Need help with Linux wireless driver

[Ral-Clan]

Hi,

I'm really new to Linux, but I have an old Pentium 3 laptop that I decided I'd try it on.

I downloaded Slacko Puppy Linux and it found the wireless USB dongle I use with this laptop and it detected the wireless network in my houses.  Great!  The only problem is Slacko Puppy Linux is to resource hungry to work well on this old Pentium 3 with 128MB RAM.

So I download Wary Puppy Linux.  It works great on the old laptop (fast).  But it cannot detect my wireless USB dongle.

I loaded Slacko back up and noticed it is using the following driver to access my wireless USB adapter dongle: RT2800USB

How can I get that driver off the Slacko Puppy Linux Live CD and install it into the Wary Puppy Linux version.

The only versions of this driver I've been able to find on Google are uncompiled, and that looks to be a nightmare for a newbie to Linux.  For instance, I found this:

http://tomoyo.sourceforge.jp/cgi-bin/lxr/source/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800usb.c

Which I *assume* is the source code for the drive I need.  I haven't a clue where to start with it in order to get a working driver out of that jumble of cryptic text.

[Ral-Clan]

Okay, so I found out that Wary Puppy Linux does have the RT2800USB driver installed in the package and I chose that in wireless setup.  But for some reason Wary Puppy just won't see my wireless adapter when Slacko Puppy Linux will.  I have no idea why.

[smerf]

Try reloading your linux slacko again. It should automatically see it and load it in.

Can't really give you any info on slacko puppy since I have never used it, but I know Ubuntu will see it. Another thing go to the Ubuntu boards and download their lite edition. It works on my 12 year old Toshiba, so it should work on your machine.

smerf

[Ral-Clan]

Try reloading your linux slacko again. It should automatically see it and load it in.

Yeah I know that Slacko will see the USB Wireless dongle, but the point is that I cannot use Slacko, it's too resource hungry for the old machine.  It takes 5 minutes (literally) just to boot up the browser with CPU usage at 100%.

I'm trying to understand why one build of Puppy Linux (Slacko) will see the dongle, while the other build (Wary) won't.

The USB port is working - Wary Puppy Linux can see USB drives.  It just won't see the USB Dongle.

One weird thing is that Slacko Puppy won't detect the laptop's internal dialup modem, but WILL see the USB wireless adapter, while Wary Puppy WILL detect the internal dialup modem, but WON'T detect the USB Wireless adapter.  I wonder if this is some sort of clue as to what is happening.

[Ral-Clan]

Ubuntu Lite seems to be a dead project.  Web sites are down.

http://www.ubuntulite.org/