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I want to install a USB WiFi dongle under 12.04. I already searched the net for help, but did not find anything that helped.

The dongle is a Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188SU 802.11n WLAN Adapter (that is what is returned by lsusb)

The stick came with a driver cd and contained also some linux drivers. The driver file is called `rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100202.zip

Could someone please instruct me, how to install the drivers so that the stick works? Or point me to some easy instructions?

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The stick should work already, since the Debian wiki has an article claiming it was supported since Linux 2.6.32 (see your linux version with uname -r).

Also, please edit your answer so it conforms to this specification: http://wiki.debian.org/HowToIdentifyADevice/USB

The drivers are often included by the manufacturer even if you have a more recent version in your kernel. Don't worry about the shipped driver.

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  • @till-b How does the unit perform? Also, what does lsusb give for the device ID? mine is 0bda:8171 - which is a number used by other realtek device, leading to vast confusion. In my case the 3.2.0 kernel loads the 'r8712u' driver, which works, but the max data rate is actually 0.5MByte/sec. I've had absolutely no luck finding any fix for this. Realtek's 8188su driver won't build for any kernel newer than 3.0.2 . I've tried the 8192du driver, which also accepts 0bda:8171, but isn't expecting an 8188su, and doesn't work at all.
    – greggo
    Dec 27, 2014 at 20:17
  • And there's this, which may be useful for much newer kernels: github.com/chunkeey/rtl8192su
    – greggo
    Dec 27, 2014 at 20:18
  • I suspect 0bda:8171 is a number realtek reserved for reference boards they supply to OEMS - and some of the OEMs just copy the design right down to using that same ID, without realizing (or not caring) that it doesn't uniquely identify the chipset.
    – greggo
    Dec 27, 2014 at 20:24
  • The debian wiki article referenced above confirms that r8712u is the driver which is intended to support this. But even as of 3.13 it's still in 'staging'; even on this 3.13 laptop the rate is limited to 0.5 MB/sec. the command nm-tool will show the driver which is in use - could you check that as well as the usb ID?
    – greggo
    Dec 27, 2014 at 20:29

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