I’m looking for Ubuntu-compatible drivers for this model of Wi-Fi adapter. I tried installing the Windows drivers with Wine but it doesn’t work.
Installing drivers will not work in Wine, it’s not designed to do this. There is ndiswrapper which takes in a Windows wireless driver and with a bit of luck, makes it work on the system.
Faster by the terminal: (CTRL+ALT+T)
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper ndisgtk
sudo ndisgtk
ndisgtk is the graphical front-end, which is a lot easier then configuring ndiswrapper by hand.
If your device model is a Belkin F7D2102, then it seems that there should a native Linux driver somewhere:
https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Belkin_F7D2102
It contains a Realtek RTL8192CU chipset. There’s some instructions here from 2013 that should still be in date if you’d like to compile the Linux driver instead: http://askubuntu.com/questions/246236/compile-and-install-rtl8192cu-driver
Your adapter may also be the same as this fellow Ubuntu user:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1807399
See also:
Output of “lsusb” command please.
@Dave_Barnes: Ok, here’s the output:
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
@lah7 How do I know where the driver files are on the installation disc? What would they probably look like?
If you’re referring to Windows drivers, they are usually in a folder containing an inf file. ndiswrapper requires Windows XP drivers to work. Some manufacturers might hide them inside their installation packages. (You might be able to use the cabextract command or open the EXE as an archive to extract them out) 
Linux drivers are unlikely to be on an installation disc, I’d be surprised if they are, which is why we’ll need to research your model to find the right ones.
Also, your lsusb output is insufficient, is it a USB adapter? If it’s a PCI card or built-in, try lspci instead.
Yes, it is a USB adapter.
There is an INF file in the disc called net8192cu.inf. Is that the driver?, because when I install it, it says that the hardware is not present, even though it is.
That’s the Windows driver. From the looks of your lsusb, there isn’t any other USB devices plugged in, just hubs? 
Have you tried another port, or can verify that you can see the adapter in the list?
There seems to be a native Linux driver should ndiswrapper not work, note the similarities here:
-
net8192cu.inf -
RTL8192CU
Re-open ndisgtk to refresh the status. Once the adapter is present (which it will state even if wireless functionality isn’t working), we can see if it works straight away or if we’d need to blacklist a kernel driver first.
Nope, still not recognizing the device. Where can I get the Linux driver you mentioned?
See these instructions (originally linked in first post), you will need a wired connection to download, compile and install the driver:
To completely get rid of ndiswrapper:
sudo apt-get purge ndiswrapper ndisgtk
K, I’ll try that. Thank you.
If “lsusb” doesn’t show the device then it won’t work. The driver won’t fix USB connectivity problems. Try another USB port or another computer.
that didn’t work. What else can I do?
Actually, the laptop has two PCMCIA slots, maybe I could find one of those? Also, it seems to have started acting up when I switched to the newer version of the adapter. Maybe I need to try the older one again.
Ok, I think that my USB ports may be going bad. I hooked up a flash drive and it’s not recognized either. Are there adapters for PCMCIA slots that act like a USB hub?
What model laptop?
What does
“cat /sys/class/dmi/id/board_vendor /sys/class/dmi/id/board_name sys/class/dmi/id/board_version”
show?
The USB ports may be disabled. Or the USB port may have become unsoldered. Also some laptops don’t like unpowered hubs – you may have to plug the device directly into the laptop USB port.
You can also try running the following terminal (Ctrl + Alt + t) commands as it may just be a dependency issue?:
sudo apt-get --fix-missing install
The above command downloads and installs any missing packages on your system.
sudo apt-get --fix-broken install
The above command downloads and installs any broken dependencies on your system.
Retsart if anything updates!. 