Ralink2800 is driving me nuts

mgnome · February 19, 2011, 11:36pm

Hello people
I spent days, testing, touching, compiling, etc. and no way to get it work for me.

I post some outputs in the hope someone can point me right

lsusb


Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0c45:63e0 Microdia Sonix Integrated Webcam
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 12d1:1001 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E620 USB Modem
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 203d:14a9  
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 002: ID 062a:0102 Creative Labs 
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

I load the module manually but no interface gets added
lsmod | grep rt2


rt2870sta             667713  0

/var/log/messages


Feb 19 19:12:02 concee kernel:  1823.190123] usb 2-3: USB disconnect, address 3
Feb 19 19:12:13 concee kernel:  1834.289076] usb 2-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
Feb 19 19:12:13 concee kernel:  1834.423570] usb 2-3: New USB device found, idVendor=203d, idProduct=14a9
Feb 19 19:12:13 concee kernel:  1834.423580] usb 2-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Feb 19 19:12:13 concee kernel:  1834.423586] usb 2-3: Product: 802.11 n WLAN
Feb 19 19:12:13 concee kernel:  1834.423592] usb 2-3: Manufacturer: Ralink
Feb 19 19:12:13 concee kernel:  1834.423596] usb 2-3: SerialNumber: 1.0

I did

blacklist rt2800usb
compile 2010_0709_RT2870_Linux_STA_v2.4.0.1 and copy to /lib/firmware the firmware RT2860_Firmware_V26 from Ralink Tech site
compile 2010_07_16_RT2860_Linux_STA_v2.4.0.0 and copy to /lib/firmware the firmware RT2870_Firmware_V22 from Ralink Tech site
install NicoK drivers for rt2860sta but I was unable to install them for 2870 as there seems to be dependency issues

I did not

try it with ndiswrapper

I will appreciate your help, perhaps I can send my mother in law to you (she’s not pretty).

Kind regards

deano_ferrari · February 20, 2011, 12:52am

Based on your chipset 203d:14a9, the fact that it is a usb device, did you try the rt2800usb driver?

This is about the best reference I’ve seen for the rt2870sta driver:

http://wiki.debian.org/rt2870sta

There are some notes there on how to examine the dmesg output to verify that firmware is loaded by the driver. Maybe that is your issue.

deano_ferrari · February 20, 2011, 1:01am

Further to the above advice, make sure that you have the ralink-firmware package installed

I used openSUSE software search to find the package (for 11.3):

software.opensuse.org: Search Results

rodhuffaker · February 20, 2011, 1:28am

The firmware is included in the package “kernel-firmware”.

sudo zypper in kernel-firmware

You don’t need ndiswrapper. It would be a shame for you to use it with a card that has good native drivers.

deano_ferrari · February 20, 2011, 1:43am

Thanks for clarifying the firmware package required rodhuffaker. Hopefully, the firmware is all that the OP requires to get up and running.

mgnome · February 20, 2011, 4:58am

Thank you both guys, but I’m still missing something.
I suppose deano_ferrari you are referring to this bug, https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=604193, but as dmesg gives no error message when loading the driver, I don’t think that’s the problem. I am understanding you right?
On the other hand, and pointing to the same subject, I thought that downloading the firmware from ralinktech.com and placing it in /lib/firmware would have done the job… as that is what OP of the bug says about it.
Package kernel-firmware installed, dmesg says the same as posted originally in /var/log/messages, and I load the driver manually as no module is loaded. Restarted and tried again but no luck.

Also I’m doing modprobe rt2800usb and modprobe rt2860sta to see if one of them works. I know that is not clever to try a brute force modprobes but the title of this post says it all. I obviously removed rt2800usb from the blacklist and restarted prior to issue those commands.

deano_ferrari · February 20, 2011, 7:07am

I’m not familiar with ralink hardware, or what the problem might be, only a working overview of the steps that are required, so my advice here will be limited. Hopefully, someone with more knowledge with this hardware can help further. Load the driver, plug in the device, and type

dmesg |tail

I’m still not satisfied that the firmware is correctly loaded.

mgnome · February 20, 2011, 6:37pm

Ok, the package ralink-firmware conflicts with kernel-firmware… but the second has a date greater than the first one.

Here are my outputs, I’m sorry that I can’t bring any other news:
contri:/home/mar # modprobe -v rt2860sta

insmod /lib/modules/2.6.34.7-0.7-desktop/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2860sta.ko

contri:/home/mar # modprobe -v rt2870sta

insmod /lib/modules/2.6.34.7-0.7-desktop/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2870sta.ko

contri:/home/mar # modprobe -v rt2800usb

insmod /lib/modules/2.6.34.7-0.7-desktop/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00lib.ko 
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.34.7-0.7-desktop/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00usb.ko 
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.34.7-0.7-desktop/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800lib.ko 
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.34.7-0.7-desktop/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800usb.ko

contri:/home/mar # zypper if ralink-firmware

Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

Information for package ralink-firmware:

Repository: Downloads
Name: ralink-firmware
Version: 1.2-3.1
Arch: noarch
Vendor: obs://build.opensuse.org/home:NicoK
Installed: No
Status: not installed
Installed Size: 61.0 KiB
Summary: Firmware files for Ralink WLAN cards
Description: 
This package contains binary firmware images for Ralink WLAN cards with rt61/rt73/rt2860/rt2870 chip in combination with the rt2x00-drivers from the serialmonkey-project.
The firmware files will be copied to /lib/firmware.

contri:/home/mar # ls /lib/firmware/rt*

/lib/firmware/rt2561.bin   /lib/firmware/rt2661.bin  /lib/firmware/rt2870.bin  /lib/firmware/rt3071.bin  /lib/firmware/rt73.bin
/lib/firmware/rt2561s.bin  /lib/firmware/rt2860.bin  /lib/firmware/rt3070.bin  /lib/firmware/rt3090.bin

/lib/firmware/rtlwifi:
rtl8192cfw.bin  rtl8192cufw.bin  rtl8712u.bin

contri:/home/mar # zypper in ralink-firmware

Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...

Problem: kernel-firmware-20101214-3.1.noarch obsoletes ralink-firmware provided by ralink-firmware-1.2-3.1.noarch
 Solution 1: deinstallation of kernel-firmware-20101214-3.1.noarch
 Solution 2: do not install ralink-firmware-1.2-3.1.noarch

Choose from above solutions by number or cancel [1/2/c] (c):

contri:/home/mar # dmesg | tail

(... firewall entries..)
 2686.653091] usb 2-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
 2686.787293] usb 2-3: New USB device found, idVendor=203d, idProduct=14a9
 2686.787303] usb 2-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
 2686.787309] usb 2-3: Product: 802.11 n WLAN
 2686.787314] usb 2-3: Manufacturer: Ralink
 2686.787319] usb 2-3: SerialNumber: 1.0

I’ll keep on trying. Thank you!

deano_ferrari · February 20, 2011, 6:51pm

With the module loaded and device plugged in, what is the output of the following command ?

/sbin/ifconfig

mgnome · February 20, 2011, 11:41pm

The output is the config settings for all adapters, of course, but only have eth0, lo, wlan0 and modem0.
By the way, either iwconfig is displaying another one.

deano_ferrari · February 21, 2011, 1:26am

By the way, either iwconfig is displaying another one.

So, you’re saying iwconfig does not show wlan0 status?

rodhuffaker · February 21, 2011, 9:48pm

I think you’re trying too hard. You shouldn’t have to blacklist anything. You shouldn’t have to compile anything. You don’t need the Ralink-Firmware package.
From a fresh install, all you should have to do is

sudo zypper in kernel-firmware

This will provide the proper ralink firmware, as well as other common firmware.

If it doesn’t work just like that, you can select a different driver through yast because multiple drivers may support it.

If you look at the structure of the rt28xx driver folder, you’ll probably see that a lot of them are actually the same driver and they’re just linking to the other folders.

rodhuffaker · February 22, 2011, 2:38am

Also remember that after you’ve downloaded the packages you need using the wired connection, disconnect it. The wireless won’t be activated with the wired connection plugged in.

mgnome · February 24, 2011, 9:05pm

I’ll try erasing all that I could have messed up and if don’t success will reinstall.
I downloaded them with a ppp connection (gsm modem) and tried booting without the modem.

iwconfig shows the settings for wlan0 only, but not for the such suposed to be wlan1.

Thank you, I’ll post my results. Sorry guys, I feel an idiot abusing of your kindness :shame:

rodhuffaker · February 25, 2011, 5:49am

Everyone was a beginner at some point. At least you’re willing to follow instructions and are trying to learn.