Menjalankan USB Nano Wireless TPLink TL-WN725N di Ubuntu 10.04

TP-Link mengeluarkan piranti akses nirkabel TL-WN725N yang tergolong mungil (panjang 6 milimeter). dengan banderol di kisaran Rp100.000, perkakas ini menarik pasar.

Belakangan, TP-Link mengeluarkan produk yang sama, dengan pemutakhiran driver ke versi 2. Perubahan ini membuat kalang-kabut pemakai, terutama pemakai Linux, karena tidak langsung terbaca.

Berikut ini panduan cara memasang driver ini dan menjalankan di sistem operasi Ubuntu Linux 10.04 (terbitan April 2010) dengan kernel 2.6.32-57. O ya, perlu disampaikan dulu, bahwa hasil proses yang tertayang bisa berbeda-beda rinciannya, karena setiap orang punya konfigurasi sistem Linux yang berbeda bukan?

Untuk memastikan bahwa TL-WN725N tidak terbaca, cek dulu perkakas USB terdaftar yang terkait dengan tetek-bengek jaringan komputer. Buka aplikasi terminal/console dan ketik perintah:

sudo lshw -C network

Hasilnya:

*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 03
serial: 6c:62:6d:cb:7c:1c
size: 100MB/s
capacity: 1GB/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full ip=10.15.77.86 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
resources: irq:26 ioport:d800(size=256) memory:fbeff000-fbefffff memory:faffc000-faffffff(prefetchable) memory:fbec0000-fbedffff(prefetchable)

Hasil ini tidak memberikan gelagat TL-WN725N terbaca oleh Ubuntu.

Langkah berikutnya adalah menarik (download) kode mentah driver (source code)  perkakas ini dari  https://github.com/lwfinger/rtl8188eu/archive/master.zip.

Misalkan file berada di folder Downloads, maka tahap selanjutnya adalah beringsut ke folder itu dan merakit-kembali (compile) kode mentahnya:

Pindah dimari...
cd ~/Downloads/rtl8188eu-master

Bangun-ulang driver:
sudo make

Hasilnya:

make ARCH=i386 CROSS_COMPILE= -C /lib/modules/2.6.32-57-generic/build M=/home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu  modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-57-generic'
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_ap.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_br_ext.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_cmd.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_debug.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_efuse.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_ieee80211.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_io.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_ioctl_set.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_iol.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_led.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_mlme.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_mlme_ext.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_mp.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_mp_ioctl.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_pwrctrl.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_p2p.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_recv.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_rf.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_security.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_sreset.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_sta_mgt.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_wlan_util.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/core/rtw_xmit.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/HalHWImg8188E_MAC.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/HalHWImg8188E_BB.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/HalHWImg8188E_RF.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/HalPhyRf.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/HalPhyRf_8188e.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/HalPwrSeqCmd.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/Hal8188EPwrSeq.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/Hal8188ERateAdaptive.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/hal_intf.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/hal_com.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/odm.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/odm_debug.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/odm_interface.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/odm_HWConfig.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/odm_RegConfig8188E.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/odm_RTL8188E.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188e_cmd.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188e_dm.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188e_hal_init.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188e_mp.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188e_phycfg.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188e_rf6052.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188e_rxdesc.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188e_sreset.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188e_xmit.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188eu_led.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188eu_recv.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/rtl8188eu_xmit.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/usb_halinit.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/hal/usb_ops_linux.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/os_dep/ioctl_linux.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/os_dep/mlme_linux.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/os_dep/os_intfs.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/os_dep/osdep_service.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/os_dep/recv_linux.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/os_dep/rtw_android.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/os_dep/usb_intf.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/os_dep/usb_ops_linux.o
CC [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/os_dep/xmit_linux.o
LD [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/8188eu.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 1 modules
CC      /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/8188eu.mod.o
LD [M]  /home/undix/Downloads/rtl8188eu/8188eu.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-57-generic'

Benamkan hasil rakitan ke sistem operasi...
sudo make install

Hasilnya:install -p -D -m 644 8188eu.ko  /lib/modules/2.6.32-57-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/8188eu.ko
/sbin/depmod -a 2.6.32-57-generic
mkdir -p /lib/firmware/rtlwifi
cp -n rtl8188eufw.bin /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/.

Terakhir, aktifkan driver dengan perintah:
sudo modprobe 8188eu

Perintah terakhir di atas tidak menghasilkan rentetan pesan seperti sebelumnya.

Untuk memeriksa apakah driver sudah berjalan, ketik perintah seperti pada awal:
sudo lshw -C network

Hasilnya:
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 03
serial: 6c:62:6d:cb:7c:1c
size: 100MB/s
capacity: 1GB/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full ip=10.15.77.86 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
resources: irq:26 ioport:d800(size=256) memory:fbeff000-fbefffff memory:faffc000-faffffff(prefetchable) memory:fbec0000-fbedffff(prefetchable)
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: wlan1
serial: f8:1a:67:2c:be:d0
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=unassociated

Bagian yang dicetak tebal, adalah informasi perkakas TL-WN725N. Pada tahap ini, TL-WN725N sudah bisa digunakan di Ubuntu. Cara ini biasanya manjur pula di semua sistem operasi UNIX dan turunannya.