USB wireless adaptor (802.11g)

[Larry Grover]

Shu Hung (Koala) wrote:
> On 3/8/06, Larry Grover <lgrover at zoominternet.net> wrote:
>> The zd1211 web page lists several other wireless usb adapters using the
>> same chipset.  They should work as well as the Prismiq adapter I have.
>> Perhaps one of these will be easier for you to find?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Larry
>>
>>
> Dear Larry,
> 
> I brought the Planex GW-US54GZL adaptor.
> According to http://zd1211.ath.cx/ it uses zd1211 chipset.
> Actually, the box of the adaptor claims it support linux.
> 
> I open the box and plug it in, nothing happened.
> I even insmod the module zd1211 and still nothing special happened
> 
> What should I install / do before getting the wireless adaptor work?
> Is there any good starting guide / documentation for you to set things up?
> Thanks a lot.
> 
> Regards,
> Koala Yeung
> 

If you're running Dapper, the testing/unstable version of the upcoming 
6.04 release, you shouldn't have to do anything special.  Just plug it 
in and configure the interface.  You should be able to use the GUI 
network configuration utility, but I just added a couple of lines 
manually to my /etc/network/interfaces file:

iface wlan0 inet dhcp
auto wlan0

If you're running one of the stable releases (Breezy or older), you may 
have to do a little bit of work to get it running, though I don't 
remember doing anything special on my Breezy-x86 system.

There is a page on the wiki about zd1211 wireless adapters:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WifiDocs/Driver/zydas_zd1211?highlight=%28zd1211%29#top

There are also a number of threads on the forums about these adapters. 
Go to:  http://www.ubuntuforums.org/
...and search on "zd1211"  to find them, but I suggest you start with 
the page on the wiki.

Can you tell me which release are you running?  Breezy? and also what 
architecture you're on (x86, x86-64, power-pc)?

Can you also tell me what happens when you open a terminal window, and 
execute the command, dmesg, immediately after you insert the USB device? 
  Do you see any lines that indicate the device is recognized and the 
module loaded?

You may also find it helpful to open another terminal window and run the 
command:
sudo tail -f /var/log/messages
which will let you see a continuously updated listing of kernel 
messages.  Do you see any lines indicating that the adapter is 
recognized and the correct module (zd1211) is loading?

Regards,
Larry