Not getting USB WiFi Dongle AR5523 to run

[pott2000]

Hi,

I am quite new to Puppy but love it a lot!
Runs great on my very old Sony Vaio Laptop with 566 Mhz CPU and 128 MB RAM.
Running it as a full hard install.
I have the Wistron NeWeb 5523 USB WiFi Dongle for which I could find the kernel module in the noarch repositories as well as the necessary files for ndiswrapper in this forum. Unfortunately non of this helps me get the dongle to mount.
LSUSB shows: AR5523 (no firmware), although the kernel module is installed but does not show up either in the netwrok manager under installed modules.

I am a bit clueless what to try next to make it work.

Can anybody help me out? I searched all Puppy forums but could not find anyone with similar issues.

Thanks and best regards
Pott2000

[cthisbear]

pott2000:

Need your Sony model mate.

Need a Puppy to work with the Sony, but be able to suppoprt
your wireless.

Wary 5.5 mightn't be quite good enough.

:::::::::::

http://ns1.murga-projects.com/puppy/vie ... cc65c872fc

The Atheros AR5523 (AR5005UG/AR5005UX) chipset requires the third-party driver; ar5523
which I have finally succeeded in compiling. ar5523 driver dotpet now attached.
I obtained the source code via svn, from here
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/ar5523 "

tempestuous is our wifi >>> Mr Fixit.

So post back...and we will try to get you on air.

Welcome to puppy.....Chris.

[tempestuous]

Yes, you need the ar5523 driver.
This driver only became a standard inclusion from Slacko 5.6 onwards.

As Chris mentioned, I compiled this driver for the Lucid 5.1/5.2 series, and this is the only "older" Puppy which will support that wifi device - unless you can find a developer who has the Wary kernel sources available, and would be prepared to compile this driver.

I suggest you get the latest incarnation of the Lucid series; Puppy Lucid 5.2.8.6 -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=90461

[don570]

There's a long list of devices supported by AR5523 including my
netgear WPN 111

https://wiki.debian.org/ar5523

I have netgear WPN 111 USB stick running on ROLX

Rolx has all the recent drivers included as well and is very stable with
my netgear 111 USB stick. Unstable with Precise puppy

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/RolxA
___________________________________________

[pott2000]

Thanx guys for all your replies and sorry for not replying earlier.
I remember that I had tried Lucid but did not succeed since my Sony Vaio is the PCG-F801A and the hardware does neither support cmov nor pae.
I remember that I only got Wary to run but will happily try Lucid again and RolxA.
Is RolxA available in other languages than French? Or is there something similar to RolxA available in English?

Thanks again,
Pott2002

[don570]

Rolx is an improved version of Racy.
I suggested it because I know from experience that
it does a good job of networking using wifi.

People have been having problems with Precise Puppy
because of the kernel that Precise uses.
_________________________________________

[tempestuous]

I had tried Lucid but did not succeed since my Sony Vaio is the PCG-F801A ...

Are you sure? When Lucid 5.1 was first released in 2010 I was happily booting it on a Pentium2-350.
The Wary kernel is 2.6.32, Lucid is 2.6.33. Not a big difference.

[tempestuous]

UPDATE
Ah, I see your laptop has a K6-2 processor, which means it cannot understand the i686 instruction set.
You listed your processor speed as 566 MHz, which led me to believe it's a Celeron ... but as a K6-2, I suspect the true processor speed will be 533 MHz.

OK, here's the situation: the Puppy Lucid 5.1 kernel is i486, and it includes no i686 applications. All good.
Lucid 5.2.5 retained the i486-compatible kernel, but introduced some i686 applications. Not so good.
Lucid 5.2.8 stayed with the same kernel version, but changed its configuration to i686. This is totally incompatible with your hardware.

So the most up-to-date Lucid version you can use is probably 5.2.0 -
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pu ... pu-520.iso

But if this still fails, Lucid 5.1.1 is what you need -
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pu ... pu-511.iso

[don570]

For early versions of Lucid puppy you should also install
an early version of my right click utility package. Available...


http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=67013


Don't run the recent package since gtkdialog has been upgraded to 0.8.3
in recent puppies.

_________________________________________________

[tempestuous]

5 days later ...
and the outcome is ...
drum roll ...

[tempestuous]

Another 2 days pass.
Take your time.

[pott2000]

Another 2 days pass.
Take your time.

Guys, guys, you are really making me sweat!
So here is the feedback:
LuPu 5.2 runs well on the old machine, but a bit slow. Nevermind, most importantly, the Wifi dongle works. But only if I take the USB dongle out and put it back in. Why is that? Is there an option to make it run from start-up?

Which right-click should I install? Is 6.7.7 too recent?

Which repos should I use? Only lucid-puppy?
I once tried the ubuntu repos to install Firefox 24, but that did not work too well. Are ubuntu repos suitable? I think Firefox and the other browsers are quite old in the LuPu repos, as are the email clients.
I have many more questions but most probably for others sections of this forum.

Thank you all so much so far!
pott2000

[don570]

Which right-click should I install? Is 6.7.7 too recent?

Right click utility package that I distribute now requires
gtkdialog 0.8.3 to be fully compatible.


You can get a copy of gtkdialog 0.8.3 here..
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 831#677831


Check which version you have installed by typing in terminal

Code: Select all

gtkdialog -v

______________________________________________

[tempestuous]

the Wifi dongle works. But only if I take the USB dongle out and put it back in. Why is that? Is there an option to make it run from start-up?

Yes, unfortunately there seems to be some form of initialisation required for USB wifi devices. I experienced the same thing when I was using a USB wifi dongle back in the Puppy 1-series days (2005/2006). I don't have a solution. Maybe you should post a separate query on the forum about this.

Regarding old-versus-new web browsers, I suspect you need to stick with older versions which are non-i686 and somewhat "lighter".
Again, you could consider making a new post on the forum along the lines of "what's the best browser for old computers?"

Now that I think about my old wifi dongle (D-Link DWL-122) it makes me think that the best overall solution for you would be an older Puppy version (probably 2-series) + older wifi dongle??
Or since you have a laptop, forget about a USB dongle, and get Cardbus wifi adaptor??
Worth thinking about.

[pott2000]

Hi Tempestuous,

I wouldn't like to get back from LuPu 5.2.0 to older Puppies but rather use newer hardware. It is already not that comfortable having to use rather old software (browsers etc.)

I checked on ebay and the following devices would be available:

Does D-Link DWL 650+ actually support WPA? Under Windows it seems it does not. So maybe immediately use

e.g.

D-Link DWL-G 630 Airplus G 802.11G Card Bus PCMCIA 54 Mbps 2,4 GHz

SIEMENS GIGASET PC CARD 54Mbit/s S30853-S1007-R107-3: On Ubuntu until 14.04 apparently driver issues

Tenda W302C

3com OfficeConnect Wireless 108Mbps 11g XJACK PC Card

ORINOCO GOLD PCMCIA PC Card Wlan WiFi Classic 16Bit 5V WPA Windows XP Linux

Conceptronic WLAN 54MB PCMCIA WPA

Hegu PCMCIA (PC Card) WLAN 54Mbit

VIVANCO Wireless LAN Cardbus Adapter, 54 Mbps

PCMCIA WLAN Karte 108 Mbit wireless Notebook Card 22255 (could not identify manufacturer, comes with Win driver CD)

Since you are the Puppy Wifi wizard I hope you can advise which one to choose which will seamlessly integrate with LuPu 5.2.0 as soon as you provide the driver

Thanks!

[tempestuous]

would the DWL 650+ do the trick?

I would prefer you use the DWL-650, this has the very reliable Atheros chipset. For a short period I used this device, myself, under Puppy 1.04 in 2005.

The DWL-650 "plus" versions contain the less reliable Texas Instruments chipset, but yes, it should work OK.
Out-of-the-box, Lucid 5.2.0 doesn't support the DWL-650+, but I provided the driver you need here -
http://www.smokey01.com/tempestuous/acx ... 6.33.2.pet

But now that you're using an older wifi device, it would be feasible to use an older Puppy version such as the 2-series, which should be noticeably more responsive on older hardware ...
unfortunately the Texas Instruments (acx) wifi driver under Puppy 2.x supports only WEP encryption, not WPA encryption. This is a major disadvantage, since most wifi access points these days are WPA.
Again, the DWL-650 would be a better choice than DWL-650+

[pott2000]

Hi Tempestuous,

I wouldn't like to get back from LuPu 5.2.0 to older Puppies but rather use newer hardware. It is already not that comfortable having to use rather old software (browsers etc.)

I checked on ebay and the following devices would be available:

Does D-Link DWL 650+ actually support WPA? Under Windows it seems it does not. So maybe immediately use

e.g.

D-Link DWL-G 630 Airplus G 802.11G Card Bus PCMCIA 54 Mbps 2,4 GHz

SIEMENS GIGASET PC CARD 54Mbit/s S30853-S1007-R107-3: On Ubuntu until 14.04 apparently driver issues

Tenda W302C

3com OfficeConnect Wireless 108Mbps 11g XJACK PC Card

ORINOCO GOLD PCMCIA PC Card Wlan WiFi Classic 16Bit 5V WPA Windows XP Linux

Conceptronic WLAN 54MB PCMCIA WPA

Hegu PCMCIA (PC Card) WLAN 54Mbit

VIVANCO Wireless LAN Cardbus Adapter, 54 Mbps

PCMCIA WLAN Karte 108 Mbit wireless Notebook Card 22255 (could not identify manufacturer, comes with Win driver CD)

Since you are the Puppy Wifi wizard I hope you can advise which one to choose which will seamlessly integrate with LuPu 5.2.0 as soon as you provide the driver

Thanks!

Sorry, did not see your reply to my unedited post. Would you mind commenting on the above?

[pott2000]

Sorry, another question:

Is the
AirPlus XtremeG DWL-G650 D-Link WLAN Adapter

different from the regular DWL-650?

[tempestuous]

Does D-Link DWL 650+ actually support WPA?

Yes, the hardware supports WPA, but early drivers (both Windows and Linux) did not.
Under Puppy 2.x with the old acx driver, WPA won't work.
Under Puppy Lucid with my acx-mac80211 driver, WPA should work ...
but possibly only WPA, not WPA2. That's another problem with these old wifi adaptors (and their drivers) - often WPA support only extends to the first WPA standard, not WPA2.

Is the AirPlus XtremeG DWL-G650 D-Link WLAN Adapter different from the regular DWL-650?

Yes, refer here -
http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_part ... ame=D-Link
In fact, my previous claim to have used the DWL-650 is wrong. I was actually using the G650.
The G650 with Atheros chipset is a good choice, but be careful, as you can see from the previous link there are several different variants, and the very first (A1) variant was not so good.

Similarly, there were several variants of the DWL-G630, and the early variants were no good for WPA.

ORINOCO GOLD.
No. Old chipset, limited or no WPA compatibility.

Conceptronic WLAN 54MB PCMCIA WPA
No mention of model number. Can't help.

Hegu PCMCIA (PC Card) WLAN 54Mbit
What the hell is that? Google can't even find it!

VIVANCO Wireless LAN Cardbus
I think it has TI chipset. This product seems obscure.

PCMCIA WLAN Karte 108 Mbit wireless Notebook Card 22255
Way too obscure.

3com OfficeConnect Wireless 108Mbps 11g XJACK PC Card
I think that has an Atheros chipset, so would be OK.


Tenda W302C - this uses the Ralink RT2760 chip. This is the one of choice.
Supported out-of-the-box in Lucid by the rt2860sta driver.