Adding Driver for Linksys AE1000 Wireless USB on Linux

In my ongoing efforts to run as many things wireless as possible, I decided to buy a Wireless-N USB adapter for the old HP Desktop computer I have running upstairs. Because I am rather impulsive, once I had the idea in my head that I wanted to do this, I wanted to do it that day. So, instead of doing my research and finding the best wireless USB adapter I could find, I went right up the street to Best Buy to buy whatever I could find there to have it in hand that day. The problem with doing something like that is that most things you can find at a Best Buy will be very compatible with Windows, but not so much with Linux.

The Background

I needed my desktop computer to connect to my wireless router as quickly and cheaply as possible. After a quick trip to Best Buy I had the Linksys AE 1000 Wireless USB adapter in my hands. Doesn’t support Linux? Who cares?… Not I!

The Problem

The Linksys AE 1000 is not supported on Linux operating systems. In this case I am running Ubuntu Linux (version Natty Narwhal).

The Resolution

After a good amount of sleuthing on “The Googles” and the Ubuntu Forums, I was able to get the device working with my Linux install. I used this post as my main reference to get things working. The exact steps I took are below:

1. Identify the exact device ID by running the lsusb command.
   
2. Downloaded drivers from http://driverscollection.com/?file_cid=400269961410315e976a675c830 NOTE: If this is not the device you have you’ll need to get different drivers
3. Unpackage the driver, navigate to the os/linux folder in the package contents, and edit config.mk and make sure the following lines have the value y.
   • HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y
   • HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y
4. Navigate to the common folder in the unpackaged driver location, edit rtusb_dev_id.c and add the entry {USB_DEVICE(0x13b1,0x002f)} to the end of the list of USB devices (just above the end if for RT2870)
   
5. After the changes listed above are complete and saved, open a terminal window to the root location of the unpackaged driver folder, and run sudo make
   
6. Again from the same location as above in the command line, run sudo make install
   
7. Edit /etc/modules file and add rt3572sta
   
8. Edit /etc/modeprobe.d/blacklist.conf to add the following entries into the blacklist:
   • blacklist rt2800usb
   • blacklist rt2860sta
   • blacklist rt2x00sub
   • blacklist rtx00lib
   • blacklist rt2870sta

   

9. Restart the machine, on restart the device should be picked up automatically and begin detecting wireless networks around you.