Comments on: How to install wireless USB drivers for Ubuntu

By: admin

admin — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:42:24 +0000

Hi Alan, I do seem to recall having a similar problem. I solved it by googling generate WPA key which resulted in visiting a website which seemed to generate a key of the standard length.

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:23:52 +0000

Hi. Thanks for the excellent “how to do it”. I’m on Ubuntu 9.04. I can get my Belkin to work with no security but it does not connect when I add WPA, even with the generated password. Are there a particular number of characters required as with WEP? I notice that whenever I enter a password into Connection Manager that it coverts it to a longer series of numbers and letters. Thanks for any advice. Alan

By: now i'm happy

now i'm happy — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 02:33:37 +0000

People like me, that know programming but know NOTHING about Linux, need post like this.
Ubuntu isn’t just another OS it is a completly different OS and i think a good online-free book for real newbies (Ubuntu for retarded if u want) is needed.
Theres is a lot of really useless information on Internet that make you lost your time… so again thank you for this!
(people can youtube ‘USB wireless Ubuntu’ you will find also good explanations)

By: Marco

Marco — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 19:48:28 +0000

From Network Manager I select Manual Settings (no other options). From there I can select the wireless icon and then set the properties: see http://www.lucidtips.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/ubuntu-804-lts-hardy-heron-on-compaq-evo-n610c_network-settings.png
Once I enable the roaming mode in the wireless connection properties I can select my network name, password type (WPA2 personal) and of course provide the password.

By: Al Stevens

Al Stevens — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:36:49 +0000

Marco – what options do you get when you click on the wireless icon?

By: Marco

Marco — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:17:21 +0000

I followed all the above instructions and I have now the wireless option within the network settings so I can configure the WLAN. After enabling the roaming mode in the wireless connection properties I can select my network name, password type (WPA2 personal) and of course provide the password.

After this I get “Changing inteface configuration” waiting dialog once done the Wireless icon is not gray out but still I cannot connect to internet. Is anything else that I need to do? for example setting the DNS?

By: Al Stevens

Al Stevens — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:16:01 +0000

@akbo I used a Belkin which had no problems. It’s probably just a good idea to avoid the absolute cheapest and try and pick a trusted name. That said if you have xp drivers for you Dlink then it should work using this method.

By: akbo sam

akbo sam — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:15:53 +0000

Hi all

I also tried this but My D-link wireless usb doesn’t support ubuntu 10 desktop version (It support only xp / vista)

Anyone can recommend me a Good wireless usb which should compatible with ubuntu 10

Thanks

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:03:44 +0000

Like your other replies I was struggling with my cheapie USB wireless dongle.
Followed your directions and they worked a treat. Carry on with the good work.
Many Thanks Ted Williams

By: David M

David M — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:37:28 +0000

How to get root access on Ubuntu.

As mentioned above by Alix, being permanently logged in as ‘root’ or another admin user is potentially harmfull to your pc.

Ubuntu uses a system call ’sudo’ (which is used by Debian and most of it’s derivatives, of which ubuntu is one of many).

if you really need to run a command as root, most often when trying to install software via the command line, you would simply place the word ’sudo’ (without the quotes) before the required command.

The terminal will then ask for your password. This gives you access to the power of being an administrator on a temporary basis.

As an example.

I personally have multiple users with access to my pc, normally when I log in under my ‘normal’ user name (davem) I cannot view or access the information in the other user’s home directory.

however if I really need to with ubuntu (or other debian based systems) I can use the default file browser to view all areas of the system, to do this I would have to open a terminal (which requires a conscious effort and hence stops me doing it very often and type in the following…..

gksudo nautilus

the terminal will ask for my usual password (as my users is part of the admin users group), and I will be given a file manager with full access to open, edit, remove, etc any part of the system. Danger yes, useful often.

you may now ask why I was talking about ’sudo’ and in the above command I used ‘gksudo’ well the gksudo command is used when you need to open a ‘graphical’ system such as the file manager or perhaps a web browser (so as to find, download and install the anoyingly missing plugging) – bear in mind that when you do this you add these things in the root of the system, so if you aren’t sure they are bug free and contain no worms, trojans or other nasties my advice is don’t do it!

When you access synaptic (as al has done in his instructions) you will be asked to for your password, this is essentially the same process that is going on behind the scenes specific to installing new software.

I hope that snippit of information helps someone out, if you want to read more about the security idea behind sudo the following page on the ubuntu wiki should explain in more detail why it is used.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

David