[SOLVED] Asus USB N-13 WiFi Adapter Not Working

[hcaulfield57]

I've been trying to get the above wifi usb working, however to no avail. I believe it should be called ra0, but ifconfig only shows eth0 and lo. I don't know if something is missing from my kernel, or I don't have the proper firmware installed or what. The steps I've taken, are enabling support for the card in the kernel. I have the ralink drivers compiled into the kernel. I've installed linux-firmware, and still nothing, I'm not sure what's wrong. I know the card is working, I just can't get it to work on Linux. Any help would be much appreciated, I'm not sure what I'm missing out on.

[BillWho]

hcaulfield57.

I'm using what looks to be the same dongle on two computers

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ASUSTek Computer, Inc. USB-N13 802.11n Network Adapter [Ralink RT3072]

Did you enable the correct kernel settings Did you set the symlink for net.wlan0

[hcaulfield57]

Thanks for the response, glad to see someone has this working.

Did you enable the correct kernel settings

The kernel settings I have enabled are:

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Device Drivers --->
  [*] Network device support --->
    [*] Wireless LAN --->
      <*> Ralink driver support --->
        <*> Ralink rt27xx/rt28xx/rt30xx (PCI/PCIe/PCMCIA) support
          [*] rt2800pci - Include support for rt33xx devices
          [*] rt2800pci - Include support for rt35xx devices (EXPERIMENTAL)
          [*] rt2800pci - Include support for rt53xx devices (EXPERIMENTAL)
        <*> Ralink rt27xx/rt38xx/rt30xx (USB) support
          [*] rt2800usb - Include support for rt33xx devices
          [*] rt2800usb - Include support for rt35xx devices (EXPERIMENTAL)
          [*] rt2800usb - Include support for rt53xx devices (EXPERIMENTAL)
          [*] rt2800usb - Include support for unknown (USB) devices

Did you set the symlink for net.wlan0

No, because I can't even get the ifconfig -a to recognize the interface.

[BillWho]

hcaulfield57,

This is how mine is setup:

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Device Drivers  --->
  [*] Network device support  --->
    [*]   Wireless LAN  ---> 
      <M>   Ralink driver support  --->
        <M>   Ralink rt27xx/rt28xx/rt30xx (USB) support  
        [ ]     rt2800usb - Include support for rt33xx devices 
        [ ]     rt2800usb - Include support for rt35xx devices (EXPERIMENTAL)
        [ ]     rt2800usb - Include support for rt53xx devices (EXPERIMENTAL) 
        [ ]     rt2800usb - Include support for unknown (USB) devices

Other info from lsmod:

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ws490-gentoo linux # lsmod|grep rt2800 
rt2800usb              12882  0 
rt2800lib              42406  1 rt2800usb
crc_ccitt               1275  1 rt2800lib
rt2x00usb               8666  1 rt2800usb
rt2x00lib              33783  3 rt2800usb,rt2800lib,rt2x00usb
mac80211              352582  3 rt2800lib,rt2x00usb,rt2x00lib
usbcore               143829  5 usbhid,rt2800usb,rt2x00usb,uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd

There's no need to enable Ralink rt27xx/rt28xx/rt30xx (PCI/PCIe/PCMCIA) support for a USB device

[hcaulfield57]

BillWho,

Thanks for the response, I tried that but no luck:

$ lsmod

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Module                  Size  Used by
rt2800usb              12614  0 
rt2800lib              41736  1 rt2800usb
rt2x00usb               8594  1 rt2800usb
rt2x00lib              31334  3 rt2800usb,rt2800lib,rt2x00usb
nvidia               9336009  28 

ifconfig -a, still only lists eth0, lo and sit0.

[BillWho]

hcaulfield57,

Did you enable the dependencies like mac80211, crc_ccitt and usb

If they're built-in it's not going to show with lsmod.

[hcaulfield57]

hcaulfield57,

Did you enable the dependencies like mac80211, crc_ccitt and usb

If they're built-in it's not going to show with lsmod.

I did not, at least I haven't checked yet. Does it matter if they are built in? I tend to prefer not to use modules.

[BillWho]

hcaulfield57,

Did you enable the dependencies like mac80211, crc_ccitt and usb

If they're built-in it's not going to show with lsmod.

I did not, at least I haven't checked yet. Does it matter if they are built in? I tend to prefer not to use modules.

I don't believe they have to be modules. However, I prefer modules because you can easily 'unload' or blacklist a problematic one.

[NeddySeagoon]

hcaulfield57,

Most USB WiFi dongles need firmware. Its easier to get the firmware to load if you use modules.
Check dmesg for firmware loading errors.

If your driver is built in, the firmware must be built into the kernel too.
If your driver is a module, the firmware goes in /lib/modules
The other two combinations both fail to find the firmware.

Hmm, the kernel help says

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Selects: RT2800_LIB [=n] && RT2X00_LIB_USB [=m] && RT2X00_LIB_FIRMWARE [=y] && \             │  
  │ RT2X00_LIB_CRYPTO [=y] && CRC_CCITT [=y] 

so maybe the RT2X00_LIB_FIRMWARE provides the firmware ... or maybe its just the loader.

[hcaulfield57]

Still no idea what's going on. I've enabled all of those options, lsmod shows:

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rt2800usb              13942  0 
rt2800lib              46224  1 rt2800usb
rt2x00usb               9527  1 rt2800usb
rt2x00lib              35540  3 rt2800usb,rt2800lib,rt2x00usb
mac80211              373364  3 rt2800lib,rt2x00usb,rt2x00lib

I previously had crc_ccitt compiled as a module, but tried compiled into the kernel, no idea why that would change anything though.

dmesg shows:

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[   55.243578] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2800usb
[  102.986960] usb 2-4: USB disconnect, device number 2
[  216.836633] usb 2-4: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd
[  216.952644] usb 2-4: New USB device found, idVendor=0b05, idProduct=17ab
[  216.952648] usb 2-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  216.952650] usb 2-4: Product: 802.11n WLAN Adapter
[  216.952652] usb 2-4: Manufacturer: Realtek
[  216.952653] usb 2-4: SerialNumber: 00e04c000001

I cannot figure out why it's not working. Maybe it's a firmware issue? I tried installing net-wireless/rt2870-firmware. No luck though. Not sure if this is even the right one, I'm just trying whatever at this point.

[NeddySeagoon]

hcaulfield57,

Lets try to break it down a little.

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[  216.952650] usb 2-4: Product: 802.11n WLAN Adapter 

so the device is seen

BillWhos lsmod shows

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crc_ccitt               1275  1 rt2800lib 

which says that crc_ccitt depends on rt2800lib.
This probably means that if you have crc_ccitt built in, its broken, as rt2800lib won't be there when it tries to start.

What does dmesg say about firmware loading?

Do you have a wlan0 in

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ifconfig -a

-- Edit --

Lets start all over again - Your device is the same as Billwhos on the glossy packaging but its quite different internally and needs a different driver.
From your dmesg

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 idVendor=0b05, idProduct=17ab 

Lesson 1 is always use the Vendor and Device IDs to identify your hardware. Its not always foolproof but its a lot better than vendor descriptions. Many vendors (as here) keep the same name but chnage the guts of the hardware. In a few very rare cases, the Device ID isn't changed but thats against standards compliance.

Since you know how to build things, put

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idVendor=0b05, idProduct=17ab

into Google and build the driver it tells about.
It needs firmware too.

[BillWho]

hcaulfield57,

As NeddySeagoon alluded to your driver is not exactly the same as mine.

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ws490-gentoo ~ # dmesg|grep 'usb 1-8'
[    5.179014] usb 1-8: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
[    5.305257] usb 1-8: default language 0x0409
[    5.311630] usb 1-8: udev 4, busnum 1, minor = 3
[    5.311636] usb 1-8: New USB device found, idVendor=0b05, idProduct=1784
[    5.311639] usb 1-8: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[    5.311642] usb 1-8: Product: 802.11 n WLAN
[    5.311645] usb 1-8: Manufacturer: Ralink
[    5.311647] usb 1-8: SerialNumber: 1.0
[    5.311737] usb 1-8: usb_probe_device
[    5.311742] usb 1-8: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[    5.311909] usb 1-8: adding 1-8:1.0 (config #1, interface 0)
[    5.690199] rt2800usb 1-8:1.0: usb_probe_interface
[    5.690206] rt2800usb 1-8:1.0: usb_probe_interface - got id
[    5.854017] usb 1-8: reset high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd

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ws490-gentoo linux # lsusb
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0b05:1784 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. USB-N13 802.11n Network Adapter (rev. A1) [Ralink RT3072]

As you can see I have a Ralink and yours is Realtek I assumed they would be the same given the identical product info

[NeddySeagoon]

BillWho,

Thats Lesson 2. Assume Nothing :)

[hcaulfield57]

Lesson 1 is always use the Vendor and Device IDs to identify your hardware. Its not always foolproof but its a lot better than vendor descriptions. Many vendors (as here) keep the same name but chnage the guts of the hardware. In a few very rare cases, the Device ID isn't changed but thats against standards compliance.

Thank you so much! That fixed my problem, I installed the realtek drivers and then the firmware and it works properly now. I'm having trouble with wpa_supplicant, but I will open up another thread for that. Thanks again!

[NeddySeagoon]

"To design the perfect anti-Unix, make all file formats binary and opaque, and require heavyweight tools to read and edit them." - The Art of Unix Programming

... but ... but ... thats systemd :)

[hcaulfield57]

"To design the perfect anti-Unix, make all file formats binary and opaque, and require heavyweight tools to read and edit them." - The Art of Unix Programming

... but ... but ... thats systemd

I'm glad someone finally noticed my signature