Need to configure TP-link TL-wn725n in Ubuntu server.

I recently installed Ubuntu 17.04 Desktop. I'm some what pleased with it, primarily because it is a free distro. But now I have found myself in the same boat I was in 30 years back, when I was teaching myself DOS.

I have installed Ubuntu Server on a separate machine just to tinker with and learn. This version of Ubuntu doesn't install a GUI. I have searched and found information on how to install the GUI using terminal commands. The problem is these commands depend on a Internet connection, and Ubuntu isn't configured to utilize my TP-Link USB WIFI adapter. I can't configure the WIFI because, like the GUI, I need the Internet to do so.

I also have a LINKSYS Wireless-G PCI adapter but I couldn't even get it to work in the first computer. I can't wire to the router because I'm piggy backing on my neighbors ISP via WIFI. I'm not sure I would have any better luck trying to get the ethernet NIC working.

The only option I can think of is, download driver and utility packages to the first computer and migrate them to the second. If this is possible it presents it's own problem. I wouldn't know which directory to place these files in.

If anyone could give some sound advice or point me towards learning resources I would appreciate it.

Could you borrow someone's laptop to bridge internet access from? Everything's a pain until you have a cable.

Ethernet adapters are much easier to configure than wireless ones. They're usually wholly built into the kernel and autodetect. Wifi drivers usually require external firmware to operate.

I put Tp-Link back in PC #1 (w/Ubuntu GUI). Going to try and share Internet with PC #2 (w/Ubuntu terminal) via Linksys ethernet router. I have a lot of research to do. I'm going to put a pin in this issue, I have started a new project. Testing Solaris live DVD.

Thanks for your feed back.

Going to Solaris for better hardware support is like going to Microsoft for better virus protection. Only Linux has an obsessive enough following to even partly keep pace with the junk consumer hardware shovel mill. Solaris, I would estimate your odds at zero.

If you want wireless in UNIX, decide which UNIX you're going to run first, then find a card it's known to work with.

Solaris certainly has wifi support but you should check whether your wifi adapter vendor provides the driver(s).

Installing Solaris 11 from the 'live' DVD installs a great package manager on the GUI which allows very easy install/uninstall of hundreds of packages (perhaps some to assist wifi) BUT, as you say, you need an internet connection to download these packages.

Most vendor drivers for a particular O/S come with install instructions so I doubt you will be placing files into directories manually as you believe.

Get your hands on a wifi adapter with Solaris support from the vendor if you can. Get an internet connection onto your Solaris any way you can.

I have searched TPLINK,s support site and best I can tell they don't offer any other driver for my device than windows and maybe mac.
I guess I could carry the box next door and wire it to the modem. I'm sure she wouldn't mind, but I hate to ask. I get the idea she wants to be more than neighbors :s
I will look for a device Solaris supports, but I have to tell you I have very little income. Three of the four best PC's I have, I salvaged from the waste management center. All three are Dell OPTIPLEX's 330. The fourth is my work horse, Dell DIMENSION 8200x86. w/XPsp3

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As I said I'm test driving Solaris. I don't know what the best alternative to MS is. I Like Ubuntu, but it doesn't like the platform I put it on. I had WIFI Internet from the first post install reboot. It works great for a hour+-. but then It gets sluggish and get a fading screen issue. My first impression of Solaris is, it looks professional whereas Ubuntu has a freeware look. I hate the quick launch on the left side of the screen and the absence of a task bar.

What is "junk consumer hardware"?

Shopping for the most Windows-like Linux will be a disappointment, because the whole point is they're not Windows. They're fundamentally different, in interface and internals.

If you want Windows -- use Windows.

$10 USB things like your TL-wn725n. The very cheapest consumer PCs and video cards. And such. They are rushed to production with whatever parts were handy. Revisions A, B, and C are liable to be totally different products with the same label. Sometimes they even share the same USB ID despite needing completely different drivers.

Linux does not support products as much as it supports chipsets. So adding support for these sometimes just means finding out what chipset it uses, and adding its USB ID to the appropriate driver so its recognized. But there's often minor, undocumented differences in cheap products which which make them unreliable with the generic driver. These undocumented differences are covered by the manufacturer's Windows driver, any other system has to discover them by detective work and trial-and-error.

This sometimes causes a peculiar form of bit-rot where, 10 years after the fact, Linux becomes the only operating system which can still use a certain product. Our garbage Belkin wifi cards are one such product, between revisions D, E, and F Belkin lost their own driver somehow.

FYI: I have three 64bit machines. My XP install is 32bit. I can't afford WIN10. WIN10 is probably more strict than XP regarding multiple installs. I'm tired of having to authenticate every install especially now that you can't do it online. I plan on using windowsXP and anyother OS I choose.

"Windows-like Linux", you mean a distro that works? If so I am disappointed, because I can't afford WIN10. It would be great If I could continue to use XP on the internet., but Like MS, Firefox has or is ending support for XP. I haven't checked out Safari or other browsers yet but I'm sure they will follow suit. Soon my XP box will only be useful for MS/FSIM Diablo LOD, and other DOS based software I have.

"If you want Windows -- use Windows." seems to be the angry Linux users motto LOL. I have seen other people say the same thing in other forums. They always get angry if someone compares Linux to Windows. It's very amusing! I am using Windows on two other PC's. If you don't like that don't reply to my post JERK! If you have no constructive advice why did you reply? Are you a troll? The forum suggest beginners are welcome here. I didn't see anything saying Windows users were unwelcome. I like Windows, don't let that upset you! I also like MAC, Hell I like anything that WORKS.

So tell me, how much do rich people such as yourself spend on WIFI devices? My $9 Tplink has worked great for two years, and my $19 15yo Linksys PCI WIFI still works great. No the problem isn't junk hardware it's junk freeware. You get what you pay for, and when something is free it isn't going to be all that great. But it's free! I downloaded Solaris 11 (CRAPWARE) for free. Oracle called today wanting to sell me support! I'll give you this car, but you'll have to pay me to tell you what's wrong with it LOL

What you call "junk" works very well with MAC and MS.

By "any other system" I assume you mean Unix and Linux. Your own words describe a major issue with free OS's. Their PnP abilities are very limited. But that's fine, I cut my PC teeth on DOS 3 and later DOSSHELL back in the late 80's. So I feel confident using Linux commands in a terminal. It might take some time but I will succeed.

I have found the driver I want to try, r8088 something like that. I' can't remember, and I'm not looking at it at this moment. And I have spent 30+ hours trying to figure out how to install it because no one seems to know how to install a driver on a PC with no internet.

Only OS "which can still use a certain product"...Except for my TPLINK, LINKSYS WIRELESS G, VODOO VGA, S3TRIO VGA, PCI USB HOST, PCI SCSI DRV controller. Some of which are leftover from the WIN 3.1 days. All still work in XP.

Seriously, guard your tongue! Insulting or attacking people in these forums is highly deprecated and will lead to a ban before long.
Yes, beginners are welcome here as you can see in umpteen threads dealing with even stupid or repeated questions very patiently.
And, it's not about dealing with "rich people" but deploying sensible and stable hardware.

Telling me "If you want Windows use windows" was rude! Saying my device is "junk consumer hardware" was rude! You are rude suggesting my question is stupid!
If my question has been asked before, tell me why it hasn't shown up in the hours of searches I have done. The fact you bring up "stupid or repeated questions" is evidence you are not "patient at all. People who have nothing constructive to add shouldn't reply especially if their best advice is "If you want Windows use windows" That comment is so childish. Your lil friend demonstrated several times she is passive aggressive. I won't call her a jerk again okay? But you tell her to stop trolling my posts. I did "guard my tongue", who says that? You should be happy I didn't tell her what I really thought of her.

And both of you have it backwards the hardware is "sensible and stable" it's the software that is archaic and unorganized.

If you want to ban, ban away. There are other forums with other rude people. Thats the problem with the web today. No matter where you go or what you ask, there is some smug punk who knows nothing about the topic but feels the need to chime in. e.g. your girlfriend corona.

Ban that you POS! Stick that in the rules or up your ass, whichever you like most!

Don't bother sending an e-mail, you have been banned!

Was it? I mean it in all sincerity with no hostility intended or implied.

Where Linux and UNIX excel is all the things Windows is terrible at. Security, programming, networking, scalability both up and down, reliability, portability, customizability, flexibility, networking, performance. These are their focus. There's things UNIX/LINUX are less good at, sometimes much less good at... Try printing in it. If you want the Windows experience, Windows does a much better job of being Windows.

As for "cheap hardware", I am not calling you cheap. I'm explaining why cheap hardware is so difficult for UNIX/Linux. There's so many different kinds, they change so often, and are almost never given anything but Windows drivers by the manufacturer. Yes, it may work fine for 10 years in Windows, but if they never showed anyone how to use it anywhere else, what can you do?

Plan ahead, that's what. Networking is crucial - you can't even ask intelligent questions without it. You couldn't show us anything we needed to help you, like log files and console outputs. Catch-22. Time to execute plan B, if you have one.

You wouldn't reformat Windows without a known-good networking driver or a plan B, the same applies here. Some cheap hardware will work. (Cheap consumer hardware changes so fast, it'd be nearly useless for me to post advice on which, you have to go on Amazon and read reviews, look up blogs and wikis, etc. Which you require working networking to do.) You have to see what's available locally, see what's compatible, see what you can afford, and compromise between the three.

In short, I'm not calling you stupid, and I'm not calling you cheap. I do think you had unrealistic expectations, leaped without looking, and nearly stranded yourself.