I have managed to compile and load the module for my LevelOne WNC-0301 USB v3 but I can't enable it.

First, I downloaded rt2500-CVS and it compiled like a charm with a simple "make". Not an error or a warning, and I didn't even had to change anything inside the source. rt2500-1.1.0-b4 wouldn't compile even if I tweaked rt_config.h.

After that I typed as root "make install" and I got an achknowledge that the module was installed successfully:

Typing lsusb gives me:

The file /etc/modprobe.d/ralink has this inside:

So I start to follow the Slackware instructions. First I loaded the module with: modprobe rt2500

No error messages. Then I typed ifconfig ra0 up and got this message:

Then I tired a iwconfig ra0 essid "dlink" which gave me this:

And of course a simple iwconfig ra0 gives me:

Simply typing iwconfig gives me this:

eth0 is my wired Ethernet PCI card which I am using right now.

What am I doing wrong?

If you want to save some headaches, you can just upgrade your kernel
to 2.6.24.x -- it has the rt2500 module in it. And Slackware -current now
has a 2.6.24.3 kernel with rt2500 in it.

Thank you. After reading what you wrote I knew I had a failsafe solution, so I could try things without pressure.

Seeing that kernel 2.6.24 has build-in support for rt2500, I downloaded Slax 6.0.3 and saw that it recognises my Wi-Fi stick right away! I noticed however that it loads rt73 as well. So I went back to serialmonkey.com and grabbed the latest rt73 driver, compiled, and worked like a charm!

There is only one downside though, it uses a firmware binary blob... Anyway, it works and I can experiment a bit.

Thanks!

I didn't think your module was rt2500 with an USB stick, but you said it was, so ...

The rt73 module is in the new kernels, and does not require external firmware:If you upgrade your kernel, you don't need that firmware. Here is my simple
Kernel Rebuild Guide if you need the help.

I tried to upgrade the kernel by downloading:

I did an upgradepkg *.tgz but after re-booting I didn't had any mouse support. Not in pure console nor in X. But I did had support for rt73usb right out of the box ;-)

I tried removing the 2.6.24.4 kernel-related packages and re-installing 2.6.21.5 ones but I interupted the procedure with ctrl-c by mistake and somehow I got things messed up.

If I try to remove kernel-2.6.24.4 or kernel-26.21.5 related files, removepkg tells me:

It doesn't hurt to have those files around but I am curious, what would it take to remove them? I mean in a packager-proper manner, I can always delete them manually.

My first priority though is to find out why I didn't had any mouse support with kernel 2.6.24.4.

I never mess with the kernel headers which were installed with
my system. Either do a complete upgrade to -current, where one
upgrades every package in -current; or rebuild your own kernel.

Since I never upgrade just part of -current, I'm not sure what
upgrading kernel-headers does to your system.

And upgradepkg works both ways ... you can upgrade packages to a
higher version, and downgrade packages to a lower version. What
you should have done after you disliked the "upgradepkg *.tgz"
results with 2.6.24.4 packages, is to put those three packages
for 2.6.21.5 in the path and then used "upgradepkg *.tgz" to go
back to them. Don't use removepkg to upgrade/downgrade a
package of the same name with new/old version numbers.

I always have at least one box running Slackware -current. However,
when I upgrade my kernel, I follow the steps in my guide linked in
post #4. Never upgrade less than all of -current unless you
know precisely what and why you're doing it.

I don't think your removepkg error is anything to worry about. If I understand
it correctly, those links were not removed because they are in a package
which is still installed in your system. At any rate, look at the names.
It doesn't hurt anything to have them in /boot.

My advice to you: backup your system and do a fresh install of -current,
or use my guide and compile your own 2.6.24.4 kernel. I have it running
here with this mouseworking just fine.

You should never replace the kernel headers -- even if you upgrade the kernel, leave the headers alone. glibc and gcc (and other system components) were built against the 2.6.21.5 kernel headers (for Slackware 12.0) and upgrading the headers may cause errors while compiling a program (or other stuff, I'm sure). Bruce Hill gives good advice -- unless you know what you're doing, upgrade either everything or nothing in -current. I think you *should* have only upgraded the actual kernel itself from -current to avoid screwing anything up, but it's really not that hard to compile your own between releases (unless you're sticking with -current throughout the system).

Some software (like the Nvidia drivers) require from me to have the source of the kernel that I run. So if I update the kernel, I need to update the source too.

I have decided to upgrade everything to -current. Should I just download /slackware-current/slackware/* ?

My idea of a plan is:
1. download everything inside that directory from a mirror
2. wipe out all program and system files
3. installpkg every package i downloaded from -current

Or just download an unofficial -current ISO, or re-install 12.0 and wait for 12.1 to come out :-P

How do you upgrade to -current?

Nobody said don't upgrade the source ... we said don't touch the kernel headers. Why don't you look at my guide and just try it one time? If you follow it to rebuild your kernel, you'll have the old one in place and can boot into it if you mess up. You might learn something in the process. And you'll have the kernel source. I actually have about 5 kernels on this box and they all have their source, and each one has a Nvidia driver in it's modules.

I would not recommend upgrading to -current from 12.0. There is just too much that has changed. Others will disagree with me, I'm sure.

In fact, even though I test -current (to the limit of my ability), I always do a fresh install.

There are no -current iso images, but you can use a script to mirror -current and make iso images from your mirror. Check Alien BOB's mirror-slackware-current script.

If you think you can do that, then backup whatever is useful on your system and install a fresh -current system. If not, then wait for Slackware-12.1. It shouldn't be many weeks IMO.

jsmith6, I think your plan will render your system useless, and unless that's what you want, I would suggest reading an awful lot more about upgrading to -current. I'm sure there are threads on these forums, and there are also upgrade instructions on how to go from 12.0 to -current (check the UPGRADE.TXT file in the -current branch of your favourite mirror). You should really know what you're doing if you attempt this.

I can't provide you with any further help since I've never installed -current (I don't have time to test stuff and I prefer stability and security over the latest-and-greatest), but I wish you luck with your system, regardless of whether you install -current or not.

Of course it does need the firmware, but this is no problem since you can download the 2048-byte firmware image from the Ralink website.

The ralink driver in the 2.6.24 kernel series is really buggy (just as mentioned on the serialmonkey website), so I would suggest using the latest 2.6.25 release candidate which does much better with ralink devices (although there is still no support for AdHoc and Monitor modes).

I have been following -current since it went public, and I would have to say that the changes so far have been exceptionally mundane; everything so far has basically been package updates. There were a few minor changes here and there that would require some special attention, but compared to the changes made between 11 and 12, this is absolutely nothing. This is one of the few release cycles were I could honestly say upgrading is going to be a relatively painless process (unless something big happens between now and 12.1, which seems really unlikely).

All you really need to do is follow the UPGRADE.TXT file, which lays out exactly what you need to do for a safe upgrade. As you can see there, everything is pretty straightforward. You should also check out CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT to get some more detailed information on what has actually happened since the last stable release.

With all that said, just building your own kernel is going to be faster and easier than upgrading to 12.1. You should also get a nice boost in performance over using the Slackware "huge" kernels if you optimize for your hardware and strip out things you don't need.

MS3FGX, I hate to say it but your post about "mundane changes" shows some ignorance about what has been happening during the development cycle between 12.0 and 12.1. This is not meant as a troll comment or to insult you - I am just very curious why you have this opinion of slackware-current as I do not share it. Did you actually run slackware-current recently or does your knowledge stem from reading the ChangeLog.txt?
A total of 48 packages were added since Slackware 12.1 which is 5% of the total number of packages. A significant number IMO.
And even by upgrading packages, the functionality of Slackware 12.1 will have been greatly improved over the previous release. The new X.Org packages are much much better than those in Slackware 12.0 for instance.

There is much more to say about this new release of course, but I will leave it to Pat to write the official RELEASE_NOTES file.

People who live outside the US will see improvements in the applicability of Slackware - we have added extended keyboard input methods and a solid set of CJK (Chinese/Japanese/Korean)fonts, so that people in the far East (but not only they!) can use Slackware to read, and write, in their native language.

Lots of tweaks to the Slackware configuration scripts and files will make this upcoming release of Slackware an enjoyable experience </advert> ;-)

Yes, the upgrade from 12.0 to 12.1 will be relatively easy, because an upgrade from 2.4 to 2.6 kernel is not an issue now like it was when Slackware went from 11.0 to 12.0, but that is not to say that this release will not be interesting to many people.

And because the upgrade will be relatively painless, I urge you to do this upgrade today, and explore your system, and report your findings.
The Slackware 12.1 Release Candidate 1 was uploaded today - this is an excellent opportunity to find out if there is anything left to improve before the final 12.1 is released.

Eric

As I said, I have been running -current since the public release; and indeed, have been running/installing from the -current branch for as long as I have used Slackware (I think the last stable release I actually installed was Slack 8).

I don't personally consider package updates (regardless of how many packages have been updated) a serious improvement, but simply a necessity. I am not even sure I subscribe to the concept that updated packages warrant a new stable release, it seems to make more sense that stable releases be reserved for larger functionality updates while individual software updates be pushed out periodically for the current stable.

Personally I feel that Slackware would be better off moving to a yearly stable release supported/supplemented by a stream of (officially sanctioned) software updates. This would free Pat from the rather mundane task of tracking software releases and focus on improving the overall OS. The community has essentially been doing this on it's own with Slackbuilds.org and binary sites like LinuxPackages.net, so why not just adopt the best of them and be done with it (which is essentially what Pat did with GNOME)? Naturally the logistics of this would need considerable debate and revision, but the Slackware userbase as a whole is uncommonly savvy, certainly we could come to some arrangement.

Obviously there are some functionality improvements coming in 12.1, as you said a certain degree is going to come naturally with new software releases (such as greatly improved Bluetooth capabilities with the new BlueZ). Undeniably you put a lot of effort into the CJK support, which is commendable. The addition of PyGTK and friends is definitely welcome, and even the small additions like libwnck (and therefore gtk-window-decorator in compiz) have their place.

But in terms of broad improvements that will benefit a majority of the userbase or otherwise further the overall direction of Slackware development, there isn't much to see. It is hard to argue that 12.1 will be anything but a maintenance release, but then, hasn't that classically been the point of the X.1 release in the first place?

I think your point of view might be different if you were "only" running the stable release and not -current. I used to run -current as well but opted for stability (as in not changing often) over whatever -current was serving up at the moment. I think I burned out on -current while waiting for 11.0 to be released.

The changes between 11 and 12 were significant and, in my opinion, a polished .1 release to iron out the wrinkles was needed regardless of how mundane it may appear on the surface.

We also can't forget that there are people who buy the cd's because they don't have dsl or cable. Fewer than in the past, but they are still out there.

One more point: There are people who use linux that are not comfortable building their own kernel and wait for the next release to get the added functionality that a new kernel provides. This is probably less of an issue with slackware users than with other distros, but I know they are out there because I was one of them 4 years ago.

Just adding a little perspective.