Raspberry Pi A, User Manual, Page: 97 / 314

C H A P T E R 5
N E T W O R K C O N F I G U R A T I O N
81
The firmware for the example Zyxel wireless adapter is provided by the
firmware-ralink
package in this list. This package can be installed using
apt-get
, but only while the Pi is
connected to the Internet through its wired Ethernet port or a USB Ethernet adapter.
When connected, install the firmware by typing the following:
sudo apt-get install firmwarepackage
Replace
firmwarepackage
in this command with the name of the package that you found
by using
apt-cache
. For the example Zyxel NWD2105, the full command would be
sudo
apt-get install firmware-ralink.
Installing Wireless Firmware Offline
If you can’t connect the Pi to the Internet using any method other than a wireless connec-
tion, you’ll need to download the firmware on a different computer. In a web browser, load
a search engine and type the name of the firmware package followed by the name of the
distribution you’re using and its version.
If you’re using the recommend Raspbian distribution, the firmware for the Ralink RT2x00
chipset from the example can be found by searching for
firmware-ralink debian
wheezy
. The search will lead you to a package file to download. In the case of Debian and
Raspbian, this is a
.deb
file. For Pidora, the same firmware is provided as a
.rpm
file.
Download this file, and then copy it to the Pi’s SD card in the
/home/pi
directory, or onto
a USB flash drive or other external storage device. Load the Pi, and then when it is time to
install the firmware, replace the package name with the name of the file you downloaded.
For the example Zyxel NWD2105 card, the command would be the following:
sudo apt-get install firmware-ralink_0.35_all.deb
With the firmware installed, disconnect the USB wireless adapter and reconnect it to the Pi.
This will restart the kernel’s search for the firmware files, which it will now be able to find.
These files will remain in place, and load automatically when the USB wireless adapter is con-
nected. You will only have to perform the installation process once.