On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 3:44 PM, Sam Varshavchik mrsam@courier-mta.com wrote:
TP-LINK TL-WN821N
Can you post output of lsmod and lsusb. Have you installed the firmware for the device into /lib/firmware? If the device is supported by the kernel you won't be able to load the module without the firmware installed.
Google is your friend.
Thanks, Terry.
Why do you believe you need to install some kind of a driver? From the below, it looks like your card is an atheros chip-based one, and you have a bunch of ath9 modules loaded.
What exactly is or is not working for you.
Well, I plug the the USB device and nothing happens. According to the manual, a led should be turned on when I plug the USB.
That may not mean anything. These kinds of idiot lights are often software controlled. My laptop has a built-in idiot light for it's built-in wireless cards. It obediently lights up when I boot Windows. It stays off in Fedora. Maybe in blinks occasionally, but wireless works just fine. The kernel driver, I guess, doesn't bother to turn on the idiot light, when it initializes the adapter.
The most important thing is whether NetworkManager claims to see a wireless interface, and gives you a list of available access points your wireless card is hearing, and not whether some idiot light comes on.
A good source of clues is to look at what gets written into /var/log/messages, when you plug in the card.
Thanks, Sam. You are absolutely right: the wireless adapter was working properly without any light being blinking or flashing.
Paul