Linux driver for USB RNDIS wireless lan adapters

This is a driver for RNDIS USB 802.11 wireless lan adapters. They are available from various vendors, but all devices I have seen are based around the same Broadcom 4320 chipset.
I personally have successfully tested:

US Robotics MAXg Wireless adapter USR5421
Belkin F5D7051
Linksys WUSB54GS (v2.1)

Others reported working:

Buffalo WLI-U2-KG125S
Asus WL169gE

Other adapters that may be supported (untested):

US Robotics Wireless USB Adapter USR5420
Linksys WUSB54GSC
Eminent EM4045

Basically, any wireless usb adapter using rndismp.sys and usb8023.sys drivers under windows (check your driver cd) might work with this driver.

Current:
rndis_wlan-snapshot-20080509.tar.gz
This snapshot should work for kernels 2.6.24 and up.

Old:
rndis_wlan-snapshot-20071220.tar.gz
rndis_wlan-snapshot-20071213.tar.gz
rndis_wlan-snapshot-20071210.tar.gz
rndis_wlan-snapshot-20071206.tar.gz
rndis_wlan-snapshot-20071107.tar.gz
rndis_wlan-snapshot-20070917.tar.gz

Installation:

install the kernel source/headers package for your particular distro.
backup original kernel modules usbnet.ko, cdc_ether.ko and rndis_host.ko (find them under /lib/modules/<kernel-release>/...)
as root run clean.sh to remove the distro supplied version of the modified modules.
finally run make (as normal user) and make install (as root) this installs the modules in /lib/modules/<kernelversion>/extra
plug in the device and run iwconfig to see if a wireless device has appeared.
setup wireless networking in the normal way for your linux distro.

You may need to add the following to your udev rules to have the modules loaded when you plug the device in:

BUS=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="011b", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0baf", RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'echo 1 > /sys/%p/device/bConfigurationValue'

Replace product and vendor id with correct values for your device when necessary:
011b and 0baf is for a US Robotics MAXg adapter
7051 and 050d is for Belkin FD7051.
check lsusb to find correct values for your adapter.
This seems to be fixed in newer kernels around 2.6.21 and up or so.

!! Note !!
This driver is actually a modification of the usbnet, cdc_ether and rndis_host driver modules available in current linux kernels and it replaces them. This could cause other devices using these modules to stop working.

Last updated: 16 May 2008 - Bjorge Dijkstra (bjd@jooz.net)