Q4OS Forum

Magellan

Member

Registered: 2021-08-30

Posts: 5

Old USB or pcmcia Wi-Fi card drivers

I just installed Q4OS on a very old Dell Inspiron 2650 with no built in Wi-Fi.  I have a couple of Wi-Fi adapter options to try.  A Dlink DWL-650+ PCMCIA card or an Alfa USB a/c Wi-Fi adapter.  I downloaded a .tar file of the Linux drivers from the Alfa website but have no idea how to install.  How do I use the downloaded drivers, or would I be better off using the PCMCIA DLink card?  The USB port on the laptop is usb 1.0 so I am not sure if the USB adapter will work anyway.  Thanks in advance.

tlmiller76

Member

From: AZ, USA

Registered: 2016-11-29

Posts: 453

Re: Old USB or pcmcia Wi-Fi card drivers

Can you post the output of lsusb with the alfa adapter plugged in?  It may be easy enough to get working, but we need to know what the chipset actually is.

As for the PCMCIA card, a quick google implies that's atheros, so should be supported by ath5k, so should "just work" upon being plugged in if that's accurate.

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Q4OS Trinity machine - Lenovo K14 Gen1 AMD.  AMD Ryzen R5-5650U, 32GB DDR4, 1TB SSD, Vega 7, Realtek 8852 Wifi 6E + BT 5.2.

Magellan

Member

Registered: 2021-08-30

Posts: 5

Re: Old USB or pcmcia Wi-Fi card drivers

Sorry for the delay, life has been happening.  The lsusb result is “Realtek Semiconductor corp.  RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2T2R DB WLAN Adapter”.  I could not get the PCMCIA card to be recognized.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,301

Re: Old USB or pcmcia Wi-Fi card drivers

Sorry for the delay, life has been happening.  The lsusb result is “Realtek Semiconductor corp.  RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2T2R DB WLAN Adapter”.  I could not get the PCMCIA card to be recognized.

Are you in the UK by any chance?

I have a handful of PCMCIA cards that used to work with linux back in the early days.

You're very welcome to them.

Magellan

Member

Registered: 2021-08-30

Posts: 5

Re: Old USB or pcmcia Wi-Fi card drivers

Sorry for the delay, life has been happening.  The lsusb result is “Realtek Semiconductor corp.  RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2T2R DB WLAN Adapter”.  I could not get the PCMCIA card to be recognized.

Are you in the UK by any chance?

I have a handful of PCMCIA cards that used to work with linux back in the early days.

You're very welcome to them.

Thanks, but I am in the US.  I swear this card worked about 10 years ago with lububtu.  I know the card works because I tested it in an old Windows machine.

tlmiller76

Member

From: AZ, USA

Registered: 2016-11-29

Posts: 453

Re: Old USB or pcmcia Wi-Fi card drivers

Sorry for the delay, life has been happening.  The lsusb result is “Realtek Semiconductor corp.  RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2T2R DB WLAN Adapter”.  I could not get the PCMCIA card to be recognized.

Are you in the UK by any chance?

I have a handful of PCMCIA cards that used to work with linux back in the early days.

You're very welcome to them.

Thanks, but I am in the US.  I swear this card worked about 10 years ago with lububtu.  I know the card works because I tested it in an old Windows machine.

Given the age of the card, it's quite possible the hardware has simply failed.  While uncommon in such devices, it's not impossible.

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Q4OS Trinity machine - Lenovo K14 Gen1 AMD.  AMD Ryzen R5-5650U, 32GB DDR4, 1TB SSD, Vega 7, Realtek 8852 Wifi 6E + BT 5.2.