ASUS N600 USB Wireless adapter will not connect

English Network/Internet
#1

I recently purchased an ASUS N600 (USB-N53) USB wireless adapter & I was able to build the firmware easy enough, and the card is seen by the system (it shows up in YaST hardware information). I have it setup as wlan1 (/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-wlan1). It is currently using the rt2800usb driver, although it can use the rt3572sta driver as well (I think) - I believe the chipset is a RaLink rt2870sta.

I have a second Wireless card (wlan0) that works fine.

I have 2 questions:

  1. Has anyone had any experience getting this card to work, and if so, how? Is it possible that the presence of wlan0 is preventing wlan1 from working?
  2. I keep seeing comments that say this card works really well with NetworkManager, but I can not get NetworkManager to edit the card, so I can not use it to configure or activate the card (I can configure the access point, but that is it), so how do I get NetworkManager to edit the card? Or am I not understanding what NetworkManager can do?

Thanks

#2

On 04/28/2013 12:36 PM, sngillis wrote:
>
> I recently purchased an ASUS N600 (USB-N53) USB wireless adapter & I was
> able to build the firmware easy enough, and the card is seen by the
> system (it shows up in YaST hardware information). I have it setup as
> wlan1 (/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-wlan1). It is currently using the
> rt2800usb driver, although it can use the rt3572sta driver as well (I
> think) - I believe the chipset is a RaLink rt2870sta.

What do you mean “build the firmware”? That firmware is part of the
kernel-firmware package. If you did anything other than install that package,
then that will likely not be correct.

> I have a second Wireless card (wlan0) that works fine.
>
> I have 2 questions:
>
> 1) Has anyone had any experience getting this card to work, and if so,
> how? Is it possible that the presence of wlan0 is preventing wlan1 from
> working?

Not usually. The only way is if either one of your wireless devices is asserting
rfkill, neither will work. I sometimes have 2 PCIe devices and 2 or 3 USB
devices connected at the same time.

> 2) I keep seeing comments that say this card works really well with
> NetworkManager, but I can not get NetworkManager to edit the card, so I
> can not use it to configure or activate the card (I can configure the
> access point, but that is it), so how do I get NetworkManager to edit
> the card? Or am I not understanding what NetworkManager can do?

NM is used to edit connections. If the wireless network is blocked for some
reason, then NM will not be able to anything with any wireless connection.

Did you read the stickies? The ‘sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist scan’ and
‘/usr/sbin/rfkill list’. steps should provide useful info.

#3

What do you mean “build the firmware”? That firmware is part of the
kernel-firmware package. If you did anything other than install that package,
then that will likely not be correct.

Maybe I am using the wrong terminology:

From the ReadMe:=======================================================================
Build Instructions:

1> tar -jxvf 2011_1003_RT3572_Linux_STA_v2.5.0.0.DPO.tar.bz2
go to “./2011_1003_RT3572_Linux_STA_v2.5.0.0.DPO” directory.

2> switch to super user.
** for Fedora
$su

 ** for Ubuntu 
       $sudo su

3> in Makefile
set the “MODE = STA” in Makefile and chose the TARGET to Linux by set “TARGET = LINUX”
define the linux kernel source include file path LINUX_SRC
modify to meet your need.

4> in os/linux/config.mk
define the GCC and LD of the target machine
define the compiler flags CFLAGS
modify to meet your need.

** Build for being controlled by NetworkManager or wpa_supplicant wext functions
   Please set 'HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y' and 'HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y'.
   => #>cd wpa_supplicant-x.x
   => #>./wpa_supplicant -Dwext -ira0 -c wpa_supplicant.conf -d
   
** Build for being controlled by WpaSupplicant with Ralink Driver
   Please set 'HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y' and 'HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=n'.
   => #>cd wpa_supplicant-0.5.7
   => #>./wpa_supplicant -Dralink -ira0 -c wpa_supplicant.conf -d

5> compile driver source code
$make

Install Instructions:

1> load driver
$make install
2> plug in USB dongle.

I was able to complete all those steps. I read the two stickies “Getting Your Wireless to Work” & “My wireless doesn’t work - a primer on what I should do next”, and I think I’ve got everything setup correctly

If I turn of NM & use ifup, then I get this:

ifconfig
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:10619 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:10619 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:11646821 (11.1 Mb) TX bytes:11646821 (11.1 Mb)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:21:29:68:D8:55
inet addr:192.168.10.13 Bcast:192.168.10.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:97068 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:78266 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:61193012 (58.3 Mb) TX bytes:53006618 (50.5 Mb)

ifup wlan1
wlan1 name: USB-N53
wlan1 warning: WPA configured, but is untested
wlan1 warning: with this device
wlan1 starting wpa_supplicant
Could not set interface wlan1 flags: No such file or directory
nl80211: Could not set interface ‘wlan1’ UP
Could not set interface wlan1 flags: No such file or directory
WEXT: Could not set interface ‘wlan1’ UP
wlan1: Failed to initialize driver interface
RTNETLINK answers: No such file or directory
Starting DHCP4 client on wlan1. .
wlan1 DHCP4 client NOT running
RTNETLINK answers: No such file or directory
Cannot enable interface wlan1.
interface wlan1 is not up

Also…

iwlist scan
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 84:1B:5E:2A:19:2C
Channel:7
Frequency:2.442 GHz (Channel 7)
Quality=37/70 Signal level=-73 dBm
Encryption key:on
ESSID:“signal”
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=00000017d35e3e8e
Extra: Last beacon: 49ms ago
IE: Unknown: 00067369676E616C
IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
IE: Unknown: 030107
IE: Unknown: 2A0104
IE: Unknown: 2F0104
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : CCMP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
IE: Unknown: 2D1AFD191BFFFFFF0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 3D1607081500000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 4A0E14000A002C01C800140005001900
IE: Unknown: 7F0101
IE: Unknown: DD720050F204104A0001101044000102103B00010310470010E0D596AD8DB8E1BB72E547D026BF432F1021000D4E4554474541522C20496E632E10230005523435303010240005523435303010420004343533361054000800060050F2040001101100055234353030100800020004103C000103
IE: Unknown: DD090010180207F03C0000
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101800003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00

lo Interface doesn’t support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn’t support scanning.

wlan1 Interface doesn’t support scanning : Network is down

rfkill list
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: phy2: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

#4

On 04/28/2013 03:16 PM, sngillis wrote:
>
>> What do you mean “build the firmware”? That firmware is part of the
>> kernel-firmware package. If you did anything other than install that
>> package,
>> then that will likely not be correct.
>
> Maybe I am using the wrong terminology:
>
> From the
> ReadMe:
> =======================================================================
> Build Instructions:
> ====================
> 1> tar -jxvf 2011_1003_RT3572_Linux_STA_v2.5.0.0.DPO.tar.bz2
> go to “./2011_1003_RT3572_Linux_STA_v2.5.0.0.DPO” directory.
>
>
> 2> switch to super user.
> ** for Fedora
> $su
>
> ** for Ubuntu
> $sudo su
>
> 3> in Makefile
> set the “MODE = STA” in Makefile and chose the TARGET to Linux by
> set “TARGET = LINUX”
> define the linux kernel source include file path LINUX_SRC
> modify to meet your need.
>
> 4> in os/linux/config.mk
> define the GCC and LD of the target machine
> define the compiler flags CFLAGS
> modify to meet your need.
>
> ** Build for being controlled by NetworkManager or wpa_supplicant
> wext functions
> Please set ‘HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y’ and
> ‘HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y’.
> => #>cd wpa_supplicant-x.x
> => #>./wpa_supplicant -Dwext -ira0 -c wpa_supplicant.conf -d
>
> ** Build for being controlled by WpaSupplicant with Ralink Driver
> Please set ‘HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y’ and
> ‘HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=n’.
> => #>cd wpa_supplicant-0.5.7
> => #>./wpa_supplicant -Dralink -ira0 -c wpa_supplicant.conf -d
>
> 5> compile driver source code
> $make

Firmware runs on the CPU built into the device. A driver is the code that runs
on the host CPU. Which do you think you built?

As long as you are using a vendor driver, and not the one in the Linux kernel, I
will be unable to help you.

#5

The Makefile builds the driver (rt3572sta). Is there a basic Linux driver I can try using (e.g. rt2800usb), to get this thing up & running?

#6

On 04/29/2013 08:56 AM, sngillis wrote:
>
> The Makefile builds the driver (rt3572sta). Is there a basic Linux
> driver I can try using (e.g. rt2800usb), to get this thing up & running?

Driver rt2800usb is available with every recent kernel. It works quite well for me.

#7

Then why in the blue blazes won’t the card work proper?