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#1 2012-06-01 00:54:59

blckfx
Member
Registered: 2012-06-01
Posts: 9

[SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

Hello Arch community!

This is my first post here, so I apologize in advance if I do anything wrong.

Also, my Arch computer does not currently have an internet connection, so I am typing this up on another computer. This is why I don't have pasted results. I will, however, try my best to include necessary information.

Several hours ago, I replaced Ubuntu with Arch on my desktop computer. The only means of access to the internet is through a USB wireless adapter, which I haven't been able to configure properly under the new system. I have gone through the wireless setup guide in the ArchWiki and browsed several forums but have been unable to resolve the issue. I would appreciate any help on the matter.

First of all, my USB wireless adapter is a Cisco Linksys AE1000. lsusb indicates that the chipset is Ralink RT2870.

Apparently, kernel 3.0 (did I mention my kernel was 3.0 smile) introduced a change in the default driver for this chipset. It used to be rt2870sta, now it is rt2800usb. 'lsmod' output indicates that rt2800usb and rt2800lib are loaded automatically on boot. The only other related modules are rt2x00usb and rt2x00lib; but I highly doubt these conflict since the first pair uses the second.

The 'dmesg' output containing 'rt2':

Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::radio
Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::assoc
Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::quality
usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2800usb

The related output from 'ip link' is as follows:

3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN qlen 1000 link/ether ...

Running 'iwconfig' yields the following:

wlan0	IEEE 802.11ABGN	ESSID:off/any
	Mode:Managed	Access Point: Not-Associated	Tx-Power=20 dBm
	Retry long limit:7	RTH thr:off	Frgment thr:off
	Encryption key:off
	Power Management:on

So far so good... (except perhaps for the NO-CARRIER thing)

However, when I try to run 'iwlist scan', I get the cryptic

wlan0    No scan results

feedback. I am certain that there are available networks in the area.

Searching the web, I saw a lot of people had similar problems with different configurations (not necessarily Arch). Some have suggested using the old driver. I don't want to do this because of two reasons: first I would rather use the official driver and second, I don't have the kernel developer packages required to compile the driver, and installing all of the required packages without an internet connection is something I, as someone with almost no experience of Arch package management, do not want to do. Furthermore, these posts generally date back to a time when both drivers were included in the kernel and rt2800usb wasn't advertised to 'work automatically with rt2870'.

Ultimately, the driver seems loaded and working properly.. right up to the point I actually try using the device. There are no other drivers to conflict with.

Please help, as I am currently stuck in an extremely constrained environment without its internet connection. Manually typing all these outputs is difficult- not to mention the long hash value required to be computed when first becoming a member tongue

Thank you!

Last edited by blckfx (2012-06-24 00:15:24)

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#2 2012-06-02 08:02:49

Strike0
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2011-09-05
Posts: 1,429

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

Hey, congrats for re-typing that hash and stuff .. The rt2800 driver seems to be particularly difficult judgingfrom replies on here.
Try these before the scan

ip link set wlan0 down 
iwconfig wlan0 power off
iwconfig wlan0 mode ad-hoc
iwconfig wlan0 channel auto
ip link set wlan0 up
iwlist scan wlan0

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#3 2012-06-02 18:54:25

blckfx
Member
Registered: 2012-06-01
Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

Thank you for the reply Strike0.

I did the things you listed, but unfortunately the scan results are still empty.

However, output for 'iwconfig' and 'ip link' have changed as follows:

wlan0	IEEE 802.11ABGNESSID:off/any
	Mode:Ad-Hoc	Frequency:2.412 GHz	Cell: Not-Associated
	Tx-Power=20 dBm
	Retry long limit:7	RTS thr:off	Fragment thr:off
	Encryption key:off
	Power Management:off
wlan0: <BROADCAST, MULTICAST, UP, LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000 link/ether ...

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#4 2012-06-02 19:39:47

Strike0
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2011-09-05
Posts: 1,429

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

Too bad. I googled for your card and think now it may be a driver bug (with rt2800usb) and you might need the RT3572sta (sorry, I read). Check here for example; double check if the device ID listed there is yours.

Maybe someone else (e.g. someone using the rt2800usb) has another idea.

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#5 2012-06-02 19:45:09

blckfx
Member
Registered: 2012-06-01
Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

Thank you very much for the suggestion Strike0. I will look at getting the other driver asap, but it won't be easy since I don't have direct access to the repositories and the only included driver seems to be rt2800usb..

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#6 2012-06-05 13:30:02

Strike0
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2011-09-05
Posts: 1,429

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

Maybe you can borrow a cheapo USB wifi dongle somewhere for the install and to get your onboard chip to work.

edit: Just thought of something else you can try:

Download a current/daily Arch ISO (scroll down at http://www.archlinux.org/download/ ) and try if recent kernels get the card working with the default module.
If you wait a few days, you get Kernel 3.4.1 fresh out of testing for that.

Last edited by Strike0 (2012-06-06 01:46:23)

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#7 2012-06-05 19:06:41

MoonSwan
Member
From: Great White North
Registered: 2008-01-23
Posts: 881

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

From the Wiki on wireless setup:

rt2860 and rt2870

From Linux kernel 3.0, the staging driver rt2860sta is replaced by the mainline driver rt2800pci, and rt2870sta is replaced by rt2800usb. As a result, the staging drivers are deleted. Source: Kernel commit

In kernel since 2.6.29 and requires no extra packages. It can be configured using the standard wpa_supplicant and iwconfig tools.

(Stuff about blacklisting a bunch of modules that, afaik, is not necessary anymore.)

It has a wide range of options that can be configured with iwpriv. These are documented in the source tarballs available from Ralink.

Source:  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wi … tup#rt2x00

Some of the info on that page is way out of date (like the part about linux firmware) but that may give you some options.  I've got a similar USB key-with-wifi here.  I can't recall how I got it to work but if you're reaaaaally stuck I'll give it a shot for you.  My key uses the same driver AFAIK.  Play around with it a bit more and let me know how it turns out.

Last edited by MoonSwan (2012-06-05 19:08:45)

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#8 2012-06-07 19:54:10

blckfx
Member
Registered: 2012-06-01
Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

Thank you both for the helpful replies. I really appreciate this.

Strike0, I'm not sure what you meant by buying a USB wifi dongle. Do you mean I should buy a different USB device that is known to work with the current kernel? If I run out of options, I could consider that.. but I not without putting up a fight smile

Regarding the RT3572sta driver, great find! I had similar problems when I was setting up my Ubuntu system a long time ago, and back then I used a dirty fix I found on some forum. I looked at that script and noticed it installed that same driver. I tried running it to see what would happen, but I expected it was Ubuntu specific and now I ended up with a system that no longer is capable of enumerating the USB device at all, let alone get it working properly. I will do a clean install and try installing the RT3572sta properly unless the recent kernel updates solve the problem. My fingers are crossed. One thing that really annoyed me with the previous setup was that I had to run the script again after each kernel update. From what I gather, a similar situation would be the case when I install custom drivers not included in kernel releases (though I'm not sure about this point).

MoonSwan, thanks a lot for proposing to give it a try yourself! Better wait until the new kernel is released. In the meantime, I will try out the RT3572sta to see how it works out. Thanks to Strike0, I'm not yet at the point that I'm absolutely stuck smile

Also, I went through the wiki several times. Unfortunately it does not seem accurate in its claim that the driver works easily (at least in my setup, and unless I am overlooking something very basic - once there was a case that the hard rfkill switch on my old laptop was malfunctioning and all the while I thought it was a software related problem until I learned of rfkill).

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#9 2012-06-07 20:46:16

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

I'm using rt2800usb right now, also with a rt3572 dongle (Linksys WUSB600N), and it's all good - but only in the last few kernel releases. I'm on 3.4.1 (from testing) right now. I've had the thing a while, but never got it working with the 3572sta driver, or any earlier version of rt2800usb.

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#10 2012-06-08 01:52:55

olo
Member
Registered: 2010-03-18
Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

I had similar problem before. In your case, it may or may not be the driver's problem, maybe the conflict with other drivers.
I suggest you to re-compile your kernel and give it another try, and only select the driver you need through kernel and get the firmware (RT2870.bin) ready for RT2870 driver


   Ralink driver support ---> 
        <*> Ralink rt27xx/rt28xx/rt30xx (USB) support
    <*>   rt2800usb - Include support for unknown (USB) devices 


Hope this helps

Last edited by olo (2012-06-08 01:53:17)

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#11 2012-06-08 04:30:36

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

blckfx wrote:

However, when I try to run 'iwlist scan', I get the cryptic

wlan0    No scan results

feedback. I am certain that there are available networks in the area.

Lets back up a few steps.

Did you run that command as root?  If you run it as a normal user, it just returns old results without actually doing a scan.


Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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#12 2012-06-08 09:41:34

blckfx
Member
Registered: 2012-06-01
Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

Yes, at this point I haven't added any additional user accounts yet.

edit: I rashly posted without checking to see whether there were any more replies.

tomk, it's good to see that you have got it to work. The problem is probably due to the 3572/2870 confusion.. It seems that the prior is the correct chipset whereas 'lsusb' recognizes it as the latter and attempts to select rt2800usb which supposedly replaces it. I will try to see if the problem persists for me in the newest kernel release asap.

olo, I don't think it was a conflict problem because rt2800usb was the only driver selected in the kernel that was relevant to the USB dongle. Also, rt2870 no longer seems to be an option.

Thanks to all of you for the input!


edit2:

I am going to download the newest build. The index of /isos/ for the test builds contains some directories with '*-testing/' and others without. What does this mean? Should I download '2012.06.03_16-10-01-testing' or '2012.06.05_04-00-01'?

Also, when I download a bleeding edge build, does this converge to the stable release over time using the update mechanism? This is my first time using an unstable (or rather not explicitly so) build.

Last edited by blckfx (2012-06-08 09:55:34)

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#13 2012-06-08 10:05:09

Strike0
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2011-09-05
Posts: 1,429

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

The testing ISOs refer to the testing repository, the other ones are the normal repo.
Testing repo might bring up problems that you may not really want on your first install. (You can activate it later if you want it). To the experiences of Tomk a similar issue was solved in the last kernels, so you dont necessarily need the latest latest.
Besides with Arch being rolling steadily, the gap between both repos is pretty small (kernel 3.3.7 vs. 3.4.1 right now). Good luck with it.

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#14 2012-06-08 10:09:26

blckfx
Member
Registered: 2012-06-01
Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

Thanks Strike0! I'll download it now

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#15 2012-06-08 16:14:48

Bazzaah
Member
Registered: 2010-03-15
Posts: 69

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

I'd use the Ralink drivers.

They work very well and you won't have to bash your head on a brick wall trying to get the rt2800usb module to work, which I've never managed with my Asus N13 USB dongle. The old staging drivers worked very well - I'm not sure what's up with the rt2800usb module given that Ralink seems to support Linux and makes its drivers available.

There are a couple of threads on compiling the drivers like this one for example

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=129261

Last edited by Bazzaah (2012-06-08 16:38:49)

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#16 2012-06-24 00:13:18

blckfx
Member
Registered: 2012-06-01
Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED]RT2800usb Confusion

Dear All,

Sorry for not being able to reply in quite a while.

First, the good news. Kernel 3.3.7-1 solves the iwlist scanning problem smile

The installation of the kernel was, however, far from easy. The bootloader refused to install, and I had to learn quite a bit about how GRUB functions. It was all worth it in the end when I successfully booted for the first time and immediately saw that the wireless was working. Hopefully everything will become smoother with future updates.

Thank you everyone for all the help. Had it not been for all your strong support I might have become discouraged and chosen the easy path out. However, you have enabled me to solve this problem learning a lot along the way.

I am very pleased to have met the Arch community for the first time. I look forward to truly becoming a member of this community and, having advanced in my learning, helping others out the way you have helped me smile

All the best,
blckfx

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