i compiled the driver (as “described” by Heise, from the RaLink site, the driver for RT2860), i can load the kernel mod - and that’s it.
I can not scan for WLANs, knetworkmanager ignores ra0, it does not get activated by NetworkManager.
I suppose the problem is indicated by this: /var/log/NetworkManager:
<WARN> real_get_generic_capabilities(): ra0: driver's Wireless Extensions version (0) is too old.
<WARN> constructor(): (ra0): Device unsupported, ignoring.
Can anyone tell me what i did wrong ? I made the two changes to make the driver “compatible” with NetworkManager, and some more in /etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat (most of that file i do not understand).
Background: i can deal with the shell and Unix in general, but i have little to no experience with Linux; i did not know of “NetworkManager” before. Please keep this in mind when trying to explain me something.
Now i am puzzled: by chance i found out that starting wpa_supplicant (and wpa_gui) enables me to connect to my wlan.
But how do i automate that ?
I remember that some call to wpa_supplicant was part of the configuration process (prior to compiling!), but for me wpa_supplicant never ends (until killed).
> have you tried setting the device up via YaST - network devices -
> network settings ?
Yes. I am not sure if it worked as the screen closes in the final config phase - it looks like still within the second last step, “activate network services”.
At least the interfaces looks like configured when re-starting that module.
By the way:
in that part, i cannot finished if i do not enter access information to the wlan - shouldn’t it be possible to do that part interactively without YaST, like on Windows ?
There seems to be an error in the WPA-related dialog: i can enter the “encryption key” and classify it either as “Passphrase” (but cannot tell the system to what) or “Hexadecimal” - not as “ASCII”, which is disabled for WPA-PSK. If that is really what it means, it is obvious that i cannot connect.
However: Having the interface configured according to YaST does not mean it is ‘up’ or finds any network.
Hooray ! I patched everything by online update - and my workaround no more works.
(Yes, i re-built the kernel-module)
Well, most probably the update did not cause this and my workaround from yesterday is not reproducable due to any other reason.
Sometimes i can at least use wpa_gui to find the wlan i was already forced to configure within YaST, but i cannot establish a connection anymore. Sometimes, not even the scan succeeds (without any message, just no result).
I re-installed from scratch because after the short description from borralleira i suspected that YaST messed it up.
I did exactly the steps borralleira listed, but i skipped the very last one: when i rebooted without, the module was loaded (with use-count 0, maybe becoming that later).
The situation still is the same: ra0 is down, KNetworkManager does not recognize it at all and NetworkManager - if it can really handle the driver or not, i cannot judge - writes this to its log:
<WARN> real_get_generic_capabilities(): ra0: driver's Wireless Extensions version (0) is too old.
<WARN> constructor(): (ra0): Device unsupported, ignoring.
So, if i hadn’t got it to work somehow before, i would believe the hardware is broken.
@borralleira: can you please scan /var/log/NetworkManager for the messages i found ? I am interested in whether (as they read) they indicate that NetworkManager cannot handle the driver or if they may occur even when everything works.
Can anyone help me ?
Can anyone tell me something about the meaning of the message or if - without real knowledge - i have any chance to fix it by patching the driver ?
Does anyone have any clue how a functional NIC can work this simple way in one installation while doing not in another with messages that seem to indicate a general problem with the driver?
I have not found that messages in my /var/log/NetworkManager.
It looks as if the changes in the configuration file os/linux/config.mk are not being commited to the make you’re carrying out.
Can you double check for the date of the file
/lib/modules/2.6.25.11-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2860sta.ko (or wathever your kernel version is) just to check if build date is the correct one?
The installed driver file has the same date/time as the one within the source directory - as far as i know, openSUSE contains not driver for that hardware, so i would have wondered about everything else. By the way: right now, i have the original kernel, 2.6.25.5-1.1-pae, but after the first install i also did an kernel update (and re-compiled the WLAN-mod) - which did not change anything.
I start to wonder if the wlan-“card” has some strange hardware-bug that only affects certain functions, but not prevents network traffic in general. The strange thing is that the message reads like “the driver is incompatible to the kernel”.
Btw: I am not absolutely sure (think: not) if i ever “used” the wlan-nic under Windows. At least i am sure i never connected to a wlan with Windows.
