This is a wireless driver setup page under WifiDocs

Driver Information

• Enter general driver information here

• Driver Name: zd1211
• Module Name: zd1211

WWW Reference

• Enter links to other references on driver here

• Home Page:

http://www.zydas.com.tw/downloads/download-1211.asp

• Secondary Help:

http://zd1211.wiki.sourceforge.net/VendorBasedDriver

http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/zd1211rw

General Help

• Enter general help that will work at anytime with the driver. See section below if it's release specific

WEP help

• Enter anything related to getting wep to work

WPA help

• Enter anything related to getting WPA to work

Ubuntu Release Specific Info

• Under the correct section enter anything that is specifc to the release only. See above general section if it is not release specific

Breezy 5.10

• There is a zd1211 module installed with breezy. It has been questioned whether it works properly though. See compiling section to compile a new version.

Dapper 6.04

• There is a zd1211 module installed with dapper.

Gutsy Gibbon 7.10

• Driver auto installs device. Note: master mode requires a manual driver downgrade

Compile Newer Driver

• Section on compiling newer/latest driver

Purpose

• This document gives Ubuntu-specific instructions to install a driver for wireless devices with a zydas/zyair zd1211 chipset.

  You can also find instructions in German and French located at this forum post. The open-source driver development page is located on this SourceForge page.

This has only been tested with Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) release using the stock 2.6.10-5-386 kernel and a usb dongle.

• update by Richard Chu: I installed fresh Ubuntu 5.10 on my Asus m2c laptop with a 3com usb wireless card plugged into it, which has the chipset of zd1211. The Ubuntu 5.10 has zd1211 driver already installed originally, but it just can't work. I successfully reinstalled the zd1211 driver someway. I'm sure that you can use zd1211(at least for 3com, 3crusb10075) on Ubuntu 5.10 by fixing the driver. I will give my experience below. By the way, I fix the zd1211 driver before anything else like upgrdate all package.
• UPDATE by ghee22: A way for this to work for Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) is ONLY to install 5.04, get wireless working using these instructions, then putting in the Ubuntu 5.10 cd, and using the "Update all packages" option. This is due to the 5.10 kernel being compiled in gcc-3.4 but only gcc 4.0 being included in Breezy's packages. (I think)

  • Breezy comes with a zd1211 module pre-installed but there has been little success with getting it working. The following link is a guide to get zd1211 in breezy working with wpa. You can follow the compile instructions of for the driver and ignore the wpa steps if wpa is not needed. breezy zd1211 forum thread.

• update by jerryf70: It appears that the Ubuntu driver still does not work for Dapper (at least for Flight 4). I got it working by installing the R59 driver from www.zd1211.ath.cx. This got unencrypted plus WEP working straight away. People just need to note to add relevant kernel header package using synaptic, then make and make install the untarred driver.
  • The standard Ubuntu wpa_supplicant can be used (most of us want something more secure than WEP.
  • I just needed to edit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf (add SSID, key management and password) and /etc/default/wpasupplicant (set to enabled and add start up options - OPTIONS="-Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -w"). This ensures WPA-supplicant starts up when machine boots.

• update by Vj: The Ubuntu driver does work for unencrypted (using System>Networking>Admin) Jan 2007 (using the 3Com 3CRUSB10075). It does not appear in Network manager applet, presumably because WPA is not supported on Dapper install.

Chipset specifications

• 802.11b/g support (chipset also features 802.11a but no vendor seems to support this)
• USB 2.0 support (802.11b only on USB 1.1)
• typical current consumption: 150mA (idle), 200mA (sending)
• WEP64/128/256, WPA-PSK
• Station and Ad hoc mode (802.11b only in ad hoc?)
• Hardware supports master mode but driver supplied with ubuntu 7.10 and lower does not.

Supported Hardware

Commands to find information on your equipment

# lspci

# iwconfig

Installation Instructions

• The following instructions are specific to ZD1211 driver version 20050315. You will have to adjust the file name if you are using a different driver version.

• the following instructions are specific to linux kernel 2.6.10-5-386. You may have to adjust the file names to compensate if you are using a different kernel.

Install necessary Ubuntu packages; gcc and kernel-headers

• First let's setup the terminal for root user privileges:

    sudo -s

  enter your password
  

  Next there are some packages that need to be installed so the driver can be built:

    aptitude install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential

Download source tarball

• From the terminal, we will download a compressed driver file:

    wget http://zd1211.ath.cx/download/zd1211-driver-r52.tgz

Richard Chu: But it's weired that this driver doesn't not work well all the time if you reinstall Ubuntu in different time. You may try to download another version here:

•   wget http://www.zydas.com.tw/web_driver/ZD1211_USB/Linux/ZD1211LnxDrv_2_4_0_0.tar.gz

and remember to read the user guide here before you install it:

•   wget http://www.zydas.com.tw/web_driver/ZD1211_USB/Linux/Linux_zd1211_UserGuide.doc

Unpack, build, and install

•   tar -xvzf zd1211-driver-r52.tgz

    cd zd1211

    make clean && make && make install

Richard: Here, just right here, after installing the driver, you can restart Ubuntu here without continuing setting up anything else and it works perfectly!

Load module into Kernel

•   modprobe zd1211

Activate interface

•   ip link set wlan0 up

Add to modprobe config in order for wireless config to survive reboot

•   echo zd1211 >> /etc/modules

  This last command sets the terminal back to normal user privliges.

    exit

Continue on to the WiFiHowto:

WifiDocs/WiFiHowTo

WifiDocs

Specific Release Notes

• Instructions should be generic and add any notes that are release specific in this section. Then create an anchor link where needed in instructions. Anchor example

    [[Anchor(name)]] - This would be the anchor you are linking to
  
    [#name {any words describing go here}] this is how you would enter the link in the instructions to link to the anchor

  Here is an example, if you click on this link it will take you back to the top of page.

CategoryNetworking CategoryWireless