RT2860sta drivers

ianw99 · 2009-06-06 08:22:13

Hi, just finished installing Arch on my main computer, finally I can say goodbye to windows...

I have a RT2860 chipset wireless 802.11n card which I've setup up using netcfg on WPA and everything is working OK except that the bit rate is 54MBPS instead of the 300 or so I was expecting. I do have a 802.11n router so it should work as far as I can see.

I'm using the RT2860sta driver which is a part of the 2.6.29-ARCH kernel but was wondering if I need to download and install the driver from elsewhere.

I'm not sure how to find out what version of the driver is being used by the kernel.

I will be getting on with installing the downloaded driver but its new territory for me so not sure how hard it is.

If anyone know what I need to know I'd appreciate the help.

Thanks

iphitus · 2009-06-06 09:04:49

This driver is pretty new, so it's not quite standard yet and does things it's own way. I had one minor issue with the driver in 2.6.29, however the one in 2.6.30rc7 works fine for me. If your current version gives you trouble, you can try a newer one but it shouldnt be necessary[1].

You can tell it to operate in N only mode with this:

iwpriv ra0 set WirelessMode=6

There is a list of options in a file called iwpriv_usage.txt located in the newer driver linked above. They _should_ work for the 2.6.29 driver though. Another configuration that might be useful is PSMode which sets the powersaving mode.

Cheers,
James

[1]http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drive … .1.2.0.tgz

Last edited by iphitus (2009-06-06 09:22:26)

hyness · 2009-06-06 15:34:04

This driver was one of the motivating factors for me to try Arch Linux (which I love btw), and now it's the last thing I need to get straightened out. I had this working in Ubuntu 8.10 and Fedora 10, but the distros where this driver is included in the kernel give me the same problem as ianw99, it connects fine, but always at 54mbs. The ironic thing is the driver I had working in Ubuntu and Fedora is the same AFAIK as the staging driver in the kernel, 1.8.0.0.

iphitus, could you explain in a little more detail how to use that iwpriv command? I ran it as sudo, and then used the networkmanager applet to disable and reenable wireless, but it still connected at 54mbs. I have been struggling with this wireless driver for far too long. Also, I tried to edit the PKGBUILD for the ralink driver on the AUR to install the 2.1.2.0 driver you linked before, but I could never get it to work. I'm not sure if I edited the existing PKGBUILD on the AUR correctly, but I have cretaed a couple other PKGBUIDS fine for libirman and lirc.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Last edited by hyness (2009-06-06 15:35:23)

Malstrond · 2009-06-06 21:00:43

Sadly, this is a bit more complicated. Here is what I learned through my own resarch (or rather the part I understood):
As far as i know, the first Ralink driver that supported the 2860 was 1.7.0.0. Of course, there were bugs: First, the module had to be compiled for using either WEP or WPA - it wasn't possible to change that afterwards (sometimes neither would work). Ralink released a fix in 1.7.1.1. But then Ralink went "Fuck this shit" and all subsequent drivers they released from 1.8.0.0 onward are missing this patch (that includes the 2.1.2.0 driver you tried to use). The patch was "ported" to the 1.8.0.0 driver, changing the name to 1.8.1.1. The fix is currently included in the RT2860STA in the 2.6.30 kernel. Many distributions applied this patch to their 2.6.29 kernels, keeping the name at 1.8.0.0 - i think the Arch devs did this too - which means the 1.8.0.0 driver in your 2.6.29-ARCH kernel might not the same as the 1.8.0.0 you can get from Ralink (even the versions released by Ralink and called "1.8.0.1" or 1.8.1.1" do not include this fix).

However, there is a second problem: If an access point offers two or more security protocols the driver can't connect. When using WPA, there is TKIP and CCMP (called "AES" by most routers as it uses AES as it's cipher). WPA1 uses only TKIP on most routers, so connecting works, but WPA2 offers CCMP but also TKIP, letting the client choose - which causes the driver to fail during authentication. However, most routers run something similar to a "WPA1/WPA2 mixed mode" if you select "WPA2" and fall back to only offering WPA1 and TKIP if a presumed legacy device fails during authentication, which caues the authentication to work again.
Only a few routers offer the option to select WPA2 using only CCMP. My router does, i was able to reproduce this behavior (WPA1 works, WPA2+ TKIP only works, WPA2+ CCMP only works, WPA2+ TKIP and CCMP fails) But i learned something else too: Using WPA2 with TKIP only (or WPA1 only) caused a Windows notebook with an Intel 5300AGN to fall back to 802.11g too, so this might be related to not being able to use 802.11n.

I can also set my router to accept only 802.11n sessions, when doing this i haven't been able to connect with a RT2860 using Linux no matter what i did - maybe the 1.8.x.x tree doesn't support 802.11n, but i haven't seen a patch fixing the issue I mentioned in the first paragraph for any newer version.

I do not know if the patch is even related to second issue, or if it is included in the AUR package.

Last edited by Malstrond (2009-06-06 21:47:54)

ianw99 · 2009-06-07 06:22:29

Hi everyone, thanks for the advice, in particular to iphitus. I apologise in advance for the lack of a concise methodology for this, but

I tried

iwpriv ra0 set WirelessMode=6

which didn't seem to effect the bit rate reported by iwconfig so I downloaded the driver from ralink and worked my way through the make process. I built everything and started to install the driver getting as far as the wpa_supplicant part which I realised I hadn't set up yet. ( again not sure why my existing connection works on WPA without this, but thats another mystery to be solved)

Anyway, it being rather late I went to bed without success. Frustratingly, this morning iwconfig is now reporting a connection speed of 270Mbps on ra0.

All I can conclude is that I did something last night which made it work and I didn't notice, or there is indeed a linux fairy who has been working hard in my absence.

I think there is more to this though, download speeds don't seem all that fast, more or less the same as before and the link quality reported by iwconfig is about 60% where it was better than that before.

Will do more research and let you know if I get anywhere.

I do find that not knowing stuff can be a real hinderance...

DarksideEE7 · 2009-07-02 00:40:48

I too am having trouble with this card.........I just bought it last night and it's working beautifully..............except it's in 54 Mb/s mode

I don't have the rt2860sta.dat file in place....looking into that right now. I've configured wireless using netcfg network profiles and wpa_supplicant. I just need 300 Mb/s working and I'll be happy. the iwpriv code shown in the first few posts didn't do the trick either.

Any ideas on what you did to fix it OP? Anyone else? Thanks

DarksideEE7 · 2009-07-02 03:51:48

Well I set my access point to broadcast on 802.11n and now the card won't connect at all..........I guess I can try installing the driver from their website.

ianw99 · 2009-07-02 07:03:51

Hi, I just downloaded the new driver, installed it and did the iwpriv ra0 set WirelessMode=6 and its currently working at about 270mb/s. I have the same setup as you using netcfg, which won't disconnect sometimes which is weird but better than it not connecting I think.

If you need to see any of my config files or anything, just ask.

DeeCodeUh · 2009-10-08 19:06:46

ianw99 Care to share some configuration files? I could really use them.

ianw99 · 2009-10-08 21:02:50

Sure, tell me what you want, its been a while since I did anything with them so can't remember exactly where everything is.

Just installed Ubuntu for a try and I'm back to 54mbps, so will be having a go at sorting it again when I get a minute. Still have Arch installed with all working config files though.

DeeCodeUh · 2009-10-08 21:04:05

Anything you think would be important to get it working would be great.

iphitus · 2009-10-08 22:29:02

You shouldnt need to use the config files. Eventually they'll stop working. You're better off working on a wpa_supplicant based configuration.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-06 08:22:13

RT2860sta drivers

#2 2009-06-06 09:04:49

Re: RT2860sta drivers

#3 2009-06-06 15:34:04

Re: RT2860sta drivers

#4 2009-06-06 21:00:43

Re: RT2860sta drivers

#5 2009-06-07 06:22:29

Re: RT2860sta drivers

#6 2009-07-02 00:40:48

Re: RT2860sta drivers

#7 2009-07-02 03:51:48

Re: RT2860sta drivers

#8 2009-07-02 07:03:51

Re: RT2860sta drivers

#9 2009-10-08 19:06:46

Re: RT2860sta drivers

#10 2009-10-08 21:02:50

Re: RT2860sta drivers

#11 2009-10-08 21:04:05

Re: RT2860sta drivers

#12 2009-10-08 22:29:02

Re: RT2860sta drivers

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