Getting the Linksys USB Wireless to Work

After installing Ubuntu, the Linksys WUSB54GC wireless network card was reported as available and looked as though I could configure it. Sadly, this isn't the case and the card doesn't actually work.

You actually need to install the driver (yes the windows one) that comes on the CD or that you download.

You need the ndiswrapper tools installed to do it.

# sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper

Copy the following three files from your CD\Drivers directory to somewhere useful, for example your homedir.

• rt73.cat
• rt73.inf
• rt73.sys

# mkdir /home/xbmc/linksys-wireless-usb
# cp /home/xbmc/linksys-wireless-usb

Now build and install the module using the Windows INF file and the ndiswrapper tool.

# cd /home/xbmc/linksys-wireless-usb
# sudo ndiswrapper -i rt73.inf
# sudo ndiswrapper -m
# sudo ndiswrapper -mi
# sudo ndiswrapper -ma

Restart your machine and it should be all up and running and fully configurable from inside the Gnome/X11 UI! :)