Wireless (the more that things change...)
 

Four years ago, I was running gentoo and it took me a week to get my wireless up, I learned every command line tool in the book but the connection kept cutting in and out anyway. Two years ago, diferent card, again no luck. Now again, new card and guess what, no wireless. I'm not even surprised anymore but it's more than a little frustrating. I've forgotten most of my linux stuff and my days of spending a week to troubleshoot a wirless connection are soooo over. Could anyone help decipher this problem for me before I go crawling back to win7 with my tail between my legs?
It's a gateway nv44 laptop with a RaLink wireless-n card, probably a hundred thousand out there. The module seems to load but network manager will not bring it up.

lsmod | grep rt2:

rt2800pci 8093 0
rt2800lib 19972 1 rt2800pci
rt2x00usb 7405 1 rt2800lib
rt2x00pci 4867 1 rt2800pci
crc_ccitt 1217 1 rt2800pci
rt2x00lib 29068 4 rt2800pci,rt2800lib,rt2x00usb,rt2x00pci
mac80211 163442 3 rt2x00usb,rt2x00pci,rt2x00lib
cfg80211 97351 2 rt2x00lib,mac80211
eeprom_93cx6 1207 1 rt2800pci

/var/log/messages:

Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) starting connection '******'
Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 3 -> 4 (reason 0)
Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 4 -> 5 (reason 0)
Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): access point '******' has security, b
ut secrets are required.
Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 5 -> 6 (reason 0)
Aug 11 18:25:31 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 6 -> 4 (reason 0)
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 4 -> 5 (reason 0)
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): connection '******' has security, and secrets exist. No new secrets needed.
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Config: added 'ssid' value '******'
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK'
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Config: added 'psk' value '<omitted>'
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Aug 11 18:25:32 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: inactive -> scanning
Aug 11 18:25:36 newton kernel: CIFS VFS: Unexpected lookup error -112
Aug 11 18:25:56 newton kernel: CIFS VFS: No response for cmd 162 mid 48595
Aug 11 18:25:57 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <warn> Activation (wlan0/wireless): association took too long.
Aug 11 18:25:57 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 5 -> 6 (reason 0)
Aug 11 18:25:57 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <warn> Activation (wlan0/wireless): asking for new secrets
Aug 11 18:25:57 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: scanning -> disconnected
Aug 11 18:26:02 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 6 -> 9 (reason 7)
Aug 11 18:26:02 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <warn> Activation (wlan0) failed for access point (stofeganet)
Aug 11 18:26:02 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> Marking connection 'stofeganet' invalid.
Aug 11 18:26:02 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <warn> Activation (wlan0) failed.
Aug 11 18:26:02 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 9 -> 3 (reason 0)
Aug 11 18:26:02 newton NetworkManager[1198]: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 0).


tia for the help.

Hi mulebreath, Welcome to LQ. I believe that device needs firmware. Have a look here.

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/...0pci#rt2800pci

Thanks Peacedog. Is there any link you know of to get instructions on how to install this in Fedora, the Ralink site doesn't have anything?

What version of linux are you using?
what is the output of lspci if it is a pci card? there are many different versions of chip sets for the Ralink wireless.

What version of linux are you using?
what is the output of lspci if it is a pci card? there are many different versions of chip sets for the Ralink wireless.

sorry for the double post, network went down for a while!

Sure... from the lspci output, the card is a RaLink RT2860 and I'm using Fedora 13. thx

I had to enable the rpmfusion repo and update the driver and presto...

http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=197413

Thanks for the help guys.

Glad you got it sorted!

Good luck. ;-)

That's great, glad you got it going, you have probably noticed that wireless is much easier now than 4 years ago. I have this exact chip set on a Ununtu, Backtrack4 & Slackware & haven't had any problems installing.