USB Wireless

BJwojnowski · Oct 6, 2011

I am trying to get a USB wireless adapter to connect my FreeBSD system to connect to the internet. I typed the command "pciconf...".
My system does give a response but I am not sure if the response identifies the USB adapter. What kind of response am I looking for?

wblock@ · Oct 6, 2011

pciconf(8) is for devices attached to the PCI bus. For USB, it's usbconfig(8). But first, please identify the manufacturer and model of the device.

BJwojnowski · Oct 8, 2011

I checked with usbconfig. It worked when I was checking as superuser but not when I was working just in my basic account. It gave two readings for the usb. One I believe is for the basic usb bus and the other was for the only usb device attached---the usb wireless adapter. The information was fairly cryptic to me

BJwojnowski · Oct 8, 2011

the manufacturer of the usb device is iogear. the model is GWU625.

wblock@ · Oct 8, 2011

Web searches show that's a Realtek RTL8191SU. At present, ndisgen(8) is the only option.

BJwojnowski · Oct 9, 2011

Thank you.

BJwojnowski · Oct 9, 2011

Little Snag

I accessed the .inf and .sys files that were in the XP driver folder, copied them to the root directory and used ndisgen to convert the files. When I tried to convert the *.inf driver file I received the following error message:

Code:

ndiscvt: line 527: : Syntax Error

How do I proceed?

ian-nai · Oct 11, 2011

That sounds like it couldn't read the inf correctly. Did you tell it to convert the inf file to...the proper encoding? (I'm forgetting the name, but it prompts for a simple yes/no)

Just use ndisgen, if you can help it. I remember that being the most inclusive way.

BJwojnowski · Oct 11, 2011

I just followed the prompts and when it asked whether to convert the driver I selected yes. It tells me that the inf file is an ASCII file. That is as far as I get

BJwojnowski · Oct 12, 2011

RE: requesting guidance

Wblock can you please advise me how to proceed. How it looks now is that I have to change some of the code in the *.inf file which I am reluctant to do on my own.

wblock@ · Oct 12, 2011

Sorry, I haven't used ndisgen(8) much. I prefer to replace wireless cards with ones that are supported natively.

ian-nai · Oct 13, 2011

wblock@ said:
Sorry, I haven't used ndisgen(8) much. I prefer to replace wireless cards with ones that are supported natively.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. Unless you forgot to specify some firmware in addition to the other two files, I doubt you're going to get the card to work.

I'm currently 'there' with a wireless adapter I've got as well, sorry!

BJwojnowski · Oct 13, 2011

Approaching the problem of getting my system online from a different angle, where can I get an inexpensive wireless USB adapter that I can get to work with FreeBSD 8.2?

wblock@ · Oct 13, 2011

The uath(4), urtw(4), run(4), and ural(4) man pages have some lists of supported devices. Be careful, as some manufacturers will change chipsets without changing the model number of a device.

ian-nai · Oct 14, 2011

Yeah, I'm still looking for a supported wireless card. I bought one recently that *seemed* to have support, but wound up not having any. It's kind of long homework to do...