LinuxQuestions.org - ASUS / Ralink dual band USB adapter not coming up as wlan1 (Slackware 2.6.35.10)

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ASUS / Ralink dual band USB adapter not coming up as wlan1 (Slackware 2.6.35.10)

Laptop: Dell Inspiron 7200

This laptop already comes with an intern wireless card:

Intel Corporation WiFi Link 6050 Series 2x2 6050AGN Which works okay with my present Wireless G router. However I just purchased a new ASUS Dual Band wireless N router and wanted to try out the new dual band adapter on my Slackware box.

I cannot access the new adapter via iwconfig however it does show up via lsusb and demsg. Here is what I have to show:

I rebuilt the kernel modules to include those needed for the RaLink chipset. Here is what I have enabled:

Code:

lsmod | grep rt

rt2800usb              10716  0 

rt2800lib              27403  1 rt2800usb

rt2x00usb              7415  2 rt2800usb,rt2800lib

rt2x00lib              26421  2 rt2800lib,rt2x00usb

crc_ccitt              1243  1 rt2800usb

mac80211              153458  4 rt2x00usb,rt2x00lib,iwlagn,iwlcore

cfg80211              142333  4 rt2x00lib,iwlagn,iwlcore,mac80211

usbcore              150489  9 rt2800usb,rt2x00usb,i2400m_usb,usbhid,usb_storage,usb_libusual,uvcvideo,ehci_hcd

I also added a placeholder in rc.inet1.conf setup to hit my present wireless G AP

Code:

IFNAME[2]="wlan1"

IPADDR[2]=""

NETMASK[2]=""

USE_DHCP[2]="yes"

DHCP_HOSTNAME[2]=""

WLAN_MODE[2]=Managed

WLAN_ESSID[2]="MySSID"

WLAN_KEY[2]=MYSSIDKEY

When I plug in the usb adapter or reboot with it already plugged in it is recognized:

Code:

[    5.426371] usb 2-1.4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5

[    5.523665] usb 2-1.4: default language 0x0409

[    5.530322] usb 2-1.4: udev 5, busnum 2, minor = 132

[    5.530326] usb 2-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0b05, idProduct=179d

[    5.532829] usb 2-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3

[    5.535288] usb 2-1.4: Product: 802.11 n WLAN

[    5.537697] usb 2-1.4: Manufacturer: Ralink

[    5.540094] usb 2-1.4: SerialNumber: 1.0

[    5.543084] usb 2-1.4: usb_probe_device

[    5.543090] usb 2-1.4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

[    5.543295] usb 2-1.4: adding 2-1.4:1.0 (config #1, interface 0)

[    5.544763] drivers/usb/core/inode.c: creating file '005'

lsusb will also show it as existing as well:

Code:

Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0b05:179d ASUSTek Computer, Inc.

I can see and scan wlan0 (built-in card) with iwconfig but when I try to use iwconfig on wlan1 I get the following message in /var/log/messages

Code:

Apr 18 14:20:27 caravan logger: /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1:  List of interfaces: 'eth0 wlan0 wlan1 eth3 eth4 eth5'

Apr 18 14:20:27 caravan logger: /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1:  wlan1 interface does not exist (yet)

I am by no means an expert at this so if I can provide any more information that can help please let me know. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Not sure of the chip set on that USB adapter. From this link -->http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...evice_firmware it appears you need firmware for that adapter. Did you install it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by camorri (Post 4657334)

Not sure of the chip set on that USB adapter. From this link -->http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...evice_firmware it appears you need firmware for that adapter. Did you install it?

No I did not but I see I need to. I have used firmware before but it was a long time ago. How do I get the firmware from the link you supplied? Sorry if this seems obvious but I am working through this for the first time in a long time and a lot has changed. I clicked on the link on the driver page that took me to a github location. Then I clicked in the thread marked master and chose the blob link but it did not seem to be the correct thing to do.

Thanks

As far as I know, you click on the 'snapshot' link and it will download a .tar.gz file ( its big ). Inside that file there is a directory rtl_nic and the .fw files for several cards are in there.

The rest should be extracting the file you need, and moving to the correct location in slack.

BTW, I'm not an expert here either.

Hope this helps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by camorri (Post 4657418)

As far as I know, you click on the 'snapshot' link and it will download a .tar.gz file ( its big ). Inside that file there is a directory rtl_nic and the .fw files for several cards are in there.

Found it and installed it but I still get the error message "wlan1 interface does not exist (yet)"

Whatever is responsible for matching up the driver and the hardware insertion event does not seem to be firing correctly or maybe the driver or some other wireless library needs updating. Any ideas ?

thanks

Quote:

rt3572sta

works with the chip set.

Since I'm not an expert at this, I would suggest three possible things to try.

Open a new post, and ask for help to verify you have the correct fireware installed in the correct location.

or

Install a newer kernel, at least 3.1.1 or higher. FWIW, I'm using 3.2.7 on Slack64.

or

Try the driver from Ralink.

One last thought, do you have WICD installed? I found it handy for configuring wireless adapters and wired adapters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by camorri (Post 4657620)

Well, I'm running short on ideas. Did some googling. Found this link.

http://www.wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_USB-N53

This indicates this adapter works with kernel 3.1.1 . The other thing I saw was this driver from Ralink works with the chip set.

Since I'm not an expert at this, I would suggest three possible things to try.

Open a new post, and ask for help to verify you have the correct fireware installed in the correct location.

or

Install a newer kernel, at least 3.1.1 or higher. FWIW, I'm using 3.2.7 on Slack64.

or

Try the driver from Ralink.

One last thought, do you have WICD installed? I found it handy for configuring wireless adapters and wired adapters.

I found that page as well and over in the right side it looked like support was also present in rt2800usb but I may be reading that incorrectly. However you make a great point and I should go ahead and give both of these suggestions a try.

I have 13.1 installed with kernel 2.6.35.10 that I updated a while back and this week rebuilt the modules to include the ralink ones. Hopefully I can go straight to a 3.1.1+ kernel without too much effort.

thanks again for your help

That did it ! I upgraded to kernel version 3.2.15 and I am now able to see and scan with the device.

Thanks again for all of the assistance!