TP-Link WN321G Problems on Ubuntu 9.04 x64

**kalsig** · 08-08-2009

Hi,
I have a TP-Link WN321G Wireless USB adapter (chipset RT73 I believe) and I'm having a lot of difficulty using it on 9.04 x64. According to other forums and documentation, my device should be supported out of the box by Ubuntu -- and it is... to some extent. As far as I know, I can connect using the device, but my transfer speeds fluctuate significantly (and are generally 1/4 of what they should be) and my connection occasionally drops. When my connection drops, Network Manager (or WICD) report that I'm still connected. If I disconnect and attempt to reconnect, WICD says "Validating Authentication" for some time, and then times out.

I've had slightly more luck with NDISWrapper. I downloaded the x64bit windows drivers and installed them over NDISWrapper. Using this method, I am able to connect at full speed, but my connection still drops with identical symptoms to the rt73 driver. I've checked the link speed and it is set to 54mb/s. I'm not totally sure what the problem is; any help would be appreciated.

**waterhead** · 08-09-2009

I don't have a fix for your problem. But, even though it is reporting a speed of 54Mb/s, you can make sure that it is using this rate with this command.

Code:

sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M

If your wireless isn't wlan0, change the command to match your wireless interface. See if this helps improve anything.

**kalsig** · 08-09-2009

Thanks for the reply. I tried what you recommended and I also blacklisted every wireless driver I could find (with the exception of NDISWrapper) and the connection hasn't died yet. I'm not sure if the problem is fixed or whether I'll just have to wait a bit longer. It usually dies under heavy use or if I lock the screen and let the monitor go to sleep.

**waterhead** · 08-09-2009

Having the wireless die when your system hibernates or sleeps is normal. It does this to conserve power. You can disable the sleep function, but I don't know of any way to keep the wireless active when it sleeps.

**kalsig** · 08-09-2009

Yeah, I figured that the wireless dying on suspend wasn't too much of an issue. But once it dies, I'm unable to restart it without restarting the machine. And the network's status doesn't go to "disconnected". It tells me that I'm still connected, however, I can't ping anything or load any webpages. If I disconnect the network and try to reconnect, WICD gets caught in an infinite loop of "Validating Authentication" and "Not Connected"
Could it possibly be an issue with WPA authentication?

**kalsig** · 08-09-2009

Okay, so the internet just died again in the same manner, so I decided to do some investigation. I tried checking which modules are loaded using lsmod |grep <module name>

Code:

rt73
rt73usb
rt2x00
rt2x00usb

all returned nothing
This is what I got for ndiswrapper

Code:

lsmod |grep ndiswrapper 
ndiswrapper           250624  0

But my internet is definately running for the time being. Which module is being loaded?

**waterhead** · 08-09-2009

If you blacklisted the wireless modules, why are they still loading? When you reboot after blacklisting, they should no longer load. That is the reason for blacklisting.

To restart the wireless, try first bringing it down, then up again.

Code:

sudo ifdown wlan0

Code:

sudo ifup wlan0

**kalsig** · 08-09-2009

Actually, I was probably unclear about that. The blacklisted drivers did not load (there was no response from lsmod |grep rt73usb ) or any of the other blacklisted drivers.
When I tried restarting the interface using your method, here's what I got:

Code:

:~$ sudo ifdown wlan0
ifdown: interface wlan0 not configured
:~$ sudo ifup wlan0
Ignoring unknown interface wlan0=wlan0.

Does the following line mean that the ndiswrapper module is loaded or not?

Code:

:~$ lsmod |grep ndiswrapper 
ndiswrapper           250624  0

EDIT: I've determined that ndiswrapper is currently powering my wireless. However, I'm still getting random disconnects.

**xopher_mc** · 09-08-2009

Had this problem too! annoying!

its cause two wifi have the same usb id but different chipsets

found the solution here

can't link to it cause i'm a newbie user here

bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22/+bug/139070[/url]

comment 3

though kernel module is now located (9.04)

/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/

renamed the module so it doesn't load and all is sweet!

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