Tutorial: install Edimax EW-7711lN PCI Wifi on Ubuntu

This tutorial shows how to install your Edimax EW-7711lN WiFi PCI card on Ubuntu Natty Narwhal 11.04 under Unity. In my case, I used the x86 distribution installed from an USB drive. However, this tutorial should apply to any current Linux distro that is able to compile C code (do a "make"). Tested on: Ubuntu Natty Narwhal, Mint Katya, Fedora 15.
Note: in all cases, only x86 distributions!! The drivers provided by Ralink do not work on 64-bit versions! (perhaps an experienced C programmer could convince the code to work, though)
Note: by default, Mint Katya has the "su" command blocked. In this case you need to prefix each line by "sudo" and skip the "exit" command at the end.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Get the latest Ralink driver (this Edimax uses a RaLink chipset) from here: http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=2 (get the one called RT3062PCI/… and so on – at the time I wrote this, the file was called DPO_RT3562_3592_3062_LinuxSTA_V2.4.1.1_20101217.tgz)
2. Download the file, copy to your Desktop
3. Open a Terminal window (on default Unity click the Ubuntu logo on top left corner, type "terminal" and click on the Terminal application icon).
4. Run these commands to start:
#sudo su
5. After that type in your password, then:
#cd Desktop
#cd DPO_RT3562_3592_3062_LinuxSTA_V2.4.1.1_20101217
#gedit os/linux/config.mk

6. Find the lines
HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=n
HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=n

   change them to
HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y
HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y

   and save and close the file!
7. Then edit this file:
#gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

   and at the end of the file add these blacklists
   
blacklist rt2800pci
blacklist rt2x00lib
blacklist rt2x00pci
blacklist rt2800lib

   Save and close the file.
8. Then:
   
#make
#make install

9. At last:
   
#echo rt3562sta >> /etc/modules
#exit

10. To wrap things up, restart the computer and when you come back to your desktop, the wireless network icon should warn you about nearby hotspots and allow you to login.

Enjoy!