This page is currently undergoing a reformatting
Wireless Network Interfaces
Please put in exact model numbers where possible.
To determine what wireless card/chipset you have, open up a terminal and type the following.
lspci -v | less
Then, scroll to find your wireless device and note down its details. For USB devices, type lsusb instead.
Wireless support varies with architecture. For example, ndiswrapper will work on the x86 architechture. A list of card that work with ndiswrapper is available here.
If you are going wireless card shopping, please look at this searchable list of cards which are supported under Linux at http://linux-wless.passys.nl/ . Make sure you buy wireless cards supported fully under Linux. It is worth noting that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) recommends the Ralink 2500/RT2400 and Realtek RTL8180 chipsets. A recent (December 20, 2006) article also mentions Ralink and Realtek as open-source friendly Wifi vendors, as well as Atmel.
If you find that your device is supported by a driver included with Ubuntu, but the driver is not loaded automatically, please see ReportingBugs to file a bug with Ubuntu! These are easy to fix.
Other Ubuntu wiki pages on Wireless Networking:
WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide (work in progress)
By Manufacturer
The Community has created articles for the following Manufacturers:
Manufacturer |
Card Type |
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Wireless USB Adapters
Discontinued - Update directly on the maker page
Make |
Model |
Chipset/ Driver |
Supports network install? |
Supported in installed system? |
Works "out of the box" |
Comments |
Last Updated |
Type |
A-Link |
WLAN54MB |
zd1211 |
Yes? |
Yes |
Yes |
Seems to work fine on Breezy |
2005-11-14 |
USB |
A-Link |
WLAN54USB-A |
zd1211rw |
No idea |
Yes |
Yes? |
Works on Feisty, but had to manually run dhcpclient |
2007-10-11 |
USB |
ADDON |
ADD-GWU180 |
zd1211 |
? |
Yes |
Yes |
Works fine on Dapper RC1 |
2006-05-28 |
USB |
Aptiva |
Wireless G USB Adapter |
Belkin/zd1211 |
? |
Yes |
Yes |
Just works on Feisty, Gutsy(had to disable Ipv6 on Gutsy) |
2007-12-16 |
USB |
AVM GmbH |
Fritz!WLAN USB Stick |
TNETW1450 / fwlanusb |
No |
No |
No |
See WifiDocs/Device/Fritz!WLAN_USB_Stick for details, works with Breezy & Dapper |
2006-03-25 |
USB |
Compaq |
W200 |
orinoco_usb |
No |
No |
No |
Following WifiDocs/Device/CompaqW200 WEP works, not tried WPA |
2005-01-25 |
USB |
Conceptronic |
C54RU |
rt73 |
No |
No |
No |
WPA/TKIP works with opensource drvier feisty. WPA2 is supported by this driver but not tested. Follow the instructions at the bottom of this guide WifiDocs/Driver/RalinkRT73. |
2007-08-27 |
USB |
Digicom |
USB Wave 54 |
zd1211rw |
? |
Yes |
Yes |
Works without problems in Feisty configured with network-manager and using WEP. Not tested with WPA but SHOULD work fine (2007-06-23). Xubuntu 8.04 this USB radio works for open networks and WPA_PSK using default Network Manager (did not test WEP). |
2008-05-31 |
USB |
myessentials |
ME1001-USB |
ID 050d:705c Belkin Components zd1211rw |
na |
yes |
yes in gutsy beta |
na |
2007-8-29 |
USB |
Netcore |
331gu |
ndiswrapper |
? |
Yes |
No |
Stable in Gutsy without Network Manager. |
2008-02-22 |
USB |
902w |
RAlink rt2570 |
No |
No |
No |
VendorID not included BUG |
2006-10-29 |
USB |
|
Orient |
XG-701A |
zd1211 |
? |
Yes |
Yes |
Works out of the box with WPA on Feisty using network-manager |
2007-04-23 |
USB |
WLU-703Z |
zd1211 |
? |
Yes |
Yes |
Works out of the box on Edgy using network-manager |
2007-01-15 |
USB |
|
Sierra |
881U |
MSM 7200 |
No |
Yes |
No |
The shipped driver with Gutsy is outdated. Use these instructions: http://www.sierrawireless.com/faq/ShowFAQ.aspx?ID=1077 |
2008-03-02 |
USB |
Veho |
11g USB adapter |
ZyDAS |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes works out of the box. Plug and play including WPA support! |
2007-12-04 |
USB |
Westell |
A90-211WG |
ndiswrapper + wlusb20/PRISMA02 |
? |
Yes |
No |
Works perfectly with ndiswrapper and wlusb20.inf on installation CD. |
2007-07-17 |
USB |
Zonet |
ZEW2501 |
zd1211b / zd1211rw |
No |
Yes |
No |
Works in Feisty, but is not recognized by NetworkManager. Must manually configure with iwconfig. |
2007-05-26 |
USB |
Zyxel |
AG-225H |
Zydas |
No |
No |
No |
Getting info from http://zd1211.ath.cx/ and waiting for Zydas 2.3 driver included //UPDATE on 2006-02-10, successfully installed with r52 and r52plus-2.4.0.0-1.patch from zd1211.ath.cx site(need to add vendor and product id to zdusb.c) |
2006-01-15 |
USB |
Zyxel |
G-270S |
ndiswrapper + driver zyxel winXP |
No |
No |
No |
Download the winXp driver from zyxel web site and follow ndiswrapper wiki |
2007-09-17 |
USB |
Various (SMC, Belkin...) |
Various USB devices |
Atmel AT76C503A |
? |
Yes |
Yes |
Plug it and go the the network administration to enable it. Nothing more, it works fairly well |
2005-09-27 |
USB |
My Essentials |
Various USB devices |
Belkin |
? |
Yes |
Yes |
Just works: Feisty, Gutsy, Hardy. Plug in and automatically recognised by network manager. |
2008-06-29 |
USB |
Note: Have a look at this page, my new version of this on with a cleaner layout: WifiDocs/WirelessCardsByVersion
Suggestion: merge PCI and USB chapters inside each manufacturer page - it's easier to find and maintain. As nobody disagree, I started the merge