Ralink USB -- which driver? [SOLVED]

koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

I am about to recompile my kernel with support for my ralink card. I am not sure which driver to use though.

cach0rr0 · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 1:08 am Post subject:

two suggestions for ideas come to mind

-boot up with sysrescuecd, see if anything exists in /proc/net/wireless, if so the module has already been loaded for you by sysrescuecd, so now all you have to do is see what modules are loaded (e.g. lsmod), see which one fits.
-see if lshw or usbview show you any further information on the card. namely, the exact model number.

as we dont know the model number, we cant really tell you what you should select

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koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

It looks like it's the 3070 chip set.

Ralink rt2800 (USB) support (EXPERIMENTAL):

cach0rr0 · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 3:16 am Post subject:

hrmm..usbview confirms that's the driver

(from grepping through kernel sources)

koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

So I compiled Ralink rt2800 (USB) support (EXPERIMENTAL) into the kernel. I also included the debugging support, just in case.
Running ifconfig wlan0 up gives:
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
I was hoping for it to at least be detected now.
Oh well. More tomorrow.
Goodnight Gentoo land.

cach0rr0 · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 6:19 am Post subject:

did you insmod ('insmod /path/to/file.ko' or 'modprobe <modulename>' it first? Device won't show up til you do
once you've done so, cat /proc/net/wireless
if nothing is there, check dmesg for errors

all i can think of at the moment, time to hit the pub - good luck!
_________________
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seqizz · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 103

what about staging drivers?
-> Device Drivers
-> Staging drivers (STAGING [=y])
< > Ralink 2870/3070 wireless support

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 2:36 pm Post subject:

koopdi,

To give yourself the best chance with an in kernel driver, use the testing gentoo-sources (2.6.37-r1 as I write) and the staging driver.
If you want to be more adventerous still, try the latest 2.6.38-rc from kernel.org too.

Quotes like - "support for RT3070 chips is non-functional at the moment" become out of date very rapidly and they are not always removed when the fix is applied.

Sometimes older kernels work and newer ones dont. I recall 2.6.23-rc6 worked with my rt73 USB device but it wan't until 2.6.26 that another kernel worked for me with that device.
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Etal · Veteran Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 1931

It looks like it will be supported in the the upcoming 2.6.38 kernel, which will probably be out in a week or two, judging by the latest release message:

koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

Tried the staging driver using linux-2.6.36-gentoo-r5:
dmesg:

Gusar · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 5:36 pm Post subject:

koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

Oh, I see.
Where do I find this firmware stuff? How do I choose to have it inside the kernel?
I checked lib to see if anything was there but there isn't even a firmware directory.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 7:36 pm Post subject:

koopdi,

Check to see you have a file called rt3070.bin in /lib/firmware
Now rebuild your kernel with the rt3070 module as a module.

For debugging, modules are preferred as they can be added and removed from the kernel without a reboot and you can play with any module parameters the module supports - also without a reboot.

Get the firmware from the ralink website. from memory, ralink.com.tw
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

I do not have that file.
I do not even have a /lib/firmware directory.

I did download rt2870.bin from ralinktech.com last night.
I think that the site said this was the firmware for the 3070 chipset.
For some reason the page doesn't load for me anymore though.

Is it worth renaming rt2870.bin to rt3070.bin and copying it to /lib/firmware, then recompiling support for the staging driver as a module?
Would it be better to copy rt2870.bin to /lib/firmware and then make a symbolic link called rt3070.bin?

Thank you everyone for your help thus far. I am doing my best to become an advanced beginner in these subjects.

Gusar · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 8:40 pm Post subject:

Install the linux-firmware package. It has, among many others, firmware for all ralink cards.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 9:12 pm Post subject:

koopdi,

If Ralink provide a firmware file called rt3070.bin thats what you need.
Renaming won't work.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

So a power outage exactly at the moment I hit save in menuconfig destroyed my config file.
Can I somehow extract the old config from my current kernel?

cach0rr0 · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:10 pm Post subject:

koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

Looks like I didn't enable that...

cach0rr0 · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:15 pm Post subject:

cach0rr0 · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:16 pm Post subject:

koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

There is nothing at /proc/config.gz, sadly my latest attempts at configuring a new kernel have not been viable.
Something about a kernel picnic.

cach0rr0 · Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 5:17 am Post subject:

koopdi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Feb 2011 Posts: 100

Ok, I've got a bit of time from schoolwork for important stuff like configuring the kernel!

Here's my kernel config (non working):
http://pastebin.com/ALcWABmR

I do have a PCI-->SATA card but my gentoo installation is on just an old fashioned IDE PATA drive, connected to the motherboard.

//lspci -n