Wireless USB device setup

[bob_trifan]

Hi -

Need some help with setup of a wireless device under RedHat Enterprise 5 Linux distribution

Facts:

- Both LAN card and USB wireless devices are not on the list of supported devices by Network Man.
- Got the driver source (for the wireless device - TP-Link) somehow over the internet - STA2780 pack - after compiling got the *.ko module.
- I can load the module but the story somehow ends here - iwconfig will show nothing that may be configured

Question:

- How to make it work and catch-up with my wireless router

I may say that I am absolute beginner in this Linux constellation, though having more than enough experience with computers.

Many thanks in advance -

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome.
Start here and post your results back into this thread.
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...tart-here.html
I got to tell you, using almost anything beside RHEL will make things easier for you. Unless there is a compelling reason to use RHEL, I would try a different distro, but that's just my opinion and you are free to do whatever you like. Doesn't RHEL come with paid support? Do you have that option?

[bob_trifan]

I got from their site a 30 days trial distribution - dunno if I have support from their side. One of my friends recommended me this distribution, as my goal is to get familiar with Linux enterprise like distribution, trying to install Oracle products...
Of course, first step would be to have at least Internet access

I've enclosed the result of sh commands. Hope it helps.
Many thanks

[reed9]

You might consider switching to a free RHEL clone like CentOS or Scientific Linux.

Anyway, the USB device should work with the rt2870sta driver. This is not available from the official RHEL repositories but can be had through the 3rd party ELRepo.

I don't use Redhat based distros much, but to enable and install should be

su -
rpm -Uvh http://elrepo.org/elrepo-release-0.1-1.el5.elrepo.noarch.rpm
rpm --import http://elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
yum --disablerepo \* --enablerepo elrepo install kmod-rt2870sta
yum --disablerepo \* --enablerepo elrepo install rt2870-firmware
yum --disablerepo \* --enablerepo elrepo update module-init-tools

Your lspci info didn't come through so we don't have info yet on the internal wireless. Can you try again with

/usr/sbin/lspci -vnn

[bob_trifan]

vachement avancé

results of the above commands are enclosed - also a list with pci stuff.

basically - I do not have Internet access under RHEL, so any attempts to download from outside will fail (*.rpm and *.org files dwl'ded outside RHEL and placed in the work folder).

I may also mention that I already have the driver compiled - what I need is a short step by step tutorial on how to load it on boot and make the connection with the wireless access point.

kind regards-
Bob

[reed9]

No access to a wired connection? Or the wired isn't working either?

Apparently RHEL doesn't output quite the same with the -vnn flag as Arch. Can you also just give the output of

/usr/sbin/lspci

no extra flags? Just glancing through the pciid numbers, I didn't notice any an internal wireless card, but I easily could have missed it.

Actually, I can answer my own question. Your ethernet card in an Attansic chipset (1969:1063) and uses the atl1c driver, which is too new for RHEL.

You can get it from the ELRepo again, looks like under the name atl1e.

You can download it to a flash drive, transfer it over, and install with rpm

su -c 'rpm -Uvh <packge name>'

The package you need is dependent on your kernel version. Probably it just the one called kmod-atl1e-1.0.1.9-1.el5.elrepo.i686.rpm. (Do you know if you installed a 32 bit or 64 bit version of RHEL?)

Post the output of

uname -a

if that isn't working.

There may be other dependencies for that package. Unfortunately, you'll just have to keep tracking them down and installing manual, if so. Unless someone more familiar with RHEL systems knows a better way.

Or again, you might consider moving to Fedora 13. It will support your card out of the box, and as the functional "upstream" for RHEL, you can still learn a lot about how RHEL functions. Or another option if you're not looking for super stability right now is to try out the new RHEL 6 beta testing release. It should also support your ethernet out of the box.

(I don't believe either Fedora or RHEL 6 will support the USB wireless out of the box, though.)