RT2500 wireless HOWTO

I decided to write this howto in order to prevent or, maybe, limit the number of postings on this subject. as the number grows it becomes harder and harder to find domething relevant on the subject, so, write somethinf only if you can't fint a posted answer please

th howto referes to th Ralink 2500 wireless chipset, a chipset wich i personally got as an integrated wireless on an Averatec 3200 laptop.

1. get the CVS driver snapshot from sourceforge.
2. install the source for your current kernel.
3. if you cant find the source for your current kernel compile a kernel from sources (i'l provide the .config file for the 2.6.11 wich works fine on my laptop if you need it(sorry if it doesn't work on yours))
4. extract the CVS tarball.
5. go into the directory where you extraxted the files
6. go to 'Module' directory
7. 'make', (for some snapshots maybe necessary to do a './configure' first if you use the 2.4 series kernel, or a 'make -C /complete path to the linux kernel SUBDIRS=$PWD modules' if you use a 2.6.series kernel)
8. go to 'Utilitys' directory
9. 'qmake -o Makefile raconfig2500.pro
10. make
11. cp RaConfig2500 /bin
12. go to /etc/rc.d/rc.local
13. open it in the editor
14. add to it 'insmod /complete path to the module/rt2500.ko' (rt2500.o if you use a 2.4 kernel)
15. add to it 'ifconfig ra0 up'
16 add to it 'dhcpcd ra0'
17. save the modified 'rc.local'
18. reboot
19. after reboot you should be able to use your wireless network (for me it wors fine on Mandrake 10.1 and Slackware 10.1)
20. if you whant you can lauch the configuration utility tiping in a console "RaConfig2500"

for questions mail to s_nicu2@yahoo.com

To save this thread being buried in amongst all the other threads, why not submit this as a Tutorial.

I got the RT2500 drivers to work ok even on the last release - the problem comes when you try and use WPA - it causes system hangs (both using the Utility and writing the DAT file) - works fine with WEP or no encryption.
Ended up using Ndiswrapper and wpa_supplament where I can get WPA working ok.....

Since, posting and with the pointers to the manu site discovered the drivers, but did not load them as, I have found on Mandrake 10.2 amd64 Beta 1, that it does not detect the card, but if you go to Network
Lan Manual configure driver the card is listed and does now work.

I have not tried wpa but have noted that this has been corrected in the source files of the latest driver, but I am not sure how to make the driver from the source code and how to get mandrake to list the new driver version.

Thanks for your help everyone,

Originally posted by The_JinJ I got the RT2500 drivers to work ok even on the last release - the problem comes when you try and use WPA - it causes system hangs (both using the Utility and writing the DAT file) - works fine with WEP or no encryption. Ended up using Ndiswrapper and wpa_supplament where I can get WPA working ok.....

Where do you get the wpa-supplement from, in case I have problems with WPA?

qoute;
7. 'make', (for some snapshots maybe necessary to do a './configure' first if you use the 2.4 series kernel, or a 'make -C /complete path to the linux kernel SUBDIRS=$PWD modules' if you use a 2.6.series kernel)

Sorry to be so stupid, but what the exact command be for the 2.6 kernel in Mandrake 10.2? (RC2)

AkBrian

I just got WPA-preshared key to work with the sourceforge CVS of April 9, 2005. I had to use the RaConfig2500 utility to set the WPA-PSK, using the Mandrake wireless config utility to set the key would cause the network to disconnect. (of course I tried the MDK solution a dozen times before fiquiring this out.) Also, I initially did'nt think to copy the RaConfig2500 binary from /usr/src/rt2500-cvs-20050409/Utilitys to /usr/bin .

I've written a guide for installing the native linux driver for rt2500 on Ubuntu linux, including wpa support. It's written so that even a noob could handle it.

the guide is available at http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/Rt25...lessCardsHowTo

Thanks for the post, very simple easy way to get the damn thing working, the wiki is nice for adding all the extras I find.

sorry to bring up an old post, but where can i get qmake?

Oh i missed this - i just posted something new asking about rt2500 and Slackware10.1
Although i have done escatly as noted except didnt bother with the configuration utility as i prefer to use the wireless tools. My device is however a DLINK dwl-122 USB adaptor w. Ralink rt25xx chip..
I also did not choose the same driver as you. i went for the plain source. I will giive this a go and see what happens . cheers

ive been screwed by zonet. i have a hidden revision of the ralink chips! i cracked open the pci adapter to see why it wasnt working. i have rt2561 chips. is there a way to make this work on pclinuxos or another distro?