Sunday, June 19, 2011

Alfa AWUS036H 1-Watt (1000mW) USB Wi-Fi Adapter is compatible with SUSE Linux release 11.4 (Google Chrome OS)

Update: AWUS036H does not work on Chromebooks, only SUSE 11.4 (Celadon) running Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.5-default, aka the Google Chrome OS. Chromebooks run a browser-only version which does not have any drivers built-in, and at this time driver installation by users is not possible.

If you need a long range Wi-Fi solution for Chrome OS, checkout the AWUS036H from Alfa Network. This has long been a popular long range wireless networking choice for Windows and Backtrack users, and now we have confirmed it is compatible with SUSE 11.4 (Celadon) running Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.5-default. Here is a list of all of the steps we had to go through to get it working:

1. Connect Alfa adapter to computer

A short list, eh? That’s right, it was plug and play on our test machine, with no driver installation needed. We ran the latest live CD available here (download completed Friday June 17th, 2011). It appeared to operate at or near full power, detecting a number of Wi-Fi networks and we were able to connect to our signal and go online. Here are some screenshots- we apologize for the poor quality, Chrome has no screenshot program so we took actual pictures using the dated camera on an iPhone 3GS.

system-specs

wi-fi-scan

Does this mean it will work on Google’s new Chromebooks? We don’t know, but it is doubtful because early reports are that Chromebooks are shipping with virtually no drivers preinstalled, and the live CD version of Chrome OS obviously has the driver for this product built-in. We may look into that further, but for now, those of you running SUSE Linux release 11.4 (Chrome OS) from a live CD should be able to use the Alfa AWUS036H for Wi-Fi connectivity. Our test machine was a Toshiba Satellite A-105. Please feel free to post your experiences with Chrome OS and Chromebooks here in our comments section to help other users searching for a solution.

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