Even if not using the network connection to download the Firmware you may still want to follow the first step. If you are able to connect the ethernet port to a wired network then do so now (if not instructions are provided later for downloading using another computer). Therefore it does not meet the requirements to be included in the Debian image.
The issue with Firmware is it is not free software, you don't normally have to pay, but it's not free in the sense of being open source or having the ability to modify it.
It's clear from these messages that there is a problem with the Firmware.įirmware is code that runs on the device itself, but to save money, rather than including storage on the device itself it is sent by the driver to the device during initialisation. Phy0 -> rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Error - Failed to request Firmware. Usbcore: registered new interface driver rt73usb Registered led device: rt73usb-phy0::quality Registered led device: rt73usb-phy0::assoc Registered led device: rt73usb-phy0::radio Ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht' Usb 1-1.3.3: reset high speed USB device number 9 using dwc_otg
Usb 1-1.3.3: Product: Belkin 54g USB Network AdapterĬfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain Usb 1-1.3.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 Usb 1-1.3.3: New USB device found, idVendor=050d, idProduct=705a Usb 1-1.3.3: new high speed USB device number 9 using dwc_otg The dmesg command can be used to view the ring buffer which holds the most recent kernel messages. The next thing to check is for any kernel messages. The key thing to take from this, other than checking it's actually detected, is the part in brackets - indicating that whilst the device is a Belkin product it uses the Ralink RT2571W chipset. The device number is allocated to the device based on the order it was connected or detected by Linux. It's obvious which is the Adapter - "Belkin", with Device number 009. Optical Wheel Mouseīus 001 Device 006: ID 04cc:1521 ST-Ericsson USB 2.0 Hubīus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.īus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9512 Standard Microsystems Corp.īus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub You can see the usb devices connected (on PCs with internal cards then the lspci command provides similar details).īus 001 Device 009: ID 050d:705a Belkin Components F5D7050 Wireless G Adapter v3000 īus 001 Device 008: ID 04ca:0020 Lite-On Technology Corp.īus 001 Device 007: ID 046d:c016 Logitech, Inc. This helps to show some of the investigations in getting a wireless driver working.įirst connect the USB adapter. These steps are not really required if you know that you have the same chipset. Whilst Linux has good support for most network adapters some may not work with the Raspbery Pi if there is no support for the ARM architecture.Ĭhecking the chipset and the kernel messages (lsmod and dmesg)įirst to find out the actual chipset and look for errors. The steps may differ depending upon what wireless adapter you have.
54Mbps should be sufficient for most uses (at the time of writing still much faster than most broadband connections), but you may want to consider a faster adapter if streaming HD video over a local network. Wireless G adapters will still work with a Wireless N router but will be limited to the speed of G adapter. Which compares with up to 150Mbps for 802.11n. The 802.11g networking standard works at a maximum of 54Mbps although actual throughput will be lower. These are still available very cheaply online. I have two of these adapters both of which have identical model numbers. This is for the model with model number F5D7050 and IDP81976-D. Networking adapters can sometimes use the same name, but have a very different chipset. This is for the Wireless G (54Mbps) USB adapter, which has now been superseded by Wireless N adapters. This is based on the Raspberry Pi Debian image.
If you are changing wireless networks a lot then you may want to consider a GUI application to manage the wireless connections for you, although that can still be handled via the command line. This is the configuration for a single wireless network. As this will show some of what is going on behind the scenes. I have deliberately done this all on the command line rather than using a GUI application. These are the steps involved in getting a Belkin USB network adapter to work on the Raspberry Pi.