Linux-compatible wireless USB adaptor: Slightly better in Ubuntu Gutsy

Every now and then I retest my collection of wireless USB adaptors, hoping that another one will start working thanks to an Ubuntu update. Today I noticed that the Zyxel G-220 v2 now works perfectly in Ubuntu Gutsy (zd1211b chipset, using the zd1211rw driver, I think). So there is now at least one wireless USB adaptor that’s easily available in both the US and Germany that works out of the box in up-to-date Ubuntu. One is much much better than zero.

I’ve updated my Wireless USB test results, and my (small) Ubuntu Hardware page. I wonder if the newer Zyxel adaptors work too, such as the Zyxel G-270S.

3 thoughts on “Linux-compatible wireless USB adaptor: Slightly better in Ubuntu Gutsy

  1. Glad to hear that it works for you. There are over 100 zd1211-based devices in existence, with varying availability. List here:
    http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/zd1211rw/devices

    Most of these should work out-of-the-box under Ubuntu and other distros which ship the driver and the firmware. The list above includes some IDs that are only present in the latest wireless development tree though.

    ZyDAS have done a good job of writing an open driver (which zd1211rw was a rewrite of), sharing device specs with developers and also their engineers answer our questions about specific technical details. So please keep on pimping this hardware :)

    As you can see from the list, quite a few ZyXEL products are based on this chip. However, I just looked at the Windows driver for the G-270S which indicates it is an Atheros AR5523. Atheros USB devices are completely unsupported under Linux (other than the AR5007UG which is a rebranded ZD1211B). The ZD1211 hardware does not support the 108mb rates that “Super G” attempts to provide, so generally if you see 108mbps advertised you know it isn’t ZD1211.

    (Another sidenote: don’t always trust the marketing though! ZD1211 does not support MIMO (802.11n) either, but does support the ZyXEL XtremeMIMO M-202 which is confusingly *not* a MIMO device)

    – Daniel (zd1211rw co-author)

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