[CentOS] wifi

Tue Apr 6 18:44:27 UTC 2010
Ned Slider <ned at unixmail.co.uk>

Davy Leon wrote:
> Hi folks
> 
> I'm trying to use a Netgear WG111-2 USB-wifi adapter on a Centos 5.3 Box. Someone has done it? It seems not to be supported by the kernel.
> 
> Thanks 
> 
> David
> 

It should work. However, I'd strongly suggest updating from 5.3 as many 
improvements to the wireless stack and drivers have been backported 
since 5.3.

Here's what I see when plugging one of these into my box...

# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0846:6a00 NetGear, Inc. WG111v2 54 Mbps Wireless 
[RealTek RTL8187L]

so it's a RealTek RTL8187L. Now lets see if the kernel has a driver for it:

# grep -i 0846 /lib/modules/*/modules.alias | grep -i 6a00
/lib/modules/2.6.18-128.el5/modules.alias:alias 
usb:v0846p6A00d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip* rtl8187
/lib/modules/2.6.18-164.11.1.el5/modules.alias:alias 
usb:v0846p6A00d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip* rtl8187
/lib/modules/2.6.18-164.15.1.el5/modules.alias:alias 
usb:v0846p6A00d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip* rtl8187
/lib/modules/2.6.18-164.el5/modules.alias:alias 
usb:v0846p6A00d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip* rtl8187
/lib/modules/2.6.18-194.el5/modules.alias:alias 
usb:v0846p6A00d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip* rtl8187

Yes, it's supported by the 5.3 (-128.el5), 5.4 (-164.el5) and 5.5 
(-194.el5) kernels. The modules loaded themselves:

# lsmod | grep 8187
rtl8187                91077  0
mac80211              183745  1 rtl8187
cfg80211              191369  2 rtl8187,mac80211
eeprom_93cx6           35393  1 rtl8187

I've not actually used the device, only plugged it in, so you'd need to 
configure it from here or just let NetworkManager handle the device.