HOW-TO | D-Link DWL-G122 USB Adapter in Dapper

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Ok ... Here's the deal.

I spent about 4 hours trying several different methods to get Ubuntu 6.06LTS (Dapper Drake) to recognize my D-Link DWL-G122 (rev. B1) wireless USB adapter - trying everything from attempting to build linux-wlan-ng to messing with ndiswrapper and the native Windows drivers - common sense finally kicked in (somewhere after my 5th cup of coffee), and I found the fix was right under my nose the entire time!

I recalled that when I opened the Networking GUI, Ubuntu did show a wireless device with my dongle plugged into the USB port - This meant that Dapper was able to see my D-Link WDL-G122 wireless USB adapter, but any attempt to configure it through the Networking GUI caused my system to freeze upon activating the connection once configured.

I am not certain why the Ubuntu Networking GUI freezes when attempting to configure the wireless device, but a very simple work around is to configure it manually in the /etc/network/interfaces file.

Here is how to do it:

1. In a terminal, type the following:

$ sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

This will open your /etc/network/interfaces file as root, allowing you to edit it.
Now you want to delete whatever is in this file, (rebooting with a eithernet cable pluged in will add the eth0 settings back to it later if you need them), and replace it with the following:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them.

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.


# iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto rausb0

iface rausb0 inet dhcp
pre-up ifconfig rausb0 up
pre-up ifconfig rausb0 down
pre-up iwconfig rausb0 essid {your ESSID}
pre-up iwconfig rausb0 key {your WEP key}
pre-up dhclient rausb0

Save the file, reboot your system, and enjoy your new wireless connection!

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