Can the drivers for the EW-7811Un nano USB wifi adapter be packed into a PND?

[second exodous]

I think this was mentioned before but I thought I'd bring it up again as there is an extremely good deal on it tomorrow, usually $29.99 but after noon it drops down to $9.99 for 11 hours. I set my watch to go off 10 minutes before the sale starts.


Question is does it work for the Pandora? Also, are the wifi issues worked out on the Pandora and this isn't really worth it anymore? All my computers have wifi built in or have wifi PCI cards so I would only be getting it for my Pandora.


Oh yeah, here is the link. Sale won't start for like 11 and a half hours though.


UPDATE 14/Mar/11: The sale is off but I've gotten this adapter to work on my Linux box, was easy to compile and get working, I just don't have my Pandora yet to test it on. If the drivers work for the Pandora can these be packed into a PND to make the installation easier for everyone else? This assumes that the Pandora's wifi is not perfectly working right now of course.

 

[Elanzer]

It uses a Realtek RTL8188CUS chipset, it looks like there's Linux driver source available for the unit (even directly from the Edimax site), support for it doesn't appear to be built into the linux kernel itself.


So, you probably would have to download the source and compile the driver yourself. This won't be a simple plug and play unit, I don't think.

 

[second exodous]

Ah that sucks, maybe I'll pack it in a PND for everyone else if I get it.


I have a Edimax PCI card that it's drivers are in the kernel so it works out of the box, wonder if these drivers will make it in someday.

 

[second exodous]

I'm bumping this as the sale started 3 min ago, it is $9.99 with free shipping, good price if you need one. I'm getting one just for emergencies since it works with Linux and if I ever need to show off Linux I'll have this if their wifi doesn't work.

 

[Anihil8ion2199]

That is a great price! I got one just to have and if I can use it on the Pandora just for the N, that would be awesome!

 

[DavidBowman]

thanks for the tip, i ordered one!

 

[DavidBowman]

Just FYI, I managed to compile the driver on Ubuntu Lucid 64 using the Realtek-included script, but not on my Pandora. That's okay though since I wasn't going to get this for my Pandora, but rather for my tower which still has Ubuntu 8.10 on it and no wifi card.


Seems to be a nice adapter all the way around!


There is official ARM support, btw.

 

[second exodous]

Could these drivers be built into a PND file to install them on the Pandora? I haven't gotten mine yet so I haven't played around with it.

 

[McLovin]

I don't think a pnd would be the correct way to deal with kernel modules.


anyway, if someone manages to compile the needed modules, they can surely be provided in binary form for easy install.


Thinking of it, maybe we could indeed discuss a standardized way to distribute driver-packages for certain hardware and provide those over the wiki.


wifi, edge, dvb...

 

[Vitel]

Awesome. I want a GPS adapter of the same size.

 

[XxionxX]

Awesome. I want a GPS adapter of the same size.

But now the USB port is taken up by the wifi module! What will we do!

 

[Caine]

Awesome. I want a GPS adapter of the same size.

But now the USB port is taken up by the wifi module! What will we do!

Use a bluetooth GPS receiver (assuming we have support for those in the bluetooth stack).

 

[Neelix]

I don't think a pnd would be the correct way to deal with kernel modules.


anyway, if someone manages to compile the needed modules, they can surely be provided in binary form for easy install.

I don't see why not, after all OPL distributes its firmware in a PND. As I see it a PND would be the perfect way to distribute these as long as the run script makes it very clear what its about to do and offers the user the chance to cancel before proceeding.

 

[DavidBowman]

Someone correct me as I may be way off base since I don't do a lot of any development, but I believe that the only thing we need to compile the drivers for the Pandora is the proper "make" packages. The drivers officially support the ARM platform, and I have this exact one installed on my Ubuntu 8.10 box. It was painless to get it working on there and on Ubuntu 10.04, I just used the included script.

 

[second exodous]

I'm getting mine in a few days so I'll give it a try. I have no idea how to package .PND files but I can manage compiling the source, I have already done it on one of my Linux boxes.

 

[DavidBowman]

It would strike me as being much easier to write a script than try to package the drivers in a PND. And honestly, the script included by Realtek also installs it for you after compiling the drivers. The only trick here will be to make sure the drivers will compile on the Pandora, which shouldn't be too hard.

 

[Neelix]

It would strike me as being much easier to write a script than try to package the drivers in a PND. And honestly, the script included by Realtek also installs it for you after compiling the drivers. The only trick here will be to make sure the drivers will compile on the Pandora, which shouldn't be too hard.

I'm afraid I don't understand what point you are trying to make, or why there is resistance to the idea of putting this in a PND to begin with. Writing the script would have to be done before it could be PNDed up anyway. Once you have the installation script though wrapping it in a PND is trivial with the right tools, and in terms of ease of installation of the distributed drivers, a properly scripted PND is going to win over a gzipped tarball any day of the week. Isn't that the point of having the PND system in the first place?


What am I missing here? *confused look*

 

[DavidBowman]

Not resistance, merely a suggestion for expediency, and one directed to second.exodous as he and I are the only two on this board (known) that own this adapter. Why do all that work for two people? The install script takes care of both compiling and installing the driver.


If you really want the PND, by all means feel free to lead off and I'll be happy to assist. Do you have this adapter?

 

[second exodous]

Not resistance, merely a suggestion for expediency, and one directed to second.exodous as he and I are the only two on this board (known) that own this adapter. Why do all that work for two people? The install script takes care of both compiling and installing the driver.


If you really want the PND, by all means feel free to lead off and I'll be happy to assist. Do you have this adapter?

Ohhh, I see now, I was wondering the same thing as Neelix. I just thought if it was packed into a PND then maybe if someone was looking for a wifi adapter they'd see the PND and get this one, make it easier for those in the market for one.


Yeah, I don't need a PND, I can manage getting it installed I'm sure, I was only thinking of others. I should have made that more clear in my posts.


This assumes that the wifi in the Pandora isn't all fixed, is it yet?

 

[Neelix]

Not resistance, merely a suggestion for expediency, and one directed to second.exodous as he and I are the only two on this board (known) that own this adapter. Why do all that work for two people? The install script takes care of both compiling and installing the driver.


If you really want the PND, by all means feel free to lead off and I'll be happy to assist. Do you have this adapter?

As it happens, I don't, and since the internal wifi works well for my purposes I'm unlikely to get one. I was merely trying to get a grasp on what I didn't understand.


I agree with Second.Exodous that it would be good to have this available, so that if anyone else is looking for an external wifi adaptor suitable for use with the Pandora, we could point to it and say we've got drivers for this one ready to go.


I also like the thought that if I ever needed such a thing then I could pick up such an item off the shelf and be able to get it working quickly.


That being said I see where you are coming from now, so thank you for easing my confusion.