimax EW-7811Un but I need help setting it up, Steve, could you please help me with this one.  The RPi wiki says that it is verified but there is no guide to set-up this device for Raspbian.  I found this guide: http://www.ctrl-alt-del.cc/2012/05/raspberry-pi-meets-edimax-ew-7811un-wireless-ada.html but it has not worked for my RPi.  I think it has something to do with me not being able to get the rpi-update thing.  I tried to get this but failed.  Everytime I run rpi-update it returns:

/usr/bin/rpi-update: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'

/usr/bin/rpi-update: line 1: `<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Trans                                                                             itional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">'

Can this be fixed so that I can update the firmware?

Wireless card help would be nice as well .

I noticed from the link that Edimax uses the rtl8192cu driver.  I have another adapter (Asus USB-N13) which uses that driver and it did not work by default with the current Raspbian Wheezy image.  However, it did work ok with Adafruit's new image as it includes that driver, so you may want to give that a try: http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-raspberry-pi-educational-linux-distro/occidentalis-v0-dot-1

Drew Fustini wrote:

 

I noticed from the link that Edimax uses the rtl8192cu driver.  I have another adapter (Asus USB-N13) which uses that driver and it did not work by default with the current Raspbian Wheezy image.  However, it did work ok with Adafruit's new image as it includes that driver, so you may want to give that a try: http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-raspberry-pi-educational-linux-distro/occidentalis-v0-dot-1

I do not really want to change image (right now).  But I might give it a go in the future.

Right now though, I just want to get this adapter working.

Hey drew,

I installed Occidentalis v10.1 successfully onto my Raspberry Pi's SD card and went to /etc/network/interfaces to add my SSID and password where it wanted me to add it. But for some reason I still can't connect to the Internet wirelessly when my wireless dongle is connected in (I'm using the Zyxel NWD2105 which uses Ralink firmware). When adding my SSID do I keep the quotation marks so it's SSID "xxxx" or do I remove the quotation marks? Is there anything else I must do to get my dongle working?

Hi Ahmad,

I believe you should keep the quote marks.  An alterative to configuration via /etc/network/interfaces would be to wicd which is a GUI network manager that allows you to configure your wifi adapter.  You should be to install it by entering into the command line: "sudo apt-get install wicd" (while connected to Internet via Ethernet).  I wrote up more detailed instructions in this comment before:

http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-44703/l/raspberry-pi-wifi-adapter-testing#comment-15744

I didn't try to install wicd it on the Adafruit image yet, so I think I'll give it a go this weekend.  I had installed wicd on the "official" Raspbian Wheezy image and it worked well.

Cheers,

Drew

Okay, thanks for the help, I really appreciate it Drew and I'll give this a go next time I hook up my Pi up to the internet. Hopefully it will work on adafruit's image because I didn't have much luck with it on Rasbian Wheezy, but it's worth a try.

Edit - Using the WICD software on the adafruit's image I successfully managed to connect to my router using a dongle. Thanks for the help, my Raspberry Pi can now connect to to the internet without an Ethernet cable (which has been an issue to me for quite a while)

Message was edited by: Ahmad A