RaLink rt2500 chipset pci card problems in my Ubuntu 6.06

djzanni · 08-26-2006, 09:38 AM

Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) is supposed to recognize cards using the rt2500 chipset automatically. I bought such a card precisely for this reason, so that I could get off of my current card with which I have to use ndiswrapper.

The problem I get is that the card looks like it should be working. It is present in the network setup gui and I can set the ESSID and such. And the output makes it look like it should be working as well. Nevertheless, it will not connect to anything. I can't even ping my router. So something strange is going on.

I have tried "modprobe -r ndiswrapper" and "modprobe rt2500", but I still get the same result.

I have also tried putting in the Ubuntu 6.06 boot/install CD, and I get basically the same problem and the same output.

Below is the output of several relevant commands. Notice that the "iwlist scan" command indicates that it is at least seeing my router.

Code:

dave@ubuntu:lspci | grep ralink

0000:01:09.0 Network controller: RaLink: Unknown device 0301

dave@ubuntu:iwconfig

ra0       RT61 Wireless  ESSID:"motorola 414"  
          Mode:Auto  Frequency:11 MHz  Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Link Quality=34/70  Signal level:-121 dBm  Noise level:-108 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

dave@ubuntu:iwlist scan

ra0       Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:0C:E5:4E:D4:14
                    Mode:Managed
                    ESSID:"motorola 414"
                    Encryption key:off
                    Channel:11

dave@ubuntu:ifconfig


lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:12348 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:12348 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:5236304 (4.9 MiB)  TX bytes:5236304 (4.9 MiB)

ra0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:06:F4:0D:32:68  
          inet6 addr: fe80::206:f4ff:fe0d:3268/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:12451 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:754 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:1087944 (1.0 MiB)  TX bytes:200 (200.0 b)
          Interrupt:201

Thanks in advance for your help. Cheers, ~djZanni

beagle2 · 08-26-2006, 09:52 AM

The rt2500 is supported - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...r/RalinkRT2500 may help.

rickh · 08-26-2006, 10:11 AM

Find your "Network Manager" gui, and see if you may just need to activate the card.

djzanni · 08-26-2006, 01:04 PM

Beagle2, I have consulted the referenced ubuntu help page on the rt2500. You will notice that it says that Ubuntu 6.06 should just plug and play.

rickh, I use the System >> Administration >> Networking gui and, when ra0 appears I activate it (after setting the ESSID in preferences). I does activate (though it takes a while -- maybe 5 minutes), but then I still can't connect to anything.

Thanks,

~djZanni

beagle2 · 08-26-2006, 01:25 PM

Anyway what's the output of lsmod and lspci -v?

whereverjustice · 08-27-2006, 09:41 PM

Are you using WEP? If so, check that your key is working in the right format.

I had a very similar problem to you, and it was because my key was set in ASCII when it should have been hex.

djzanni · 08-28-2006, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whereverjustice

Are you using WEP? If so, check that your key is working in the right format.

I had a very similar problem to you, and it was because my key was set in ASCII when it should have been hex.

No, I'm not using WEP or any sort of encryption, so that shouldn't be the issue. Thanks, though.

~daveZ

djzanni · 08-28-2006, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beagle2

Anyway what's the output of lsmod and lspci -v?

Sorry for the delay on getting back to you. One of my hard drives crashed and so I'd been dealing with that (everything's repaired now).

So last night before I went to bed I plugged in the RaLink card so that I could get the lsmod and lspci -v output. Unfortunately, I'm finding it difficult to boot the machine when I have the new card in there. Of course I booted successfully before, but I've since forgotten how I did it (I think maybe I deleted the "auto wlan" line in /etc/networking/interfaces (or whatever it is) ). Didn't have time to try it again last night.

I can tell you that from a fresh, successful boot, lsmod would show ndiswrapper but not rt2500. At least, that's what I was getting when I could boot successfully.

In any case, I thought that it might be productive to tell you what happens when I try to boot with the RaLink card plugged into my machine. It hangs on the "setting up network interface" (or whatever the phrase is). I think I have to type CNTL+C pretty much every time to get it to skip that step and move on with the rest of the boot. When I get to the login prompt and input my login and password, it goes to a blank screen (not black, but Ubuntu brown). The color you get just before little window pops up and shows all of your stuff loading. I don't get that window. It just freezes on the brown screen.

My gut tells me that there's a conflict with Ndiswrapper. But of course I'm not sure. I've tried inserting "modprobe -r ndiswrapper" and "modprobe rt2500" into /etc/rc.local, but it doesn't seem to work. My guess is rc.local doesn't get read early enough in the boot process to do me any good.

Anyway, maybe that'll give you some ideas. When I get home tonight (I'm at work now) I'll get the lspci -v info. Even if I can't boot normally, I'll at least be able to boot with the Ubuntu CD.

Thanks,
~daveZ

beagle2 · 08-28-2006, 12:10 PM

Ok just wondering the significance of ra0 RT61 Wireless in your iwconfig . Think your on the right track with the conflict thing tho. As for the hanging at the setting up interfaces thing, mine does that as well sometimes and I've removed all other interfaces except wlan0 - ndiswrapper and 6.06 with tne acx module blacklisted (acx111 chipset).

djzanni · 08-28-2006, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beagle2

Ok just wondering the significance of ra0 RT61 Wireless in your iwconfig . Think your on the right track with the conflict thing tho. As for the hanging at the setting up interfaces thing, mine does that as well sometimes and I've removed all other interfaces except wlan0 - ndiswrapper and 6.06 with tne acx module blacklisted (acx111 chipset).

So how do you remove interfaces and blacklist modules? ~daveZ

djzanni · 08-28-2006, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beagle2

Ok just wondering the significance of ra0 RT61 Wireless in your iwconfig .

Oh yeah... Maybe the RT61 thing is because my card is the Zonet ZEW1601 (as opposed to the ZEW1600). Just a guess.

~daveZ

beagle2 · 08-28-2006, 02:39 PM

To blacklist modules add them to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist , interfaces are in /etc/network/interfaces so I just # out unneeded ones. Was interested in the rt61 because there is a version of your card that uses rt61 module not the rt2500. lspci should tell us tho :-)

djzanni · 08-28-2006, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beagle2

Anyway what's the output of lsmod and lspci -v?

Ok. I booted my machine using the Ubuntu CD and got some output from lsmod and lspci -v. Here it is:

lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
ext3                  135688  1 
jbd                    58772  1 ext3
rfcomm                 40216  0 
l2cap                  26244  5 rfcomm
bluetooth              49892  4 rfcomm,l2cap
ipv6                  265600  6 
ppdev                   9220  0 
lp                     11844  0 
cpufreq_userspace       4696  0 
cpufreq_stats           5636  0 
freq_table              4740  1 cpufreq_stats
cpufreq_powersave       1920  0 
cpufreq_ondemand        6428  0 
cpufreq_conservative     7332  0 
video                  16260  0 
tc1100_wmi              6916  0 
sony_acpi               5644  0 
pcc_acpi               12416  0 
hotkey                 11556  0 
dev_acpi               11140  0 
container               4608  0 
button                  6672  0 
acpi_sbs               19980  0 
battery                 9988  1 acpi_sbs
i2c_acpi_ec             5120  1 acpi_sbs
ac                      5252  1 acpi_sbs
af_packet              22920  4 
dm_mod                 58936  1 
md_mod                 72532  0 
snd_emu10k1_synth       7296  0 
snd_emux_synth         37376  1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_seq_virmidi         7680  1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_midi_emul       7168  1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_dummy           3844  0 
snd_seq_oss            33536  0 
snd_seq_midi            9376  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      7552  3 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                51984  9 snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi_emul,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_emu10k1           117156  2 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_ac97_codec         92704  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_bus            2304  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss            53664  0 
snd_mixer_oss          18688  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                89864  3 snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_mpu401              6728  0 
snd_mpu401_uart         7808  1 snd_mpu401
snd_rawmidi            25504  4 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi,snd_emu10k1,snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device          8716  8 snd_emu10k1_synth,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_timer              25220  3 snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc         10632  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem            4608  2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep               9376  2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd                    55268  17 snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_mpu401,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
rt61                  223616  1 
psmouse                36228  0 
analog                 12320  0 
emu10k1_gp              3840  0 
gameport               15496  3 analog,emu10k1_gp
serio_raw               7300  0 
rtc                    13492  0 
parport_pc             35780  1 
parport                36296  3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
soundcore              10208  1 snd
nvidia_agp              8348  1 
i2c_nforce2             6912  0 
pcspkr                  2180  0 
shpchp                 45632  0 
floppy                 62148  0 
agpgart                34888  1 nvidia_agp
i2c_core               21904  2 i2c_acpi_ec,i2c_nforce2
pci_hotplug            29236  1 shpchp
tsdev                   8000  0 
evdev                   9856  1 
squashfs               44980  1 
unionfs                89884  1 
loop                   17288  2 
nls_cp437               5888  1 
isofs                  37688  1 
usbhid                 38368  0 
ide_generic             1536  0 
ohci1394               35124  0 
ieee1394              299832  1 ohci1394
ohci_hcd               21892  0 
usbcore               129668  3 usbhid,ohci_hcd
ide_cd                 33028  1 
cdrom                  38560  1 ide_cd
ide_disk               17664  5 
generic                 5124  0 
amd74xx                15132  0 [permanent]
sata_nv                 9604  0 
libata                 78992  1 sata_nv
aic7xxx               183124  0 
scsi_transport_spi2    24960  1 aic7xxx
scsi_mod              139496  3 libata,aic7xxx,scsi_transport_spi2
thermal                13576  0 
processor              23360  1 thermal
fan                     4868  0 
capability              5000  0 
commoncap               7296  1 capability
vga16fb                13704  1 
vgastate               10368  1 vga16fb
fbcon                  42784  72 
tileblit                2816  1 fbcon
font                    8320  1 fbcon
bitblit                 6272  1 fbcon
softcursor              2304  1 bitblit

and lspci -v (excerpted):

Code:

0000:01:09.0 Network controller: RaLink: Unknown device 0301
	Subsystem: RaLink: Unknown device 2561
	Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 32, IRQ 201
	Memory at e4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]
	Capabilities: <available only to root>

Incidentally, wireless stuff--ndiswrapper included--seems to result in wierd stuff in general. For example, When I reboot my machine without having removed the windows driver (ndiswrapper -e mrv8k51) it will fail to boot. I used to get a failed error about xorg not working, and lately it seems to be telling me about a failed hard disk. I don't know. It's very confusing. To fix it I have to boot into an old kernel, and ndiswrapper -e mrv8k51, then reboot.

I also tried just now to blacklist ndiswrapper, disable other devices in /etc/network/interfaces, and boot with my new wireless card.

I got some errors in boot and it said that ndiswrapper driver loaded blah blah. So it didn't seem to work--ndiswrapper seemed to load despite the blacklist. So maybe it's listed somewhere else. Revealingly, the second time I booted (this time with my old wireless card) it said there was a failed link to ndiswrapper. But when everything loaded, lsmod showed ndiswrapper. So basically I'm really confused.

Anyway, hope this gives you some ideas. Thanks for the help.

~daveZ

beagle2 · 08-28-2006, 08:45 PM

Ok as far as I can tell you have rt61 module loaded and as I mentioned Zonet ZEW1601 can use that driver or the rt2500 depending on the version. RaLink: Unknown device 0301 does appear in some posts and it is for the rt61 chipset. Don't know if you dual boot but if so then word search /WINDOWS/setupapi.log for wireless or ralink and see which driver used. Try rmmod rt61 and use ndiswrapper with the windows driver. Ralink do have a linux driver and there is a link from here http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/RalinkDrivers . Don't know where that rt61 came from in your lsmod tho - didn't realise Ubuntu included it! You would't add ndiswrapper to the blacklist because you've added it to /etc/modprobe.d, just kernel modules that are included by default that you don't want loaded. It's late here so hope that helped.

Edit: rt61 IS included in 6.06 - if it doesn't work on it's own then rmmod that and try ndiswrapper with your windows driver. Failing that rmmod the rt61 and try the rt2500 as that's what you originally thought it was - clutching at straws here.

djzanni · 08-29-2006, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beagle2

Ok as far as I can tell you have rt61 module loaded and as I mentioned Zonet ZEW1601 can use that driver or the rt2500 depending on the version. RaLink: Unknown device 0301 does appear in some posts and it is for the rt61 chipset. Don't know if you dual boot but if so then word search /WINDOWS/setupapi.log for wireless or ralink and see which driver used. Try rmmod rt61 and use ndiswrapper with the windows driver. Ralink do have a linux driver and there is a link from here http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/RalinkDrivers . Don't know where that rt61 came from in your lsmod tho - didn't realise Ubuntu included it! You would't add ndiswrapper to the blacklist because you've added it to /etc/modprobe.d, just kernel modules that are included by default that you don't want loaded. It's late here so hope that helped.

Edit: rt61 IS included in 6.06 - if it doesn't work on it's own then rmmod that and try ndiswrapper with your windows driver. Failing that rmmod the rt61 and try the rt2500 as that's what you originally thought it was - clutching at straws here.

OK. Thanks for the help. It's super frustrating because I got the Zonet card specifically because it had the rt2500 chipset which I heard worked with Ubuntu well. I mistakenly thought it ONLY had the rt2500 chipset. My intention was to get off of ndiswrapper since it seems always to cause my machine problems.

Apropos, after I posted last night I decided to change my xorg.conf file to reflect the nvidia driver. I had changed it to the default nv driver because the nvidia driver seemed to be malfunctioning when combined with ndiswrapper. In any case, when I booted after the change, I got an "ndiswrapper insertion error". "Crap", I said, and replaced my xorg.conf file again with the default nv driver... To no avail. I'm still getting an ndiswrapper insertion error. Argh!

I'm at work now and will try to find time to troubleshoot tonight. Maybe I didn't actually remove my ndiswrapper line from the blacklist file. I thought I did, but maybe I didn't. Anyway thanks for your help. I'm probably just going to buy another card that I'm sure sure sure will work without ndiswrapper. (Any suggestions?)

Thanks,
~djZanni