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A few hours ago received my cheap USB Wifi adapter purchased from shopping.rediff.com, never knew what type of hardware I have paid for, except for that it is a USB WiFi adapter. But thanks to the community efforts I was very much sure I would be able to use it in GNU/Linux (Fedora Core 10) one way or other.

The hardware was as per USB Vendor ID (0CDE:0008) a Z-Com Sitecom Wireless Network Adapter 100G+ WL-125 USB WiFi 802.11B/G Adapter. GNU/Linux /var/log/messages identified it to be a GlobespanVirata. Marketed under the brand name EDUP. A ISL3887 2nd Generation Prism54 chipset based device.

The GNU/Linux prism54usb kernel module supports this device but with a small caveat, you need to download the (stupid) vendor specific (stupid) proprietary firmware. One look at /var/log/messages confirmed the name of the firmware.
Again thanks to GNU/Linux community efforts this process was painless, a little googling and I landed on this page http://wiki.debian.org/prism54#p54usb.

As per instructions on this page downloaded the firmware:

sudo wget -O /lib/firmware/isl3887usb_bare http://daemonizer.de/prism54/prism54-fw/fw-usb/2.5.8.0.arm


Plugged out the USB WiFi and again plugged it in and NetworkManager recognised the adapter, and I am wireless again :-)