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Accepted
Chris Carter
Asked: 2013-01-08 09:44:18 +0800 CST

How to get an Intersil ISL3887 wireless adaptor working

  • 772

I have an old wireless adaptor that I used to use in Ubuntu until it seemed like it was no longer supported, I can't remember exactly when, but think it was around 10.10 Maverick.

I have just dug it out as my children's laptop wireless card has gone kaput.

My old usb wireless card is not seen by Network-Manager.

Doing lsusb it shows:

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 1435:0427 Wistron NeWeb UR054g 802.11g Wireless Adapter [Intersil ISL3887]

This link would suggest that the device is still supported by the Linux kernel

This link provides instructions for enabling the device in Debian systems

Is there a way I can get it to work in Ubuntu 12.04 32bit?

P.S. I have tried sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-cw-3.6-precise-genericwithout luck

result of dmesg|grep p54

[   22.706862] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_free_hw
[   22.706870] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_free_hw (err -22)
[   22.706876] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_alloc_hw
[   22.706879] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_alloc_hw (err -22)
[   22.706887] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_beacon_loss
[   22.706890] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_beacon_loss (err -22)
[   22.706909] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol regulatory_hint
[   22.706912] p54common: Unknown symbol regulatory_hint (err -22)
[   22.706921] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_register_hw
[   22.706923] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_register_hw (err -22)
[   22.706938] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_get_hdrlen_from_skb
[   22.706941] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_get_hdrlen_from_skb (err -22)
[   22.706950] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol __ieee80211_get_radio_led_name
[   22.706953] p54common: Unknown symbol __ieee80211_get_radio_led_name (err -22)
[   22.706964] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_wake_queue
[   22.706967] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_wake_queue (err -22)
[   22.706977] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol __ieee80211_get_tx_led_name
[   22.706980] p54common: Unknown symbol __ieee80211_get_tx_led_name (err -22)
[   22.706992] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_tx_status_irqsafe
[   22.706994] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_tx_status_irqsafe (err -22)
[   22.707005] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol wiphy_rfkill_set_hw_state
[   22.707008] p54common: Unknown symbol wiphy_rfkill_set_hw_state (err -22)
[   22.707020] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol __ieee80211_get_rx_led_name
[   22.707023] p54common: Unknown symbol __ieee80211_get_rx_led_name (err -22)
[   22.707034] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_queue_delayed_work
[   22.707037] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_queue_delayed_work (err -22)
[   22.707064] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_stop_queue
[   22.707067] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_stop_queue (err -22)
[   22.707074] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol __ieee80211_get_assoc_led_name
[   22.707077] p54common: Unknown symbol __ieee80211_get_assoc_led_name (err -22)
[   22.707090] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_unregister_hw
[   22.707093] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_unregister_hw (err -22)
[   22.707098] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_beacon_get_tim
[   22.707101] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_beacon_get_tim (err -22)
[   22.707118] p54common: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_rx_irqsafe
[   22.707121] p54common: Unknown symbol ieee80211_rx_irqsafe (err -22)
12.04

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Your device is supported by the driver p54usb which requires firmware. Please open a terminal and do:

    sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree
sudo modprobe -r p54usb && sudo modprobe p54usb

    Your device should now be working.

    • 2

  2. When you run:

    modinfo p54usb

    Does it return /lib/modules/3.2.0-36-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/p54/p54usb.ko

    Or does it return /lib/modules/3.2.0-36-generic/updates/cw-3.6/p54usb.ko

    If it is the cw-3.6 version, then backports was not fully removed and we still have the mac80211 conflict. Please do:

    sudo apt-get remove --purge linux-backports-modules-cw-3.6-precise-generic
sudo apt-get remove --purge linux-backports-modules-cw-3.6-3.2.0-36-generic

    Make sure everything is removed. Both the generic package and the package matching your running kernel version, in your case, 3.2.0-36-generic should be gone.

    If that it not the problem, you might reinstall your linux-image which includes all drivers, mac80211, cfg80211, etc.

    sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-image-`uname -r`

    Those backticks are on the left side of my US keyboard on the same key with ~. Reboot and see if it's working now.

    • 1