I’m a complete Linux n00b, so forgive me if this has already been posted somewhere else of if it seems incredibly simple to solve.
I’m having some trouble connecting to the wireless network here at home. The PC has a Linksys WMP600N wireless network card, which works fine under several versions of Windows. In Opensuse however, I cannot get it to find the network. Even though my laptop is right next to it, which has perfect connection to the network. The router is a Linksys WRT610N. I’ve tried running iwconfig and iwlist scan in the terminal, but the scan returns no results and iwconfig indicates it does not have a connection to a network. I’ve turned off IPv6 as I read this can sometimes cause issues. I’ve also tried issuing the computer a static IP address, figuring the DHCP might be causing problems, but all to no avail.
I just hope somebody here might have similar experiences with this network card or other networks cards.
Again, I apologise if this isn’t the right place for this question, but I’m getting pretty desperate at this point…
On 01/24/2011 11:06 AM, GrannyNL wrote:
>
> Hey guys,
>
> I’m a complete Linux n00b, so forgive me if this has already been
> posted somewhere else of if it seems incredibly simple to solve.
> I’m having some trouble connecting to the wireless network here at
> home. The PC has a Linksys WMP600N wireless network card, which works
> fine under several versions of Windows. In Opensuse however, I cannot
> get it to find the network. Even though my laptop is right next to it,
> which has perfect connection to the network. The router is a Linksys
> WRT610N. I’ve tried running iwconfig and iwlist scan in the terminal,
> but the scan returns no results and iwconfig indicates it does not have
> a connection to a network. I’ve turned off IPv6 as I read this can
> sometimes cause issues. I’ve also tried issuing the computer a static IP
> address, figuring the DHCP might be causing problems, but all to no
> avail.
> I just hope somebody here might have similar experiences with this
> network card or other networks cards.
>
> Again, I apologise if this isn’t the right place for this question, but
> I’m getting pretty desperate at this point…
Welcome to the openSUSE forums.
For future cases, it might be better to post wireless problems in the wireless
forum, but this one is OK.
Manufacturers have a nasty habit of changing the wireless chip inside a device
without changing the name, thus we need to know a pair of numbers called the PCI
ID. To get that information, please run the command ‘/sbin/lspci -nnk’. You will
see something like
For my device, the numbers we need are “10ec:8178”. From what I see on the web,
I think your device uses the rt2860sta driver, but the numbers will say for sure.
On 01/24/2011 12:36 PM, GrannyNL wrote:
>
> Ok, I ran the command and got the following:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> Network controller [0280]: RaLink RT2800 802.11n PCI [1814:0601]
> Subsystem: Linksys Device [1737: 0067]
> Kernel driver in use: rt2860
> --------------------
>
> So indeed, it is indeed the rt2860 driver… (if I understand what you
> mean correctly)
Yes it is. Your ID is 1814:0601.
The rt2860 driver is in the so-called “staging” directory. Drivers in that
location do not meet the code requirements for inclusion in the regular mainline
directories. They may be just fine, or they may not. Only experience can tell.
My first suspect would be missing firmware. To find if I’m right, please run the
command:
dmesg | grep firmware
If that does not indicate a problem in loading firmware, then please run
On 01/24/2011 02:36 PM, GrannyNL wrote:
>
> Ok, I ran the dmesg | grep firmware command and got the following
> output:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> [27.157493] rt2860 000:03:03.0: firmware: requesting rt2860.bin
> --------------------
> Don’t know if this indicates a problem?..
No. If the firmware were missing, then an additional message would have been
printed.
> Anyway, I also ran the iwconfig command and I got the following:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> wlan0
> Ralink STA ESSID:" " Nickname: “RT2860STA”
> Mode: Auto Frequency: 2.462 GHz Access point: 00:0C:F6:4A:70:3C
> Bit rate= 1 Mb/s
> RTS thr:off Fragment thr: off
> Link Quality= 79/100 Signal level: -84 dBm Noise level: -87 dBm
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt: 0 Rx invalid frag: 0
> Tx excessive retries: 0 Invalid misc: 0 Missed beacon: 0
> --------------------
All looks OK so far. Is your ESSID hidden? I hope not as that will complicate
matters. Please run the command
/usr/sbin/iwlist scan
and post the results.
I’m sorry if it looks like I’m stretching this out, but I find baby steps are
better. Are you planning on using NetworkManager or ifup?
That scan results yields no scan results for wlan0. The ESSID isn’t hidden. The network card doesn’t seem to be detecting the network at all :(.
I really am a n00b, so baby steps are great :), what’s the difference between using network manager and ifup? (n00b question :P)
On 01/24/2011 03:36 PM, GrannyNL wrote:
>
> That scan results yields no scan results for wlan0. The ESSID isn’t
> hidden. The network card doesn’t seem to be detecting the network at all
> :(.
> I really am a n00b, so baby steps are great :), what’s the difference
> between using network manager and ifup? (n00b question :P)
NetworkManager (all one word and caps as written) gives you a GUI for
configuration and connecting. The ifup method requires configuration with YaST
or by using a editor on some files. If you are only going to use the computer in
a single location, then it doesn’t make much difference. If you plan to use it
in multiple locations, the NM is better. All I’ll need to know is which you want
if/when we get to the configuration phase.
I can think of a couple of reasons that you are not getting any scan data: The
first is that you have an rfkill issue. Please run the following
sudo zypper install rfkill
/usr/sbin/rfkill list
I’m not sure that rt2860 uses rfkill, but we need to try. The second possibility
is that the version of the driver in kernel 2.6.34 just does not work. If you
are willing, you might try downloading a 2.6.37 kernel from
Well it’s a desktop PC, so really it won’t be moving around much at all. I really don’t know which way is better, do you have a preference?
I tried running the rfkill code but got an error saying it couldn’t connect to download.opensuse.org (which makes sense as the pc doesn’t have internet :P).
I managed to get the new kernel running and booted it. But again there were no scan results. Hope there’s still other options open to try…
Can You connect with a wire and try the rfkill code again ?
As far as ifup vs NetworkManager is concerned it’s totally up to You. Ifup requires manual configuration each time You connect to a different access point but starts before your DE (desktop environment). NetworkManager allows You to create and store profiles for each access point You connect to (similar to windows but IMHO much better and more flexible) but it connects after your DE starts. My personal preference is NetworkManager all the way but as I said earlier You’re the admin of your system and it’s yours choice to make.
Hey guys, thanks for all your help so far. What I’m going to do is get a homeplug system and hook it up to the network wired for now. That will at least enable me to get internet on it temporarily, though I would like to get the wirless network card working eventually. Once I have the wired system working (which should be easier) I’ll let you know what the rfkill code does… Again, thanks for your help and I’ll let you know in a couple of days what the progress is.
@glistwan Seeing as I’m coming straight from Windows I guess, for now at least, using the system most similar to Windows is probably best. That’ll give me a chance to get a little more familiar with Opensuse before I venture in deeper.