Can't connect to internet using Dlink DWA-130 (rev C1) usb stick on Ubuntu 14.04

Question

chili555, if you're still reading this Q&A site, would you help me with this same problem as I saw your solution worked for the other user. I followed your proposed steps as following (I replaced his device id to my device id "2001 3301" ) but it doesn't work for me. Below is what I did and I still can't connect to the internet. My wireless internet is still "DISABLED" when I run sudo lshw -C network, but the wired eth0 is not. Thanks in advance.

1. Remove the device

2. In a terminal, do:

   gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/network_drivers.conf

   Add one long single line:

   install rt2800usb /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install rt2800usb $CMDLINE_OPTS; /bin/echo "2001 3c25" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/rt2800usb/new_id

Proofread twice, save and close the text editor.

3. Insert the device.

4. If it doesn't start immediately, you might have to do:

   sudo modprobe rt2800usb

5. Be certain that ndiswrapper is removed:

   sudo apt-get purge ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils*

6. reboot.

Answer 1

The correct driver for your device is r8192u_usb. The file you added will be ineffective so please remove it:

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/network_drivers.conf

The driver requires firmware; let's confirm that it is present:

sudo modprobe r8192u_usb
dmesg | grep 8192

Are there any interesting messages? If it is missing firmware, get a temporary working internet connection, open a terminal and do:

wget ftp://ftp2.dlink.com/PRODUCTS/DWA-130/REVC/DWA-130_REVC_DRIVERS_0.06_LINUX.ZIP
unzip DWA-130_REVC_DRIVERS_0.06_LINUX.ZIP
sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/RTL8192U
sudo cp rtl8192u_linux_2.6.0006.1031.2008/firmware/RTL8192U/*  /lib/firmware/RTL8192U

Remove and reinsert the device and it should be working.

Also, sometimes DISABLED arises when the wireless switch or key combination is set to disable wireless; check

rfkill list all

Once I have further information, I will edit my answer to refine my proposed solution.