I have a TP-LINK TL-WN725N for my RPi, but it doesn't work out of the box.
I have a TP-LINK TL-WN725N for my RPi, and it does work out of the box.
I've tried 'lsusb' but don't see it
It will be listed like this:
Bus NNN Device NNN: ID 0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n WLAN
Since it identifies itself by chip manufacturer and model number. Beware that if you plug this dongle in while the pi is running, it will kill the power momentarily -- causing an unclean shutdown and a reboot. So don't do that, it could lead to grief. Plug it in before you boot or use a hub. Unplugging it is okay.
The driver for this is the 8192cu driver, which should be bundled with the kernel whatever distro you are using. While it's plugged in, try lsmod | grep 8192
and you should see it listed. If so, the dongle has been detected and is ready to use, try iwconfig
and you should see somewhere in there:
wlan0 unassociated Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
If not, try modprobe 8192cu
and see what that says (if it says nothing, run lsmod
again and check).
In my experience, the dongle runs a bit glitchy on the pi -- used on another linux system with the same driver, it's fine, but on the pi it seems to drop the connection occasionally. Also, on the other system the little blue led inside stays on -- on the pi it blinks. However, if your software compensates for the occasionally disconnect, it is not noticeable and works fine.
Atleast I can't connect to wifi.
That's a whole other issue, then. If you want more specific help, you'll have to post another question explaining what you've tried and where it failed. It won't happen automatically.
Can I just drag and drop the drivers to a usb from my windows to the RPi?
Not a chance. Unfortunately, most manufacturers do not support linux and so other people have to write the drivers, which is why there is not necessarily a perfect one for every device. WRT the rpi specifically, if you are buying stuff for use with it, check the verified peripherals page. The wifi adapters have a page of their own linked in that one, and if you check that page you'll see a couple of (slightly conflicting) reports about the TL-WN725N...I would not trust the one about "manual driver installation" as this person seems to have made an incorrect assumption about what model numbers correlate to what driver.