WiFi driver

[Blakes7]

Hi! As you'll tell my question, I'm not well versed in Linux. I'm running Ubuntu, and I plugged in a USB WiFi card, and it's not recognized. It was recognized immediately in XP, which I dual boot with. It's actually quite good as it picked up another wifi network in the area, which I don't try to access. I have a disc with linux drivers on it. Do I just put the disc into the drive, and then go to the files on the disc and double click on it to install the drivers? There are different drivers on the disc for different nics, they might all be the same, and I'm not sure which USB nic it is as it has nothing on it except that it's a USB 803.11g. The drivers are ralink. If I install the wrong driver, or if the driver I install doesn't work, and I want to try another one, how do I uninstall the initial driver? Any and all responses will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[MikeTbob]

Start here please.

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/wir...tart-here.html

[Blakes7]

Thanks for the response. I ran lsusb and got:

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 148f:3070 Ralink Technology, Corp.

There were other entries, but this has to be the wifi card. I ran lsmod and got:

rt2800usb 37372 0
rt2x00usb 11548 1 rt2800usb
rt2x00lib 29756 2 rt2800usb,rt2x00usb

I got a lot of other entries, but again these seem related to the card. I ran dmesg and these look like the lines connected with the wifi card:

[ 13.178979] Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::radio
[ 13.178999] Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::assoc
[ 13.179015] Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::quality
[ 13.180039] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2800usb
[ 13.263346] rt2870sta: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[ 13.267007] rtusb init --->
[ 13.267048] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2870
[ 13.295734] rt3070sta: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[ 13.299448] rtusb init --->
[ 13.299454] Error: Driver 'rt2870' is already registered, aborting...
[ 13.299458] usbcore: error -16 registering interface driver rt2870
[ 13.918088] rt2800usb 1-4:1.0: firmware: requesting rt2870.bin
[ 14.284103] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

dmesg | grep firmware yielded

[ 13.918088] rt2800usb 1-4:1.0: firmware: requesting rt2870.bin

The linux distribution is Ubuntu. Kernel version is 2.6.31-21-generic

II ran iwconfig and got thisL

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

I looked at network connections and no wifi showed, so I clicked add, but didn't know what to enter for the SSID or the BSSID, though I have the MAC address from ipconfig in windows. Is this the info you meant for me to get? Thanks.

[MikeTbob]

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

This is your network device. wlan0. It appears that you do not have an essid assigned to the access point. Try leaving the essid field blank and see what happens.

[reed9]

[ 13.263346] rt2870sta: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[ 13.267007] rtusb init --->
[ 13.267048] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2870
[ 13.295734] rt3070sta: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.

It seems you might have multiple drivers loading for the card. Can you post the full output of lsmod?

[Blakes7]

Thanks for the responses. I tried emtering the MAC, leaving the SSID and BSSID blank, but Apply stay s greyed out. Here is the output for lsmod:

Module Size Used by
isofs 31620 0
udf 81188 0
crc_itu_t 1852 1 udf
via 40192 1
drm 160032 2 via
binfmt_misc 8356 1
rt2870sta 488820 0
arc4 1660 2
ecb 2524 2
rt2800usb 37372 0
rt2x00usb 11548 1 rt2800usb
rt2x00lib 29756 2 rt2800usb,rt2x00usb
led_class 4096 1 rt2x00lib
input_polldev 3716 1 rt2x00lib
mac80211 181140 2 rt2x00usb,rt2x00lib
snd_hda_codec_realtek 203328 1
cfg80211 93052 2 rt2x00lib,mac80211
crc_ccitt 1852 1 rt2800usb
iptable_filter 3100 0
snd_hda_intel 26920 2
snd_hda_codec 75708 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 7200 1 snd_hda_codec
ip_tables 11692 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 16544 1 ip_tables
snd_pcm_oss 37920 0
snd_mixer_oss 16028 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 75296 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
ppdev 6688 0
snd_seq_dummy 2656 0
snd_seq_oss 28576 0
snd_seq_midi 6464 0
snd_rawmidi 22176 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 6940 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 50224 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
snd_timer 22276 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 6920 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi ,snd_seq
i2c_viapro 7344 0
snd 59204 16 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec, snd_hwdep,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_se q_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore 7264 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 9156 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
k8temp 4188 0
shpchp 32272 0
parport_pc 31940 1
asus_atk0110 8252 0
lp 8964 0
parport 35340 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
via_rhine 22212 0
usbhid 38208 0
mii 5212 1 via_rhine
sata_via 9120 3
amd64_agp 9796 1
agpgart 34988 2 drm,amd64_agp

Thanks.

[reed9]

It looks like either the rt2870sta or rt2800usb could work, but you can't have both or they will interfere with each other.

Try removing one or the other and see which works, or works best. I would give the rt2800usb a whirl first.

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo modprobe -r rt2870sta
sudo modprobe -r rt2800usb
sudo modprobe rt2800usb
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

Check if it finds local networks

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

If it works, blacklist the rt2870sta to prevent it from loading at boot

echo "blacklist rt2870sta" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

[Blakes7]

Thanks for the response. I tried your commands, and iwlist gave me:

wlan0 No scan results

I tried the commands again substituting rt2879sta for rt2800usb, and it locked up the computer on the last command

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

After I pulled the plug and rebooted, I did lsmod again, and the references to rt2870sta are missing. I did the scan again, but it shows no results. Did I miss something? Thanks.

[reed9]

I would try the other way, if the rt2800usb isn't working. Do the same thing as above, but replace rt2800usb where you had rt2870sta and vice versa.

Then remove rt2870sta from the blacklist file. It's just a text file, so you can edit it with any text editor. For example

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Find the blacklist rt2870sta line and remove it.

Alternately, you can try and install new drivers and see if rt2800usb is working. If you running the latest version of Ubuntu, 10.04, do

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic

For other Ubuntu versions, see here.

[Blakes7]

Thanks again. I installed the nrw drivers, ubuntu version 9.04, and still iwlist shows no scan results. The
dmesg | grep firmware
command shows:

rt2800usb 1-4:1.0: firmware: requesting rt2870.bin

Same as before. What am I missing?