[help] Picking a distro compatible with network adaptor

I currently own a NETGEAR wn121t. It's a usb network adaptor.
I've come to understand that some linux distros work with these things right away, and others do not. Honestly, I do not care too much about what distro to install, as I just want an open source OS with my adaptor working. I would like to know if there are ANY distros that work with this device. Thanks in advance.

Hello and Welcome.
You need to provide a bit more detail about the device first. The main thing we need to know is which chipset it's using. Do you have any version or distro of Linux available to you? If yes, then boot that baby up, plug in the device and issue this command in a terminal window please.

Code:

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lsusb

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If that doesn't work, then try using sudo.

Code:

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sudo lsusb

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by MikeTbob

Hello and Welcome.
You need to provide a bit more detail about the device first. The main thing we need to know is which chipset it's using. Do you have any version or distro of Linux available to you? If yes, then boot that baby up, plug in the device and issue this command in a terminal window please.

Code:

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lsusb

---

If that doesn't work, then try using sudo.

Code:

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sudo lsusb

---

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Unfortunately, I do not have any distros on this machine. I used to have the Ubuntu10.10, but I became so frustrated that I deleted the partition and restored my MBR. I now just have Windows 7. FYI: my laptop successfully runs Mint 9 Isadora.

Well, if you have Mint installed on your laptop, can you put the USB device on there and issue those commands from there?

Code:

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Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0846:7100 NetGear, Inc. WN121T RangeMax Next Wireless-N [Marvell TopDog]

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I'm assuming that this is line that it returned you wanted to see.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wimawa

Code:

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Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0846:7100 NetGear, Inc. WN121T RangeMax Next Wireless-N [Marvell TopDog]

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I'm assuming that this is line that it returned you wanted to see.

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Yes, that's the line we needed to see. It appears to me that you might need NDISwrapper to get this device to work with Linux.
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/wir...-problems.html
In my experience so far, the distro with the very best drivers and modules for my particular systems has been Linux Mint. Usually, if your wired connection will work, that might allow you to download and install firmware (if it's available yet) with just a few clicks.
Main Page - Linux Mint

I've had quite a good history with Mint. I've tried NDISwrapper with Ubuntu in the past, but no luck. Thanks for the suggestions!