wireless problem with rt2870sta module in debian lenny

ufosnorkis · 08-16-2010, 01:31 PM

Hey

I'm trying to get my D-link wireless n USB mini adapter DWA-140 to work in debian lenny.

from the debian wiki I have found that the rt2870sta module should make this possible, so I followed the installation guide on:

http://wiki.debian.org/rt2870sta

when I get to step 5 without complains also did

Code:

sudo modprobe rt2870sta

which gives no output (I'm assume that's good)

but when I do sudo iwconfig I get:

Code:

sudo iwconfig 
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

Code:

 sudo ifconfig wlan0
wlan0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

my /etc/network/interfaces:

Code:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
        address 192.168.0.10
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        wireless-channel x
        wireless-essid name
        wireless-mode ad-hoc

(trying to connect to a setup wireless access point)

I have tried to blacklist the rt2800usb (also with modprobe -r rt2800usb)

when doing sudo dmesg I get: (only the end of the output, which is all that is related to this device as far as I can see)

Code:

[    6.884038] phy0 -> rt2800usb_init_eeprom: Error - Invalid RT chipset detected.
[    6.884088] phy0 -> rt2x00lib_probe_dev: Error - Failed to allocate device.
[    6.884191] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2800usb
[    7.934293] hda_codec: ALC880: BIOS auto-probing.
[    7.935386] input: HDA Digital PCBeep as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/input/input6
[    9.811330] Adding 2650684k swap on /dev/sda5.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:2650684k 
[   10.362165] EXT3 FS on sda1, internal journal
[   10.719341] loop: module loaded
[   12.749648] e1000e 0000:02:00.0: irq 26 for MSI/MSI-X
[   12.804170] e1000e 0000:02:00.0: irq 26 for MSI/MSI-X
[   12.804834] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   14.418560] e1000e: eth0 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: RX/TX
[   14.418568] 0000:02:00.0: eth0: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
[   14.419032] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[   15.525298] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[   15.676504] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[   24.196462] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[   24.243507] pci 0000:00:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[   24.243514] pci 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   24.246662] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20080730 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
[   36.804009] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[   48.616324] CPUFREQ: Per core ondemand sysfs interface is deprecated - up_threshold
[   48.617442] CPUFREQ: Per core ondemand sysfs interface is deprecated - ignore_nice_load
[  253.091713] rt2870sta: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[  253.100597] rtusb init --->
[  253.100648] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2870
[ 1546.801023] usbcore: deregistering interface driver rt2800usb

lsusb gives:

Code:

Bus 005 Device 004: ID 07d1:3c0a D-Link System DWA-140 RangeBooster N Adapter(rev.B2) [Ralink RT2870]

I have no clue what to do next, does someone know??
grateful for all help.

Sofie

serafean · 08-16-2010, 04:40 PM

it seems to me you still have a driver conflict : if your dmesg output is from the try where you blacklisted the rt2800usb module, then blacklist it again , since its there, also check the firmware if its installed(make sure its unloaded before loading rt2870sta). I'm using rt2870sta right now, but I remember the performance (works/doesn' work) varied greatly between kernel versions. the latest (2.6.34 works good).

Serafean

ufosnorkis · 08-18-2010, 10:26 AM

Problem solved, thanks for the tip anyway.

Turned out I was using the wrong drivers, should use rt3070 not rt 2870

Following the guid on:

http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/dwa-140&ei=zjhAS7OxJIfEsQPYg9nGBA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CBgQ7gEwBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3D07d1:3c0a%26hl%3Den

it all works fine (yes it is in france, which I don't know either, but I could follow it anyway :-))

some notes for others that want to do the same:

when unpacking the downloaded file:
tar -xvjf 2009_1110_RT3070_Linux_STA_v2.1.2.0.tar.bz2
cd 2009_1110_RT3070_Linux_STA_v2.1.2.0

the resulting file is also a tar that needs to be renamed and unpacked, when doing so you get the directory as described in the guid.

The device lines that are described to be in os/linux/usb_main_dev.c
I found in common/rtusb_dev_id.c but the required rows were already included.

after the installation and restart of networking, I had to bring the wireless interface up in three steps to get in to connect correctly with dhcp:

1. ifconfig ra0 up
2. iwconfig ra0 essid name
3. ifup ra0

added these steps in the /etc/network/interface file:

Code:

auto ra0
iface ra0 inet dhcp
        pre-up /sbin/ifconfig ra0 up             
        pre-up /sbin/iwconfig ra0 essid name
        wireless-essid name

This is probably not the best way to handle the configuration, but it works. I have no clue why it's not enough to specify the essid row.
If someone has a better/more correct way of doing this, pleas let me know.