Arch Linux

DaNiMoTh

Member

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 260

Successful stories with rt73usb?

Hi all,

With kernel 2.6.24 all owners of usb dongle with this chipset can use the rt73 usb driver integrated in it.
This open-source project claim many improvements respect the Railink official driver, for example using this dongle in monitor mode.

rt73-cvs ( AUR package ) with older version of linux, causes a system crash when I try to set WPA on.

So, I try this new module ( modprobe rt73usb ) but nothing to do; wlan0 is recognised without mac address, and I can't do anything.

Now I'm back to 2.6.23 and official driver ( official driver doesn't compile with .24 kernel ). So, my answer is: there is anyone that has successful installed this dongle with 2.6.24 driver?

Thanks

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

I've been using rt73usb for about six months now, and it's working fine. The 2.6.24 version is very stable for me.

DaNiMoTh

Member

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 260

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

Could you give a link to an existing howto, if possible?

Edit: I follow this discussione here http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/phpBB2/v … 8505#28505 , they have my same problem.

Thanks anyway

Last edited by DaNiMoTh (2008-02-11 12:27:46)

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

I didn't need any ralink-specific docs, if that's what you mean. I run it with netcfg/netcfg2, and it's a standard WPA-PSK setup. Here's my netcfg2 profile and wpa_supplicant.conf - you might get something from them:

Profile:

CONNECTION="wireless"
DESCRIPTION="Home wireless net"

INTERFACE=wlan0
HOSTNAME=tk-i5ka

# Interface Settings (use IFOPTS="dhcp" for DHCP)
IP="static"
IFOPTS="10.12.62.99 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.12.62.255"
GATEWAY="10.12.62.1"

# Standard Wireless Settings
ESSID=my_ssid
SECURITY=wpa-config # One of wep, wpa, wpa-config, none
KEY=""

# Scans to see if network is available before connecting (reccomended)
SCAN="YES"

# Time to wait to connect to a network. Default 15.
TIMEOUT=5

# Pass *custom* options to iwconfig. Usually not needed (optional)
IWOPTS="rate 54M"

# Any extra arguments for wpa_supplicant
WPA_OPTS=

# For SECURITY='wpa-config' only - filename of a wpa-supplicant config
WPA_CONF=/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

wpa_supplicant.conf:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ap_scan=1

network={
        ssid="my_ssid"
        scan_ssid=1
        psk=MYEXTREMELYHARDTOCRACKKEY
        priority=5
}

stavrosg

Member

From: Rhodes, Greece

Registered: 2005-05-01

Posts: 330

Website

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

I have a Linksys WUSB54GC which has (surprise!) the rt73 chip, and running Arch64.

The legacy driver stopped working in 2.6.24 for some reason, and the new one (rt73usb) seems a bit unstable.
I´m on an unencrypted connection at the moment and the past 20 minutes is by far the longest time I've managed to stay connected in the last two days. Hope it stays that way!

snader

Member

Registered: 2006-03-28

Posts: 51

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

I also have that linksys adapter which works fine with netcfg2 (I don't use wpa_supplicant btw). Stability is not 100%, I get around 2 dropouts a day. I can live with that.

Dontcho

Member

From: Varna, Bulgaria

Registered: 2007-09-08

Posts: 13

Website

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

In my case: I just replace kernel 2.6.24.1-* (core) /* Replace iwlwifi with core/kernel26? [Y/n]*/ with iwlwifi. because ask Replace iwlwifi with core/kernel26? [Y/n]  when select Y (arch) take Load Average more that 4.0 and no WPA-SPK
Ralink rt73 chip

1st at all: sorry for my bad English still learning...
2nd: I'm waiting for a fix, yet, about this issue.
3th: somebody tell me how I can downgrade to kernel 2.6.23 (with no problem)?

nofxx

Member

Registered: 2008-01-03

Posts: 11

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

I got some probs with rtl8187 and rt73... here http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=43137

I guess the best idea (if you want monitor/injection) is have both drivers, just switch on the fly with modprobe or airdriver-ng (aircrack-ng-svn from aur)

I would`n be surprise if they fixed the rt73 driver... I dont get mine dongle here..  just install aicrack-ng-svn from aur, and ask it to install the driver. I will make aur pkg of those drivers once I got some time..

nofxx

Member

Registered: 2008-01-03

Posts: 11

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

Ok, so here is what Im going to do, (if someone dont do it till tomorrow):

airdriver-ng, is a bash script, so I will gather info from there to make aur pkgs, so we can easily have both drivers for both rt73 and rtl8187l

good idea ?

Last edited by nofxx (2008-02-18 10:09:34)

DaNiMoTh

Member

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 260

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

Actually, with 2.6.24 dhclient doesn't work for me.. I think because with 2.6.23 I see my connection mode as managed, with 2.6.24 I see the same connection as Master.

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

Your AP should be the only Master, any wifi clients should be Managed. You can specify the required mode with iwconfig.

jtj

Member

Registered: 2008-02-17

Posts: 2

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

To be honest i've never had the new rt73usb drivers working either; i usually use the rt73 legacy driver. Neither seem to work with WPA too excellently, although i have had it working previously on other distros.

I haven't tried the official driver though, how do you find it DaNiMoTh?

stavrosg

Member

From: Rhodes, Greece

Registered: 2005-05-01

Posts: 330

Website

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

An update: rt73usb does work for me, but I have to manually scan and connect to my AP before dhcp client actually manages to connect to the server. Afterwards, it stays up for up to a couple of days (or three - I rebooted afterwards).

DaNiMoTh

Member

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 260

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/S … Linux.html

But it don't work on 2.6.24.

greenfuse

Member

Registered: 2008-02-14

Posts: 57

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

I have a steady wireless connection with a DWL-G122 vC1 using the 2.6.24 kernel's rt73usb driver. While I can get the wireless interface up easily from the command line, I cannot get it up with netcfg2. I have tried many variations in /etc/network-profiles/wlan0 and have studied the relevant ArchWiki pages.

Is there a way to get debugging output for netcfg2? The only feedback it ever gives me is ">"

PS Before upgrading the kernel to 2.6.24, the serialmonkey rt73 driver worked nicely in combination with rutilt. After the upgrade I rebuilt it for  the new kernel but cannot make it work.

Last edited by greenfuse (2008-03-05 21:42:38)

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

netcfg2 looks for profiles in /etc/network.d - /etc/network-profiles is used by the original netcfg. Have another look at the wiki page for full details.

greenfuse

Member

Registered: 2008-02-14

Posts: 57

Re: Successful stories with rt73usb?

Thank you tomk, it is working now. I will try to read the wiki pages more carefully in future.