How to use Trendnet TEW-229UB USB wifi stick?

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pauljwells
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 15 Oct 2007, 12:46

How to use Trendnet TEW-229UB USB wifi stick?

#1 Post by pauljwells »

Hi

I'm new to Puppy, familiar with Ubuntu and not afraid of cli...

I have Puppy as a frugal install on my OQO 01+. It has a wireless adapter built in (actually on the usb bus)

Vendor ID 1557
Product ID 0002

I also have the USB stick which is the same vendor but product ID is 0003

As far as I can tell these are both Atmel 76 chipsets, but I can't get Puppy to load the module. Nor can I get NDISwrapper to work with the .inf file I downloaded from Trendnet's website (Win200 version)

Any pointers much appreciated, even if it's just for a USB dongle that will work! I should point out that the USB stick has worked on Ubuntu for over two years on various machines, including the OQO.

Many thanks

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#2 Post by tempestuous »

Try

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modprobe at76_usb
then to check if the module has loaded

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lsmod
then check if the module has created a wifi interface

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ifconfig -a
I checked the source code of the at76_usb module and device id 1557 0002 is not defined.
So if you have no success, we could hack the source code to include this device id, but I need to know which variant of the driver is compatible.
Please run "lsmod" in Ubuntu to see what module is being used for your device. It should be something like at76c503-xxx.

pauljwells
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 15 Oct 2007, 12:46

#3 Post by pauljwells »

Hi

Thx for the hints.

lsmod on ubuntu gives the following:

Module Size Used by

at76_usb 95076 0

and

usbcore 134280 at76_usb, ...

The internal wifi device is not loaded. The usb one is 1557 0003

I tried modprobe at76_usb in puppy and got this:

FATAL: Module at76_usb not found.

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#4 Post by tempestuous »

pauljwells wrote:FATAL: Module at76_usb not found.
Well there's the problem; Puppy cannot locate the zdrv file, which contains its collection of drivers.

You say you have a frugal installation, which I thought was reliable for locating the zdrv file and loading extra modules? Someone else will need to jump in and help, or you will need to search the forum for "zdrv".

And it may help to tell us which version of Puppy you are using.

pauljwells
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 15 Oct 2007, 12:46

#5 Post by pauljwells »

Hi
Thanks for the tip! I found the zdrv file and mounted it then copied all the files to /

My USB stick was then found and the module loaded, scanning works and finds my network, but now I can't get the wep to work.

I'm on slightly firmer ground though now, having gone through this sort of thing dozens of times in the past, so I'll play around a bit more.

I really hope I can get all this working as Puppy seems such a perfect fit for the OQO.

Many thanks

Paul

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#6 Post by tempestuous »

pauljwells wrote:I found the zdrv file and mounted it then copied all the files to /
Unfortunately this will bloat your pupsave file, and maybe consume RAM unnecessarily, that's the whole reason why Puppy keeps the module collection outside the main filesystem, and loads only the extra modules it needs on-demand ... but anyway, it's working for you.

Regarding WEP, yes, I'm seeing a few WEP-related problems reported under Puppy 3.00.
Maybe try loading a few required modules first, before running the Network Wizard -

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modprobe arc4
modprobe crc32c

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scotto_puppy
Posts: 39
Joined: Thu 22 Mar 2007, 21:56
Location: Elvina Bay, NSW,Australia

#7 Post by scotto_puppy »

Just to add my comments: Under puppy 3 I have for the very first time managed to get wep working with my bcm43xx driver. This is such a great step forward.

pauljwells
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 15 Oct 2007, 12:46

#8 Post by pauljwells »

Hmmm

I think my troubles are not quite over yet... Although the module loads and I see an interface. I even see my network when I do a wireless scan I still can't connect, even when I turn off the wep.

So I'm stuck again :(

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#9 Post by tempestuous »

I'm wondering if the wireless tools utilities (iwconfig, etc) are at fault.
I now attach updated wireless tools. Try the stable version 29 first.

EDIT: attachments removed.
Last edited by tempestuous on Thu 18 Oct 2007, 15:52, edited 1 time in total.

pauljwells
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon 15 Oct 2007, 12:46

#10 Post by pauljwells »

Hi

Neither of the wireless tools packages made any difference :(

"Unable to connect to a wireless network"

I found that the zdrv thing is a bug in 3.00 - it doesn't get loaded unless you already have a pup_save file, which was another problem I had! (I finally copied one from another machine). Once this file exists it works fine and the zdrv file gets loaded properly. So now it's just this pesky wireless and I'll be sorted...

jonyo

Re: How to use Trendnet TEW-229UB USB wifi stick?

#11 Post by jonyo »

pauljwells wrote:Any pointers much appreciated, even if it's just for a USB dongle that will work!
pup 2.12 right thru to 2.17.1 / d-link dwl g122 ver b1 with wep 64 hex

Haven't tried with pup v3

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#12 Post by tempestuous »

It would be worth checking the output of dmesg -

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dmesg > dmesg.txt
then open dmesg.txt in geany. Look for anything relevant to the zd1211rw driver.

I have a suspicion that the firmware_class module might be failing to load, and the zd1211rw firmware will then not load.
If so, the fix is easy; pre-load the firmware_class module -

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modprobe firmware_class

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