How can I use a TP Link USB wireless adapter without having to reinstall the driver every time?

Question

I'm new to ubuntu 11.10. I've followed some guides on how to install usb wifi drivers. Everything is fine but here's my problem: everytime i boot up my system my wifi adapter is not working.

In order for it to work I have to remove my usb wireless adapter>then remove the installed driver>then reinstall the driver before plugging the usb wireless adapter in order to work. because if i install the driver while the device is plugged nothing will happen.

I want ubuntu to detect may usb wireless adapter every time i boot/reboot my PC. doing the procedure(mentioned above) every time i boot/reboot my PC is a chore. please help...

I'm using a desktop PC and using a tp-link usb wireless adapter via AR5523 driver.

ok here's an update: it's really weird but by accident i forgot to remove my usb while doing the re-installation of the driver. the driver detected my usb wifi adapter and all of a sudden my adapter's light indicator starts flashing(unlike before my adapter will not function).

Answer 1

OP found solution:

ok here's an update: it's really weird but by accident i forgot to remove my usb while doing the re-installation of the driver. the driver detected my usb wifi adapter and all of a sudden my adapter's light indicator starts flashing(unlike before my adapter will not function). i'm sorry for the redundancy(if any) of this topic. still hoping that someone will be able to help me with my problem

Answer 2

I have XUbuntu 11.10 amd64 and a Bandridge CNW4102 USB Wifi adapter. This solution is based on h_t_t_p_:_//forum.ubuntu-it.org/index.php/topic,391516.0.html and it works for me (but I suppose it will work with most AR5523 based adapters).

1. Determine that you need AR5523 firmware:

   ~$ sudo lsusb
   

   Bus 001 Device 007: ID 0d8e:7801 Global Sun Technology, Inc. AR5523

   Before succeeding, after AR5523 it said "(no firmware loaded)"... so here we go:

2. Get the AR5523 firmware souces from SVN and unpack them

   svn co svn://svn.berlios.de/fullstory/ar5523/trunk/ ar5523
wget http://verein.lst.de/~hch/ar5523.tgz
tar xf ar5523.tgz ar5523/uath-ar5523.bin --strip 1
   

3. Build the *deb package for your adapter.
   In the aforementioned tutorial, the next command didn't have the -d switch and resulted in a failure due an unsatisfied dependency "Unmet build dependencies: debhelper (>= 9.20120115)"

   I've used the -d switch because I've had debhelper installed already and the only shortcoming was the version.

   cd ar5523 && dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -d

4. Install the package

   sudo dpkg -i ../ar5523-source*deb

5. Build and install an ar5523-modules-* package for your system, using Module-Assistant.

   sudo m-a a-i ar5523

6. Install the device firmware.

   sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/firmware
sudo mv ../uath-ar5523.bin /usr/local/lib/firmware

7. Load the ar5523 module.

   sudo modprobe ar5523
modprobe -l |grep ar5523 *misc/ar5523.ko*

8. Verify your device has an available interface.

   sudo iwconfig
   

   *lo no wireless extensions.
eth1 no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off*
   

9. Now you can use your WiFi adapter (configure it via ifconfig, Network-Manager etc.)

I hope that was useful (you'll find this on my blog at h_t_t_p_:_//razvandudu.blogspot.com/2012/04/adaptor-wifi-cu-ar5523-xubuntu-1110.html).