Alfa’s AWUS036NHR is Linux
compatible. It also works with Backtrack 5 (BT5), but is not plug and play. Driver
installation is needed (note: at this time it does not appear to be possible to
get AWUS036NHR into monitor mode AND have 802.11n capabilities at the same
time, see Alfa’s AWUS036NH or Rokland’s n3 for 802.11n and monitor
mode capability in Backtrack 5).
The following is a quick-install
guide for Linux users. This should allow you to use your AWUS036NHR for Wi-Fi
access in most recent Linux distributions running kernel 2.6.38, but as noted,
monitor mode does not appear to be supported by this driver. Further down we
have a link to a driver that is reported to allow you to use AWUS036NHR in
monitor mode, but the corresponding web page notes the device will only have
802.11g functionality.
To install your Realtek RTL8188RU based AWUS036NHR in Linux, first download the driver here. The following steps were taken on an HP laptop running Backtrack 5, but the steps should be similar for other recent Linux distros.
*If you are not able to unzip the driver download file in Linux, you will need to download the file to a Windows computer to unzip and then copy the contents to your Linux computer via flash drive or another method.
1. When you have the files
extracted on your Linux machine, open a terminal window and navigate to the
location of the drivers.
2. Type ./install.sh to install
the driver package
3. If installation completes
successfully, then you can connect the Alfa adapter to the computer and open
“Wicd Network Manager” from the Internet menu to connect to networks. Inside
Wicd, click Preferences and change the network device to the AWUS036NHR
adapter. If you are not sure of the device name, in a terminal window type
“iwconfig” without quotes and it will list it there. Commonly the device will
be called wlan0, wlan1, or wlan2 depending on whether you have other wireless
cards installed on the computer.
4. If you receive a makefile
error about “no rule to make target modules”, you may need to prepare kernel
headers. As root, at the command line run these commands (you will need to have
Internet access on the computer already):
prepare-kernel-sources
cd /usr/src/linux
cp -rf include/generated/* include/linux/
5. Upon completion, repeat step number 2 above to complete driver installation. Then connect the adapter to the computer and proceed to step 3.
URTWN Driver:
There is a driver called urtwn which specifies compatibility with RTL8188RU chipset-based devices, and allows for them to be put into monitor mode. The documentation for the driver explains that 802.11n functionality is not supported, so RTL8188RU devices will only operate in B/G mode. Rokland has not yet tried to use this driver with AWUS036NHR and is not able to offer installation assistance or support. You can visit this site for download information and more details:
http://resin.csoft.net/cgi-bin/man.cgi?section=4&topic=urtwn
Military and First Responder 
Hi Pilot,
Navigate to folder /lib/modules/2.6.39.4/build,
there is folder name linux in it, copy all files and folders in linux folder and put in the build folder, then try to compile it again, hope that’s help
I tried this and received the following error:
Compile make driver error: 2, Please check error Mesg
This is using Backtrack 5 (BT5 Backtrack5) 64 bit.
After looking up top in the command line, you find that the error was due to:
“linux/smp_lock.h not found” error
If you see that when you try to run the install.h (bash install.sh) you need to edit the following two files in the following archive:
driver/rtl8192_8188CU_linux_v3.1.2590.20110922.tar.gz
file 1: include/osdep_service.h
(line 49) linux/smp_lock.h to linux/smp.h
file 2: include/rtw_io.h
(line 36) linux/smp_lock.h to linux/smp.h
These files are located in:
“RTL8192CU_8188CUS_8188CE-VAU_linux_v3.0.2164.20110715/driver/rtl8192_8188CU_linux_v3.0.2164.20110715/include”
If you run the install.sh immediately you will see the same error. What ends up happening is that the files that you just corrected will get overwritten with the tar.gz archive, so what you did was pointless. To resolve this I ended up deleting the tar.gz file (rtl8192_8188CU_linux_v3.1.2590.20110922.tar.gz) so that it won’t re-extract the files and overwrite your corrections.
When you run the install.sh file, it will install successfully.
However… I still have an issue where this adapter will not obtain and IP address in wicd network manager. I will repost if i solve this. If anyone
Once you delete that tar.gz file and the edits have been made, you can run the install.sh file and it will install successfully.