Ralink Chipset and the Virtual Machine (newb)

[teknoaxe]

Hi,

I'm testing out a Ralink 2770 chipset with Fedora (kernel 2.6.23) a la virtual machine. I'm kind of a newbie to this sort of setup.

In the virtual machine, the Ralink is taken from the windows environment and connected to the fedora virtual machine. Does this mean that the drivers for this chipset already exist inside fedora or do I have to find the linux drivers for this beast?

I'm trying to establish a wireless connection using linux.

Thanks!

[waterhead]

I don't think that this will work. You usually have to use the virtual drivers, and I doubt that there is one for the wireless. The Linux drivers are in the kernel, and your kernel is somewhat old. When it comes to drivers, the newer the kernel, the better

If the wireless is working in the host Windows operating system, you should be able to connect to the internet with the virtual system.

[teknoaxe]

So there's no way to update the kernel to include specific drivers?

[waterhead]

I guess it really depends on the setup. What virtualization program are you using? (VMware, Qemu) is Fedora the host, or is Windows the host?

The host computer is usually the one that controls the wireless. The virtual system would just use it as a generic internet connection.

[teknoaxe]

I'm using VMware Player. Windows is the host, but you can actually connect and disconnect devices into the Virtual Machine (this would disconnect the device from windows if you connect it to the Linux Virtual Machine).

[waterhead]

I have to admit that it has been a while since I used VMware, and I think I used the server version. When I tried it you had to use the device drivers that VMware had. I ran Windows on a Linux host, and DirectX wasn't available for the virtual Windows, so I gave up.

I heard that VMware now supports more hardware, but maybe someone more knowledgable on the subject can help.

[Rubberman]

If this is a USB device, and you have USB pass-thru to the VM turned on by VMware (Windows cannot see this device), then you might be able to install the drivers and firmware in the Linux VM and use the device. However, if it is not a USB device, then I doubt very much if you can do that. You would have to mount it in WIndows and use the VM network stack to access it - it would look to the VM like a normal ethernet port.