RT2500 wifi on Fedora Core 5

[LiquidEyes]

I've been trying for days to get wifi to work on Fedora Core 5. I'm not getting anywhere -- I can't even build the driver!

I'm a newbie so this is really hard work. I've been unable to follow any 'how-to' so far as literally everything seems to bring up an error.

I need WPA so I hope I'm not wasting my time...!

* I have a fresh, standard install of Fedora Core 5 (kernel 2.6.15.1 build 2054)
* I believe my wifi card has an RT2500 chipset. It's an Edimax 7128g card.
* lspci lists the following wifi device:
05:09.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
* I've downloaded a rt2x00 driver (rt2500-1.1.0-b4) from serialmonkey.com to /usr/src/.
* I've downloaded the linux-2.6.15.1 kernel sources to /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/.
* I've made the symbolic links 'build' and 'source' (in /lib/modules/2.6.15-1.2054_FC5/) point at the kernel sources (/usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/linux-2.6.15.1). Formerly they were broken links. I don't know whether I've done this correctly though.
* I believe this has had some effect, because formerly, running make from the wifi driver folder failed straight away saying it couldn't find the kernel sources; now I get different build errors.
* There are literally hundreds of errors:

[root@localhost Module]# make
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/linux-2.6.15.1'
Makefile:486: .config: No such file or directory

  WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/linux-2.6.15.1/Module.symvers
           is missing; modules will have no dependencies and modversions.

  CC [M]  /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.o
cc1: error: include/linux/autoconf.h: No such file or directory
In file included from /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rt_config.h:58,
                 from /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.c:50:
include/linux/config.h:6:28: error: linux/autoconf.h: No such file or directory
In file included from include/linux/module.h:10,
                 from /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rt_config.h:59,
                 from /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.c:50:
include/linux/sched.h:4:36: error: asm/param.h: No such file or directory
In file included from include/linux/types.h:13,
                 from include/linux/capability.h:16,
                 from include/linux/sched.h:7,
                 from include/linux/module.h:10,
                 from /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rt_config.h:59,
                 from /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.c:50:
include/linux/posix_types.h:47:29: error: asm/posix_types.h: No such file or directory
In file included from include/linux/capability.h:16,
                 from include/linux/sched.h:7,
                 from include/linux/module.h:10,
                 from /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rt_config.h:59,
                 from /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.c:50:
include/linux/types.h:14:23: error: asm/types.h: No such file or directory
In file included from include/linux/capability.h:16,
                 from include/linux/sched.h:7,
                 from include/linux/module.h:10,
                 from /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rt_config.h:59,
                 from /usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.c:50:
include/linux/types.h:18: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘__kernel_dev_t’
include/linux/types.h:21: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘dev_t’
include/linux/types.h:22: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘ino_t’
include/linux/types.h:23: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘mode_t’
include/linux/types.h:24: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘nlink_t’
include/linux/types.h:25: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘off_t’
include/linux/types.h:26: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘pid_t’
include/linux/types.h:27: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘daddr_t’
include/linux/types.h:29: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘suseconds_t’
include/linux/types.h:30: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘timer_t’
include/linux/types.h:31: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘clockid_t’
include/linux/types.h:35: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘uid_t’
include/linux/types.h:36: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘gid_t’
include/linux/types.h:37: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘uid16_t’
include/linux/types.h:38: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘gid16_t’
include/linux/types.h:55: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘loff_t’
include/linux/types.h:64: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘size_t’
include/linux/types.h:69: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘ssize_t’
include/linux/types.h:74: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘ptrdiff_t’
include/linux/types.h:79: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘time_t’
include/linux/types.h:84: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘clock_t’
include/linux/types.h:89: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘caddr_t’

...

/usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.c:994:5: warning: "LINUX_VERSION_CODE" is not defined
/usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.c:994:38: warning: "BIG_ENDIAN" is not defined
/usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.c:994:60: warning: "RTMP_EMBEDDED" is not defined
/usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.c:997: error: expected expression before ‘__attribute__’
make[2]: *** [/usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module/rtmp_main.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/usr/src/rt2500-1.1.0-b4/Module] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/linux-2.6.15.1'
rt2500.ko failed to build!
make: *** [module] Error 1

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Any help would be highly appreciated!

[Juan Pablo]

- WPA is supported on Linux using wpa_supplicant
- You can get an open source driver for Atheros Chipsets with madwifi, get it with yum
- You can also install ndiswrapper with yum and it will take care of all dependencies including kernel sources, then you can use your windows drivers
- You can just install the kernel sources with yum, it will take care of the version
- I suspect you downloaded the kernel sources from kernel.org, don't do that! Fedora's kernels are highly modified, it's better to get the sources with yum


hope this info helps

[daark.child]

Do you have the kernel-devel package installed? Personally I don't think your card is rt2500 based because the results you posted from running lspci are not consistent with rt2500 chips. For example on my FC6 based laptop with a Ralink rt2500 pcmcia card, lspci shows

07:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)

[LiquidEyes]

Thanks for the replies. Apologies for my ignorance but I'm going to need my hand holding...

1. Do I need to build wadwifi myself?
2. Do I need to get the kernel sources first?
3. Please can you tell me the commands I need to run or point me in the direction of a HOW-TO?

I tried to get the kernel sources by following the instructions here ('yum update kernel') but that installed a new version of the kernel and presumably that just complicates things. And I can't even use the newly installed version, it just hangs with a blank screen and a crosshair mouse pointer on boot-up. So now every time I boot, I have to manually select the old kernel from the menu.

How do I get the 'modified' Fedora kernel sources? (I couldn't find them on the installation CDs.)

Daark.child, I tried typing yum update kernel-devel-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 and I got the following output:

Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Update Process
Setting up repositories
core                                                                 [1/3]
core                      100% |=========================| 1.1 kB    00:00
updates                                                              [2/3]
updates                   100% |=========================| 1.2 kB    00:00
extras                                                               [3/3]
extras                    100% |=========================| 1.1 kB    00:00
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Could not find update match for kernel-devel-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5
No Packages marked for Update/Obsoletion

I don't know whether that means it succeeded or failed?

I've tried ndiswrapper before with SuSE but it was a nightmare. It turned out I needed to rebuild the kernel (!) because I didn't have loadable modules enabled or something. I spent days on it and just gave up in the end.

I don't mean to sound lazy, but I just want a HOWTO that actually works!! If I can just get wifi working, then I can start learning Linux properly -- it will be a hell of a lot easier with proper internet access! It's a bit of a catch-22 at the moment.

[daark.child]

I am not sure whether you should build from source or if there are prebuilt packages somewhere. The kernel-devel package is whats required to build kernel related modules and drivers. To check whether its installed, do

$rpm -qa | grep -i kernel-devel

If you get no output, then its not installed and you should install it by doing

#yum install kernel-devel

[LiquidEyes]

Cool, thanks Daark.child. Should I be concerned by the version number?

...
Installed: kernel-devel.i686 0:2.6.18-1.2200.fc5
Complete!

My kernel (the one I'm using) is version 2.6.15-1.2054. Just wondering if it's picked up on the newer one I installed (which I can't get to work).

[LiquidEyes]

Ok this is where I'm at...
* I've installed kernel-devel (see above)
* I've installed madwifi to /usr/src/madwifi-0.9.2/
* I've tried to 'make' madwifi:

[root@localhost madwifi-0.9.2]# make
Makefile.inc:113: *** KERNELCONF: /lib/modules/2.6.15-1.2054_FC5/build/.config does not exist..  Stop.

I read here that I need to copy my 'kernel config file' to the kernel source folder. But I couldn't find any file like the one described there.

1. How do I find my kernel config file?
2. Where is the kernel source folder? Does it mean wherever kernel-devel was installed? Or is kernel-devel separate from the main kernel source?

[daark.child]

The kernel and kernel-devel package should be the same versions. Anyway you may not need to build from because I have just discovered that livna and freshrpms have the madwifi drivers in their software repositories.

[LiquidEyes]

Ok I did

rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-5.rpm

then

yum install madwifi

That seems to have worked. I'm struggling to find a HOWTO on what to do next and I can't work out where the package has been installed. I ran find / -name *mad* but I can't see anything relevant apart from some documents in /usr/doc/share/madwifi-0.9.2.

I tried running modprobe ath_pci as suggested in the README:

FATAL: Module ath_pci not found.

I'm sure you don't want to take me through this step by step, but please can you give me some sort of pointer?

Sorry but I'm just fumbling around in the dark here!

[Juan Pablo]

Try modprobe -l to get a list of modules