Buffalo N Adapter and Ubuntu

[Mozart25]

Hey all,

I have an old Dell D820 Latitude laptop without a working wireless card and on a whim (and admittedly with the recommendation of an on-commission Best Buy employee) I bought a Buffalo N-Technology's Wireless-N Ultra Compact USB 2.0 Adapter (product WLI-UC-GNM). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833162037&Tpk=WLI-UC-GNM I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 and hoping I can get the wireless adapter to play nice with Ubuntu. I plugged it in and can't get any indication that the OS even recognizes the device.

After doing some google searching, I came across this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/801248

The WLI-UC-GNM USB wireless-n adapter is not functional in Ubuntu 11.04. It also doesn't work in the latest (as of now) kernel-ppa (2.6.39).

After doing a bunch of research, I found that the simple fix is to add the USB ID to the rt2860 kernel driver. The USB ID for my adapter is 0411:01a2.

I've attached a patch against the ubuntu-natty git repository.

The poster links to a text file: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/801248/+attachment/2179585/+files/rt2860_buffalo_wli-uc-gnm.patch

That contains:

diff --git a/drivers/staging/rt2860/usb_main_dev.c b/drivers/staging/rt2860/usb_main_dev.c
index 322bf49..2bc2302 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/rt2860/usb_main_dev.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/rt2860/usb_main_dev.c
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ struct usb_device_id rtusb_usb_id[] = {
{USB_DEVICE(0x1737, 0x0071)}, /* Linksys WUSB600N */
{USB_DEVICE(0x1737, 0x0078)}, /* Linksys WUSB100v2 */
{USB_DEVICE(0x0411, 0x00e8)}, /* Buffalo WLI-UC-G300N */
+ {USB_DEVICE(0x0411, 0x01a2)}, /* Buffalo WLI-UC-GNM */
{USB_DEVICE(0x050d, 0x815c)}, /* Belkin F5D8053 */
{USB_DEVICE(0x100D, 0x9031)}, /* Motorola 2770 */
#endif /* RT2870 // */

But I am unsure what to do with this information, being a baby Ubuntu user, I don't intuitively understand wrapping drivers and installing/implementing them.

Can anyone give me some guidance? I would be very appreciative. Thanks!

 

[PreferLinux]

You can do as was said in that bug. Basically building the kernel, but using that patch to change the source code before hand.

 

[bmouring]

A link running down the basic steps, once you have the source but before you build, make the change (or download and apply the patch), configure the kenrel, build it, and away you go!

 

[Fenrir190]

Hey sorry for the late reply still getting use to the site mechanics. But regarding your problem I see why my solution didn't work for you as I don't think our network cards are the same.
Do you absolutely want to use ubuntu? I have nothing against it just asking.