[Raspberry pi] RTL8188CU usb dongle driver installation and automatically connecting to wifi on boot

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/321261160362?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

purchased item
Mini USB 150M 150Mbps Wireless LAN Adapter 802.11b/n/g WiFi w/ 2dBi Antenna D1

more info
on $lsusb
ID 0bda:0179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

Installation of this usb dongle does not work on raspbian,
3.10.36+ #666

Following this guide,
Realtek wifi 8188CUS doesn't "just work"
http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=52236
and this original poster,
http://www.fars-robotics.net/

1. set up /etc/network/interfaces
2. set up /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
3. set up driver according to section... Installing the rtl8188eu based wifi adaptor driver for Raspbian.
3.1 $uname -a reveals version, which is reflected by URL date on 3.2
3.2 $wget https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/80256631/8188eu-20140117.tar.gz
3.3 $tar -zxvf 8188eu-*.tar.gz
3.4 $sudo install -p -m 644 8188eu.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless
3.5 $sudo insmod /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/8188eu.ko
3.6 $sudo depmod -a

4. modify /etc/rc.local according to following guide, **module name is different**
raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/4120/how-to-automatically-reconnect-wifi
4.1 some files need to be created at /usr/local/bin/wifi, /etc/wifi.conf

5. reboot


P.S. to force connecting by commands at rc.local,
add following to /etc/rc.local, without modifying /etc/networks/interfaces or wpa_conf files
##/etc/rc.local
##for a WEP AP
iwconfig wlan0 essid APNAME key 1234567890
dhclient wlan0
#will run every boot

For linux mint 16 as well as ubuntu, this same dongle will work following this guide,
Good news re RealTek RTL-8188CUs
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2042768

which is found from here,
Edimax EW-7811Un USB wireless – connecting to a network (on ubuntu 11.10)
http://www.r-statistics.com/2011/11/edimax-ew-7811un-usb-wireless-connecting-to-a-network-on-ubuntu-11-10/


Step 0: get a network cable

In order to solve this issue you will need Internet. Get a network cable which you can physically connect to your router. Once you have Internet access the following steps are much easier to follow.

Step 1: make it easy to open terminal window in a specific folder location

This step is important since it makes several other steps easier to manage.

The instructions on how to do it are given here. You simply need to open a terminal window (press CTRL+ALT+T), and type:
sudo apt-get install nautilus-open-terminal

From now on, whenever you want to open a new terminal window in a specific folder – you simply right-click that folder (from the folder which is a level above it) and choose “Open in Terminal”

Step 2: Download the latest edimx drivers
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...oads=true#2742

Step 3: Install the new driver

Go to the download folder and open (using right click, if you followed step 0) the terminal for the folder “RTL8192CU_8188CUS_8188CE-VAU_linux_v3.1.2590.20110922″. Then run:

sudo bash install.sh

(note 1: it will ask for your user’s password – as will any command which is using the sudo = super user do prefix)
(note 2: in order to paste in the terminal, use ctrl+shift+v instead of just ctrl+v as is in the GUI and other editors)

Step 4: blacklist the old driver

Next, we want to edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf Getting there using the GUI wouldn’t work, because ubuntu wouldn’t let us save the changes we will make. Instead, just open the terminal and type:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Go to the end of the file and add the line:

blacklist rtl8192cu

(thanks goes to icracked for the advise)

Step 5: remove and re-insert the network USB (and reboot)

Once done – I was finally able to see and connect to my home Internet network.

At this point, some people also said reboot helped, so if you got this far, why not do that too…