How to make DLink DWA-140 B2 perfectly work on Linux

[EDIT] Note: the DWA-140 B2 is now supported by recent Linux version.

I’m using ArchLinux and I finally make my DWA-140 B2 Wifi USB adaptor work !

If you have the same problem, you can read this article to fix it !

My conf:

Linux Kernel: 2.6.36
Architecture: x64
Device: ID 07d1:3c0a D-Link System DWA-140 RangeBooster N Adapter(rev.B2) [Ralink RT2870]

What to use ?

So the only way I found to make it work nicely is to use ndiswrapper, a Windows XP driver wrapper, and wpa_supplicant, a WLAN tool.

First, I’ve tried some RaLink drivers but this was not really great, I’ve succeed to make ra2870 work only one time but there was some lags each 20 seconds (like 1000ms ping frequently).

Moreover, I recommend not using NetworkManager with this method, it seems ndiswrapper and networkmanager produced awful results for this bundle (like waiting 30s for wifi to connect (or not connecting!), or freezing my Linux, …). Use wpa_supplicant utils like netcfg instead of !

Procedure

Alternatives rejected, here is the solution step by step :

Pre-conditions

With a wired connection, install these packages (with your package manager) : ndiswrapper, wpa_supplicant and (optional) netcfg.

Unfortunately, I had some freeze issues with the current ndiswrapper repository version so I checkout ndiswrapper SVN source code on and recompile it. Maybe you have to do the same.

Don’t plug your bundle yet. Insert the CD of the product. It contains the driver we need for ndiswrapper. You need to find the /Drivers/WinXPx64/ (it may depend on your arch) .inf file. You can also download the last driver on the D-Link website.
Go on commandline in root mode and type:

ndiswrapper -i {path of the .inf file}

Example:

ndiswrapper -i /media/cdrom0/Drivers/WinXPx64/Drt2870.inf

Plug your bundle and check if the command ndiswrapper -l say something like:

drt2870 : driver installed  
device (07D1:3C0A) present

If not you maybe need to ndiswrapper -r drt2870 to remove the driver and return to the second step trying another /Drivers/*/*.inf file.

Next, you need to configure your wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file for your wifi access point. Refer to the documentation.
Try to run wpa_supplicant :

wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Once this working, you maybe need to run dhcpd :

dhcpd wlan0

Now you can try your internet connection, by pinging google.com or try to browse the web.
If it works, you can save your configuration, refer to the documentation.
For any problem, feel free to comment this article.*