This is a HOWTO to get the Belkin USB wireless adapter: F5D7050 v5000 working with the native rtl8187b driver in Intrepid Ubuntu for wireless connectivity.
Name: Belkin F5D7050 (802.11g – 54Mbps)
USB ID: 050d:705e
Before I begin, I should tell you why I got to this point. I had this USB adapter “working” with ndiswrapper, in the sense that I could modprobe ndiswrapper, and it would make this device “ready”. I could even scan for access points, and get a list back. I could even authenticate onto an access point. The problem for me was (I now know to be fairly common) that I could not obtain an IP address from the DCHP server from the access point.
Tutorial
The most important aspect of this tutorial is to make sure that you have Linux kernel version 2.6.27-11 or higher. At the time of writing (16th January, 2009), this is still sat in the Ubuntu proposed repository. So please, in Synaptic Manager, enable Updates → Intrepid Proposed. Following that, search for and install Kernel 2.6.27-11.21 (or higher in the months after this blog posting). Once this is installed, go into Synaptic Manager and deselect the Intrepid “Proposed” repository. UPDATE: 6th March 2009 – This kernel version is now in Ubuntu stable repositories, so no action needed to get kernel 2.6.27-11 – just make sure you have an up to date system.
The next thing to do is edit which modules are loaded at boot. Let us look at /etc/modules. If you have ndiswrapper or rtl73 listed in this file, then remove them. Then at the bottom of this file, add “rtl8187”. This will load the driver ready to be used by the USB wireless device.
So we have the start of the process. Make sure that you are now booted with the new kernel (“uname -a” will tell you the booted kernel version). Now we probably need to edit file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules . Here is where your network adapters and network cards are labelled with an alias. For example, if you have in the past used another wireless adapter, any new adapter will be called “wlan1” or “wlan2” etc… The same applies if you have, up until now been trying to use ndiswrapper with this F5D7050 USB dongle. Any new attempts with the native rtl8187 drive will label the device as “wlan1”. Here’s what your 70-persistent-net.rules file needs to look like:
SUBSYSTEM==”net”, ACTION==”add”, DRIVERS==”?*”, ATTR{address}==”00:08:74:1d:0d:18″, ATTR{type}==”1″, KERNEL==”eth*”, NAME=”eth0″
# USB device 0×050d:0×705e (rtl8187)
SUBSYSTEM==”net”, ACTION==”add”, DRIVERS==”?*”, ATTR{address}==”00:1c:df:37:c2:7d”, ATTR{type}==”1″, KERNEL==”wlan*”, NAME=”wlan0″
Next, we need to check our /etc/network/interfaces file. Please remove any mention of wlan0. If it is configured here, it will not be handled by network manager when booted into our X server. This is what my /etc/network/interfaces file looks like:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
Next, we need to make sure that we are using network manager (nm-applet) for our wireless connections. This may be slightly rare, but I had more success from network manager than I did from wicd. So install Network Manager.
Now reboot your machine. Grub will now boot you into the new kernel. The reason for this kernel upgrade is that the F5D7050 is tagged with the rtl8187 driver, as illustrated in this document: Intrepid Proposed update
That’s all it is.
OK, we’re all done. When Network Manager loads, give it a short time to pick up your access point. Then try to log onto the wireless network.
Best of luck with this – It’s very satisfying when (if) things work out for you!
If this has been good for you, then by all means, let me know, it’d be good to hear about it !!
Good luck!!!
UPDATE – Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 – I experienced wireless drop out issues with Jaunty, which is using kernel 2.6.28.
FIX – To fix the Jaunty issue, you’ll need to edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file, and put the grub entries for kernel 2.6.27 above the entries for 2.6.28, so that when grub boot at start up, the 2.6.27 kernel is launched, which is proving more stable for the rtl8187 driver for this F5D7050 device.
Comments
New to Ubuntu, cannot enable the updates due to my computer not being connected to the internet. How do I get to the updates?
Hi there. Well with what you tell me, I can best suggest that you go in search of a solution via ndiswrapper. I have read that before this howto above, with native support, ndiswrapper did accept the *.inf file on the CD that comes with the USB stick. If you don’t have the CD with you, then you’ll be able to get the Windows drivers on the internet, probably from Belkin’s page. My suggestion would be to install ndiswrapper (hopefully Ubuntu will have it preinstalled). Then add “ndiswrapper” to the end of the file /etc/modules . Reboot, and you should have network-manager pick up your device. Hope that sorts out your issue.
I have been trying for hours now… Got it working in kernel 2.6.23 with ndiswrapper and a driver from cd, but could not connect to AP with WEP encryption enabled.
I added the “deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid-proposed restricted main multiverse universe” repository and installed kernel 2.6.27-11-generic, as you suggested. After a rebooot, it worked with both wicd and nm-applet.
Problem solved, thx!!
Hi there, I suffered the same problem with WEP encrption + ndiswrapper for this device.. hence why this blog post came about!
Glad this solves it for you!
Thanks for the tutorial. I’ve been fighting with this Belkin stick for two days and this worked like a charm! I updated the kernel on a fresh install of Intrepid and didn’t have to mess with the configuration files at all. The only thing I would add is that as a semi-noob, I took a while for me to find the right file in Synaptic. If you do the search for ‘linux-image’, it’ll take you right to it.
Thanks again!
Derek
[...] the kernel version you’ll be installing. I had problems like this, see for yourself here “Wireless Issues”. If the user has initial problems with wireless connection, you’ll have a job on your hands [...]
Thanks a ton for this. it worked like a charm… thought no no no too easy…. but bam instant results.
COOL! I followed your steps, rebooted and got nothing. I checked the dongle and realized it was not completely plugged in. I plugged it in and the swirls started and bam, I was connected to my router. Totally awesome man. Now I can make my laptop mobile again. Thanks!
BTW, I already had the latest kernel. I guess it is no longer suggested. I probably picked it up in an update when I was wired and didn’t realize it.
Hi
1) I installed Ubuntu 8.10 within the past week. uname -a gives 2.6.27-11-generic. Is this satisfactory to continue?
2) In Synaptic Manager there is no option to select Updates – Intreped Proposed ???
3) Enter /etc/modules in Terminal produces Permission denied. How do I set the necessary permissions?
Thanks for any advice
Hi there George –
1. Now that Ubuntu has 2.6.27-11 in “stable”, nothing is needed to get the wireless adapter working. I have updated my blog post with this information. Thanks!
2. There’s no need to enable Intrepid proposed now that you have 2.6.27-11
3. To edit /etc/modules, you need to access the file with “super user” permissions, rather than reducing the security on this file. To do this in Ubuntu, open up a terminal window and type: “sudo gedit /etc/modules”. You’ll be asked for a password for sudo (which is your account password if you’re an administrator). Then gedit will open and you can add the text as described in the blog post. Save, and reboot.
Good luck!!
Hey – thank you for this write up!
Are you having any problems with WEP or WPA? Everything works great without WEP or WPA with a broadcast SSID – unfortunately that is not the best setup. If I try to configure any of the above in the /etc/network/interfaces file and my router the connection will drop or not connect.
- For WEP I added wireless-essid and wireless-key to the /etc/network/interfaces file, it works, then drops the signal and then may or may not pick it back up
- For no broadcast SSID, it can’t find the router
- For WPA I added the correct lines in the /etc/network/interfaces but I do not have them in front of me right now
If you’re experiencing any of the same problems please let me know! I have not tried WPA supplicant, I am not running Gnome just command line too.
Thanks!
Hi Krop86.
In your situation I would very strongly recommend wicd . I would first of all remove all you have entered into /etc/network/interfaces as this is not helpful to us.
Next, I would install wicd, using the package manager your Linux distro uses. If it is the most recent version of wicd, there is now a very useful binary called wicd-client which is a GUI front end for wireless devices. Run this the first time, enter all your encryption information, and save. Make sure this enables you to ping http://www.google.co.uk .
From then on, wicd-client is not needed to connect to the wireless router. Instead, each time you reboot, simply, as root, run wicd. e.g. “su -c wicd” or “sudo wicd”.
Give it 30 seconds for wicd to run, and pick up your settings you specified before using the wicd-client.
et… voila.. you should now have the internet connection you are looking for.
any problems, let me know.
Hi all . I bought it today. Yes it works natively but…..
This stick (with rtl8187)sucks.
It seems to have a major problem with the signal strength and various lags even with OPEN and No Encrypt configuration.
Here is a ping to my router:
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=14 ttl=255 time=8.30 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=18 ttl=255 time=6.94 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=19 ttl=255 time=3.16 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=20 ttl=255 time=6.17 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=23 ttl=255 time=3249 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=24 ttl=255 time=2246 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=25 ttl=255 time=1242 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=26 ttl=255 time=239 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=28 ttl=255 time=5.68 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=29 ttl=255 time=3.42 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=30 ttl=255 time=4.17 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=31 ttl=255 time=5.93 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=32 ttl=255 time=7.67 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=33 ttl=255 time=7.67 ms
^C
— 192.168.1.1 ping statistics —
33 packets transmitted, 27 received, 18% packet loss, time 32076ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 3.168/263.469/3249.637/753.589 ms, pipe 4
I have also Belkin 7050 v3000 (rt73) who works natively and also perfectly…..
Hi there,
thanks for reporting. I have seen a problem with this device since the upgrade to Jaunty (is that what you’re using?). To rectify, I reverted to editing the /boot/grub/menu.lst file so that the 2.6.27 kernel is launched, which is proving more stable with the rtl8187 driver for this device. Thanks.
So which wireless dongle is BEST for Linux?
This worked great for me but died when I got to the .31 kernel.
I didn’t notice at first because I was on Ethernet as well, but i noticed lots of errors in the log.
It appeared that rt73usb and rt2500usb were both loading.
To get it to work again I had to blacklist the rt2500usb driver.
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
add rt2500usb to end of list, save and close.
After rebooting, wireless fired up again straight away.
Hope this helps someone. Thanks for the Blog.
Hi
I purchased Belkin F5D7050 v4000 sometime back. After upgrading my PC to Kubuntu 9.04, I can able to connect to wireless using wicd. However when I enable encryption (either WEP or WPA), I couldn’t able to connect to network.
Can you suggest me any solution?
Thanks
Ramesh
I had issues getting the wireless working with several Ubuntu 9.04 variants on a Dell laptop with a previously supported internal mini-PCI card. Downloaded and installed Xbuntu 9.04 and the wireless worked flawlessly. Apparently some issues with the KDE and Gnome distros?
Over the weekend I gave a friend a Xbuntu live CD and one of my Linksys USB wireless devices and at least for the unencrypted networks it worked fine.
Hi there! I’m using unetbootin for Xubuntu 9.04 and since it’s on a USB I was wondering if their would be any variables, should I still follow these steps as they are? I hope you can help me out this is truly important to me, please e-mail me at maaz.razi@gmail.com, or I guess if I’m going to receive a notification anyway that’s alright. I do have a belkin F5D7050 and hope to hear from you soon! Thanks in advance and hope you have a great day!
Hi Maazr, the good news is that you won’t need to change anything at all, as the rtl8187 module is built into the kernal that will be on your Xubuntu USB drive. All you need is two USB ports of course ! Try the wireless without my instructions, and if you encounter issues, then go through my instructions.
Otherwise, the answer is no – there is change to the instructions just because you installing to a USB drive. Good luck !
I’ve followed your tutorial, but nothing seems to have happened. I’m using a reasonably update version of Intrepid (updated a week ago, but not since as my old modem has now packed in so I really need to get wireless up and running).
After editing the required files I rebooted Ubuntu and opened up the Network Manager expecting to see a Wireless connection listed, but instead see my old ADSL and Modem connections, which surprised me as I thought they would have gone when I edited the system files.
I’m at a real loss as to where I went wrong, or what I need to do next, so any help would be much appreciated as Ubuntu is somewhat useless to me without an Internet connection.
Does this work or 9.10?
@ Abs K – There is every reason that it should.