Need Help choosing Wireless USB Adapter for Zorin

Complete newbie for Linux & Zorin here. Installed this OS on my sister's old Dell laptop that only has a Celeron processor. Windows was bogging it down so much she couldn't use it. Zorin is working great and works good on the internet when connected to an Ethernet cable. Can't get the current wireless USB adapter to work on it though. She currently has an Airlink 101 AWL5088. We tried to install that, using the windows drivers and the ndiswrapper. However, honestly I am clueless about how to do that and not sure I did it correctly, or if the driver just isn't compatible. It finds and sees our wireless connection, just won't actually connect to it. So to simply things, is there a Wireless USB adapter available that will work out of the box, basically a plug and play type thing for this OS? Thanks for your help!

Hi!
First of all, if I understand correctly, your dell laptop does not have a wireless card? Could you please post the result of

Code:

lspci

to confirm that?

Secondly, would you like to try to get your USB adapter to work before you buy a new one?
If yes, please plug the adapter and post the result of

Code:

lsusb

Also the result of

Code:

iwconfig

while you are trrying to connect to a network.


Otherwise, netgear adapters seem to be working with ndiswrapper in linux and actually, swarf has prepared a guide about netgear wg111t.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1854

First of all lets see if we can get the Airlink working. And I want to get it working by linux firmware and not windows drivers...

@Dmghoops. Before following the guide below, go to ndiswrapper and delete the driver you have installed. (So there is no conflict).

1. Go here: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dow ... =true#2742
and dowload the Unix (Linux) driver RTL8188CUS (Linux Kernel 2.6.18~2.6.38 and Kernel 3.0.2, version 3.4.2_3727 dated 2012/5/7 size 7628k). Use the HK1 site-link.
A file called RTL819xCU_USB_linux_v3.4.2_3727.20120404 will be dowloaded. It will be in your Downloads file.

2. Go to your downloads file, right-click on the file and select "extract here". The file will be extracted and so you will have a new file named RTL8188C_8192C_8192D_USB_linux_v3.4.2_3727.20120404

3. Then copy this file to /usr/src.
To do this open terminal and write:

Code:

sudo cp /Downloads/RTL8188C_8192C_8192D_USB_linux_v3.4.2_3727.20120404 /usr/src/

4. And then just run the install.sh located inside the above file:
To do this, in terminal navigate to the folder, i.e.

Code:

cd /user/src/RTL8188C_8192C_8192D_USB_linux_v3.4.2_3727.20120404

and then

Code:

sudo sh ./install.sh

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parenthesis:
You can do steps 3 and 4 more easily by doing the following:
Open terminal and run

Code:

gksudo nautilus

The nautilus will open with administration rights.
Then just go to your Downloads file, copy the RTL8188C_8192C_8192D_USB_linux_v3.4.2_3727.20120404 file and paste it in your /usr/src/ directory.
Then open the RTL8188C_8192C_8192D_USB_linux_v3.4.2_3727.20120404 file, and double click on the file install.sh to run it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Let me know if this worked.

Wow, what great responses, thanks so much! Ok, so here are some answers you were looking for:
1) The Dell computer did come with a wireless card, but that card flaked out years ago, and up to the point of purchasing the Airlink, she was using an old PCMCIA card. That had to be replaced because it would not connect using the newer more secure connections, ie WPA2, etc, because it was just too old...

2) I would like to get the Airlink working, but had basically given up on it. My husband, who is an engineer, tried to install the linux driver you specified this evening, and he got it almost installed, but it ultimately failed, and the reason we believe it failed is that it's apparently only compatible with kernel versions 2.6.18 ~ 2.6.38, or 3.0.2. The Zorin Lite kernel version we have is 3.0.0-20-generic #34 - Unbuntu dated Tuesday, May 1st @ 17:28:21 UTC 2012.

Any ideas on what to do at this point with the Airlink, or just go back to trying to figure out what we could buy that would work out of the box?

Thanks, again!

Also, he gave me a copy of the error message when he did the install. It is as follows:

Please select card type(1/2):
1) RTL8192cu
2) RTL8192du
#? 1
You have selected RTL8192cu
rtw_version.h has existed!
Authentication requested [root] for make clean:
[: 42: unexpected operator
bash: make: command not found
Authentication requested [root] for make driver:
[: 52: unexpected operator
bash: make: command not found
##################################################
Compile make driver error: 127
Please check error Mesg
##################################################

First do this:

Code:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Then write in terminal

Code:

uname -r

and according to the result you will get (kernel edition - probably is 3.0.0-20), write the following command

Code:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-3.0.0-20-generic

Then, in step4, before navigating to the usr/src/RTL8188 file, and before running the "install.sh" file, first do this:

Code:

sudo rmmod rtl8192cu

and then navigate to the usr/src/RTL8188 file run the install.sh script

Code:

cd /user/src/RTL8188C_8192C_8192D_USB_linux_v3.4.2_3727.20120404
sudo sh ./install.sh

If this works, in order to make things permanent, do the following:

Code:

sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper
sudo ndiswrapper -e net8192cu
echo "blacklist rtl8192cu" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rtl8192cu.conf
echo 8192cu | sudo tee -a /etc/modules