Installing a USB Wi-Fi dongle - problems

Sorry - just reading that back I should have said "Wi-fi dongle" - not "key'. It's an old PC.

When you unzipped the data, what did you do with the files?

Many Wifi USB dongles just work with Ubuntu.

What's the make and model of the PC (or basic specification if its not not a common one) and what's the make and model of the Wifi dongle?

Can you add this to the answer Actionparsnip has asked for please.

If you just unzipped the file then nothing is installed.
If you remove the folder then is OK.

As Warren Hill said , please attach the usb-dongle and then open a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and apply this command

lsusb

give the results back here.

Thanks

Thanks folks. Here are the answers:

@actionparsnip: I think I did what NikTh said - unzipped and *tried* to open a file that had the word 'install' in it (it wouldn't run).

@Warren Hill: Its an Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.80GHz processor PC (made by HP). It's a Wireless USB 11N Nano Adaptor 802.11N Dongle.

Having typed lsusb, my results are...
Lines 1-4 show Device 001: and then a string of numbers and "Linux Foundation 2.0 (or 1.0) root hub.

The interesting line - line 5 - has:
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n

The next line has just "wlan"

Also, one other bit of info: I click on the conical Wireless icon (which is empty) in the top bar and I can see my router named in the list. I click on it, it tries to get on for a minute or so, then a popup appears asking me for my wirelesspassword (again). I type my password (correctly - I've checked - believe me!)

So the PC can *see* the router - there's just a problem with it actually accessing it.

Open a terminal CTRL+ALT+T
Enter the following commands exactly as shown (Copy and paste if possible to avoid typing errors)

------------------------------------------------------------
lsb_release -a; uname -a; lsusb; sudo lshw -C network; ifconfig; sudo iwlist scan | egrep 'Channel | ESSID'
-----------------------------------------------------------

From the terminal menu select "Edit" > "Select All" then "Edit" > "Copy" and paste all the results back here.

Should give us a clue as to what's wrong. Other things to consider are Do you have MAC-ID filtering enabled in the router? If yes turn it off or tell the router the MAC-ID of your USB dongle.

Thanks Warren,

This will sound lame, I know, but I don't think you *can* copy-and-paste into Terminal and I can't work out how to type a | << pipe delimitter...

Sorry - done it now - worked it out (and found the delimitter on the keyboard!):

martin@martin:~$ lsb_release -a; uname -a; lsusb; sudo lshw -C network; ifconfig; sudo iwlist scan | egrep 'Channel | ESSID'
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux martin 3.2.0-35-generic-pae #55-Ubuntu SMP Wed Dec 5 18:04:39 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n WLAN
[sudo] password for martin:

The pipe charecter | is shift and backslash on a UK keyboard. It may be different on other keyboards.

You should be able to copy and paste to the terminal if you use the menu.

You can also paste with the keyboard but instead of CTRL+V to paste its CTRL+SHIFT+V

Alternatively if you cant get paste to work and cant find the pipe character on your keyboard use this command instead

------------------------------------------------------------
lsb_release -a; uname -a; lsusb; sudo lshw -C network; ifconfig; sudo iwlist scan
-----------------------------------------------------------

There will be more output but we are used to long outputs here

I've now worked out how to paste your code into the Terminal (sorry for being so slow): Does this help?

[sudo] password for martin:
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: NetXtreme BCM5782 Gigabit Ethernet
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:05:02.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 03
       serial: 00:0e:7f:66:38:7e
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm vpd msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.121 duplex=full firmware=5782-v3.13 ip=192.168.1.40 latency=64 link=yes mingnt=64 multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:20 memory:fc500000-fc50ffff
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       bus info: usb@1:5
       logical name: wlan1
       serial: 00:0b:81:87:d0:79
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8192cu driverversion=3.2.0-35-generic-pae firmware=N/A link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0e:7f:66:38:7e
          inet addr:192.168.1.40 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20e:7fff:fe66:387e/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:2255 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1679 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1872190 (1.8 MB) TX bytes:274512 (274.5 KB)
          Interrupt:20

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
          RX packets:136 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:136 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:12107 (12.1 KB) TX bytes:12107 (12.1 KB)

wlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0b:81:87:d0:79
          inet6 addr: fe80::20b:81ff:fe87:d079/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1156 (1.1 KB) TX bytes:1478 (1.4 KB)

lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

martin@martin:~$ ^C^C
martin@martin:~$

Just looking at that script through untutored eyes, is my problem in the line....

"firmware=N/A link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn"?

I'm fairly sure my problem is that the installation disk didn't get installed which brings me back to my original question:

How do you install software or drivers from a CD and not through the Software Centre?

(Or maybe I've misdiagnosed the problem?)

Take a look here
http://www.solwiseforum.co.uk/showthread.php?9849-NET-WL-UMD-606N-and-Linux

Thanks for that. I've had a look at it, and downloaded the files, but the installation instructions asume a level of prior knowledge that I don't have. The instructions are for 'linux' but isn't this Ubuntu - a presentation layer on top of Linux that allows you to do things by opening files instead of using terminal?

I'm *guessing* I need to write something using the command line ('terminal'?) that will open and run the install.sh file inside the folder - but I really don't know enough how do do this. I guess I'm looking for very basic advice before I follow those instructions - again, *surely* there is a standard approach to installing software or drivers without going through the Ubuntu Sofware Centre?

Solved!

a) You have to update the Linux Kernel with scripts. Here's the link to follow:
http://thatguruguy.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/working-rtl8188cus-in-ubuntu-12-04/