Unable to use TL-WN821N wireless adapter

Question

I got a TP-LINK USB wireless module - TL-WN821N, using Ubuntu 10.04 (same problems were also seen in 10.10).

From everything I've read online, the usb adapter should work just fine, since the Atheros ar9170 driver is built into the kernel. However, when I plug it in, it is detected as a USB device, but there is no wlan associated with it, and basically - nothing happens.

Am I doing something wrong? what should I do so that the Atheros driver is associated with this device?

btw, on Windows it works fine (with the drivers).

Some logs:

$ uname -mr
2.6.32-28-generic i686

$ lsb_release -d
Description:    Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS

$ lsusb
... (trimmed)
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 017: ID 0cf3:7015 Atheros Communications, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

$ lsmod |grep ar9
ar9170usb              51296  0 
ath                     7611  1 ar9170usb
mac80211              205402  3 ar9170usb,iwl3945,iwlcore
cfg80211              126528  5 ar9170usb,ath,iwl3945,iwlcore,mac80211
led_class               2864  4 ar9170usb,iwl3945,iwlcore,sdhci

Solution

Dude, you shall take a look at the following pages:

• http://wiki.debian.org/ar9170usb
• http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k_htc
• http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices/USB

and perhaps also http://partner.atheros.com/Drivers.aspx

One of those must work for you.

Comments

[apoorv020]

Run sudo lshw, and try to find the driver associated with the device (It comes in the last line of the output). It should also show you the chipset of the device (which need not necessarily be atheros compatible).

[Admin]

It's is Atheros, cause I see in the lsusb "Atheros Communications, Inc.". But I don't see it in lshw...not in the *-network and not in *-usb.