[solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

schuay · 2009-06-13 09:20:30

I've been getting some strange issues lately, and after the upgrade to 2.6.30 they've gotten so bad that my PC will freeze when doing anything network interface related.

1. For a while, I've been getting a window requesting the root password for wicd on boot. When I click cancel, I get a dialog telling me that wicd has failed to connect to the dbus interface. Now, the strange thing is, this also happened after I deinstalled wicd, and when I had wicd installed and started successfully by the rc.conf daemons array. WTF?? I'm using KDE4/netcfg. This might not be related to my second issue, but it's something I don't understand (and I'd like to understand what goes on in my pc). I don't have wicd in KDE autostart.

2. Since installing 2.6.30, a most network interface operations will hang the pc. Netcfg2 can connect, I can use the internet with no problems, but as soon as it tries to disconnect, the PC hangs. Wicd can't even connect, it hangs on one of the first stages called something like "disconnecting all interfaces". Sometimes, even a simple "ifconfig" would hang the PC. Shutting down/rebooting hangs during the "putting down network" stage.

It's a strange kind of freeze/hang.. If I run "netcfg -a" (disconnect all networks profiles) on the console, the console will still be responsive to things like pressing enter, but a ctrl-c will not terminate the process. I cannot kill the process, not even using kill -9. Other applications will not load but existing ones keep running.

I'm using the rt2870sta module with a Belkin USB Wireless N card.

Anybody else having these symptoms? At the moment, the pc is pretty much unusable.

edit: here's the appropriate kernel changelog http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux%2Fkernel … t&s=rt2870. if all else fails, i might try going back to an older version of the driver.

edit2: this is getting strange. i can't umount my usb stick after writing data to it (a larger directory doesn't work, a small file did work). kill -9 does nothing. it doesn't interfere with other apps though.

Last edited by schuay (2009-06-26 18:20:18)

Malstrond · 2009-06-25 04:53:23

I had the same problem, my HTPC is using a Trendnet USB stick that contains the RT2870.
The problem appears if I run
ifconfig ra0 down
the command doesn't complete, produces no output and causes many other prolems. Examples: I lose the VT where I ran this. I can't cancel it with CTRL+C. Not even sysrq is able to recover it. Everything using PAM begins to fail, if I run sudo in a VT, i lose it (this might be related to your mounting problem). X crashes. Wicd stalls, the process can't be shut down any more. The reason fot this is that many networking applications "cylce" the interface once before using it to clear left-over configurations.
I can't even shutdown anymore if I don't use the -n option. The whole system basically goes down the drain.

I solved it by downloading the 2.1.2.0 driver from Ralink, compiling it and replacing the module (rt2870sta.ko). Do not use the package in the AUR, it's even older than the in-kernel driver.

Curiously, the RT2860 in my EEE is unaffected and works better than ever before.
I know that Greg's patches for the RT2x00 staging drivers were included in .30, maybe they killed the RT2870 driver?

Last edited by Malstrond (2009-06-25 04:54:06)

schuay · 2009-06-25 06:32:25

hi, i'm afraid the 2.1.2.0 driver didn't work for me either - maybe it's a problem with my pkgbuild? here it is:

PKGBUILD:

pkgname=rt2870
pkgver=2.1.2.0
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="Drivers for rt2870 chipset wireless cards"
arch=('i686' 'x86_64')
url="http://www.ralinktech.com/"
license="GPL"
depends=()
install=install.rt2870
source=(2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0.tgz)

build() {

  cd $startdir/src/2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0

  #patch adding support for F5D8053v3
  patch -p2 < $startdir/belkin.patch
  #remove lines containing tftpboot from Makefile
  patch -p2 < $startdir/tftpboot.patch
  
#  sed "s#HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=n#HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y#" -i os/linux/config.mk
#  sed "s#HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=n#HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y#" -i os/linux/config.mk
#  sed "s#dev->nd_net#dev_net(dev)#" -i os/linux/rt_main_dev.c
  
  make || return 1

  cd $startdir/src/2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0/os/linux/
  install -D -m 755 rt2870sta.ko $startdir/pkg/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2870sta.ko

}

the install file only contains "depmod -a".

maybe it's because of the commented sed lines?

anyways, thanks for your reply - glad i'm not the only one with this problem.

Malstrond · 2009-06-25 08:47:24

I did the dirty and manual way.

1. Download 2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0.tgz from Ralink
2. Extract it
3. Open "os/linux/config.mk"
4. Set those two options: "HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y" and "HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y"
5. sudo make
(?) I copied "RT2870STA.dat" to "/etc/Wireless/RT2870STA/RT2870STA.dat" because it's written in the readme but i don't know if that had any effect, the directory didn't even exist
6. Back up "/lib/modules/2.6.30-ARCH/kernel/drivers/staging/rt2870/rt2870sta.ko"
7. Move "os/linux/rt2870sta.ko" in it's place
8. reboot

I didn't apply any of those patches that I'm seeing in your PKGBUILD, the only thing I changed were the options I mentioned in 4., which are applied by the first two commented sed lines. Without them wpa_supplicant can't interact with the driver.

schuay · 2009-06-25 16:59:10

no luck i get

sudo ifconfig ra0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not permitted

rt2870 has gotten lots of cleanup commits right after 2.6.30 came out though, so i'm hoping for some improvement there.
is there some sort of kernel bugtracker where i could check if this has already been reported?

Last edited by schuay (2009-06-25 19:44:37)

Malstrond · 2009-06-25 23:10:20

Hm, maybe it's because yours is from Belkin and the patch that seems to be required to be able to use the driver with it doesn't work anymore. I never needed a patch to run the driver with my Tendnet 624UB.
I'm sorry that I can't help you any further as this issue annoyed me as well. The only thing I know is that the staging driver is based on the 1.8.0.0 version and that Greg wrote many improvements for them.

schuay · 2009-06-26 06:25:30

Malstrond wrote:

Hm, maybe it's because yours is from Belkin and the patch that seems to be required to be able to use the driver with it doesn't work anymore. I never needed a patch to run the driver with my Tendnet 624UB.
I'm sorry that I can't help you any further as this issue annoyed me as well. The only thing I know is that the staging driver is based on the 1.8.0.0 version and that Greg wrote many improvements for them.

The patch only adds a missing device id:

--- src/2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0/include/chip/rt2870.h    2008-09-19 07:23:42.000000000 +0200
+++ src/2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0/include/chip/rt2870.h.new    2009-03-27 20:13:42.000000000 +0100
@@ -104,6 +104,7 @@
     {USB_DEVICE(0x14B2,0x3C07)}, /* AL */            \
     {USB_DEVICE(0x14B2,0x3C12)}, /* AL */           \
     {USB_DEVICE(0x050D,0x8053)}, /* Belkin */        \
+    {USB_DEVICE(0x050D,0x815C)}, /* Belkin */        \
     {USB_DEVICE(0x14B2,0x3C23)}, /* Airlink */        \
     {USB_DEVICE(0x14B2,0x3C27)}, /* Airlink */        \
     {USB_DEVICE(0x07AA,0x002F)}, /* Corega */        \

Which

a) does not work with 2.1.2.0 (no such file), and
b) does not seem to be needed, since ifconfig -a shows ra0 (and it didn't with the old driver without the patch).

If i get any further, I'll post here - until then I guess it's shutdown by pulling the plug

Malstrond · 2009-06-26 11:09:05

As I noticed that the 2.1.2.0 driver enabled 802.11n for my RT2870, I decided to update the driver for the RT2860 in my EEE too instead of using the one in the kernel.
And I ran into the same problem as you did (SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not permitted), but this time I hadn't installed the .dat file. The rt2860 pkgbuild didn't do this either. After I did this manually, it worked.
Maybe you could try to copy the RT2870STA.DAT from the source tarball to /etc/Wireless/RT2870STA/RT2870.STA.

schuay · 2009-06-26 14:59:10

It works! A module requiring files in /etc, ouch..

Here's an updated PKGBUILD

pkgname=rt2870
pkgver=2.1.2.0
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="Drivers for rt2870 chipset wireless cards"
arch=('i686' 'x86_64')
url="http://www.ralinktech.com/"
license="GPL"
depends=()
install=install.rt2870
source=(http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0.tgz)
md5sums=('31ded4a23d5c5546fff596eca5585070')

build() {

  cd $startdir/src/2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0

  #remove lines containing tftpboot from Makefile
  patch -R -p2 < $startdir/tftpboot.patch

  sed "s#HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=n#HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y#" -i os/linux/config.mk
  sed "s#HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=n#HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y#" -i os/linux/config.mk

  make || return 1

  cd $startdir/src/2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0/
  install -D -m 755 os/linux/rt2870sta.ko $startdir/pkg/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2870sta.ko
  install -D -m 644 RT2870STA.dat $startdir/pkg/etc/Wireless/RT2870STA/RT2870STA.dat
}

tftpboot.patch:

--- src/2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0/Makefile    2009-06-13 11:40:33.000000000 +0200
+++ src/2009_0521_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.1.2.0/Makefile.orig       2009-04-23 11:40:40.000000000 +0200
@@ -137,11 +137,11 @@
 ifneq (,$(findstring 2.4,$(LINUX_SRC)))
        cp -f os/linux/Makefile.4 $(RT28xx_DIR)/os/linux/Makefile
        make -C $(RT28xx_DIR)/os/linux/
-       #cp -f $(RT28xx_DIR)/os/linux/rt$(CHIPSET)sta.o /tftpboot
+       cp -f $(RT28xx_DIR)/os/linux/rt$(CHIPSET)sta.o /tftpboot
 else
        cp -f os/linux/Makefile.6 $(RT28xx_DIR)/os/linux/Makefile
        make  -C  $(LINUX_SRC) SUBDIRS=$(RT28xx_DIR)/os/linux modules
-       #cp -f $(RT28xx_DIR)/os/linux/rt$(CHIPSET)sta.ko /tftpboot
+       cp -f $(RT28xx_DIR)/os/linux/rt$(CHIPSET)sta.ko /tftpboot
 endif

Do you want to adopt the AUR package? If not, I'll update it with the adapted PKGBUILD in a bit.

Last edited by schuay (2009-06-26 16:38:34)

Malstrond · 2009-06-26 17:28:14

Um, if I were good with PKGBUILDs i wouldn't have installed the module manually in the first place.

schuay · 2009-06-26 18:19:54

Updated.
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=14558

And filed a kernel bug at: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13638

Last edited by schuay (2009-07-30 20:12:46)

schuay · 2009-07-30 20:12:29

Seems like we will get a fix upstream

http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/7/30/271

Malstrond · 2009-07-30 21:10:29

Nice

pritchard92 · 2009-08-04 23:59:40

Sorry for thread-hijacking. I didnt want to make a new thread, and this was the closest to my needs. My RT2860 PCI card works with the kernel driver. However, iwconfig shows that its running using 802.11G, when the card is capable of N-speeds. How can I enable band-N? The thing is, this is the card in my server, hence wanting the fastest connection I can get. However, it's headless, so if I mess up switching drivers, I'll have to lugg the CRT monitor from the loft down to connect her (named her OldBetty) up and fix it the old way.

Ideas? Will using the RT2860 package from AUR fix this?

EDIT: More info. "iwpriv ra0 driverVer" gives me the driver version, which is "Driver version-1.8.1.1".
Thank you.

EDIT2: OH NO! Just noticed this thread is marked as [solved]! I'm really sorry! If I can remove this post I will. If not, maybe a moderator can? And I'll make a new thread instead. Again, sorry for messing up.

Last edited by pritchard92 (2009-08-05 00:05:27)

schuay · 2009-08-05 08:43:30

Pritchard:

Malstrond wrote:

As I noticed that the 2.1.2.0 driver enabled 802.11n for my RT2870, I decided to update the driver for the RT2860 in my EEE too instead of using the one in the kernel.

pritchard92 · 2009-08-05 14:55:47

Awesome. I'll try the newest drivers from the Ralink website. Wish me luck .
Thanks.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-13 09:20:30

[solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#2 2009-06-25 04:53:23

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#3 2009-06-25 06:32:25

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#4 2009-06-25 08:47:24

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#5 2009-06-25 16:59:10

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#6 2009-06-25 23:10:20

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#7 2009-06-26 06:25:30

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#8 2009-06-26 11:09:05

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#9 2009-06-26 14:59:10

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#10 2009-06-26 17:28:14

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#11 2009-06-26 18:19:54

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#12 2009-07-30 20:12:29

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#13 2009-07-30 21:10:29

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#14 2009-08-04 23:59:40

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#15 2009-08-05 08:43:30

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

#16 2009-08-05 14:55:47

Re: [solved] severe network problems with 2.6.30 and rt2870

Board footer