Can't get Level One 0301/RALink 2561 to work
 

To get to know Linux better, I've installed SUSE 9.2 Professional on a machine that previously ran XP successfully. The Level One 3010 WLAN card (which appears to have the RALink 2561 chipset) isn't recognized by the kernel. I tried to install ndiswrapper as suggested on:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawik...elOne_WNC-0301
but the make couldn't find gcc. I also tried to follow the instructions at:
http://www.physics.nmt.edu/~rsonnenf...ink-2561-rt61/
but make returned the messsges:
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.18.2-34-obj/i386/default'
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `modules'. Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.18.2-34-obj/i386/default'
make: *** [all] Error 2
Following the suggestions in another thread in this forum, I tried to find out whether the header files/source were installed. Then I tried to installed the kernel-source and kernel-syms packages only to discover that /usr/src/linux-<kernel-version> didn't exist after the rpm and that the sources appeared to be installed in /usr/src/packages/SOURCES but since I don't know exactly what to look for, I can't swear to it. I also tried a cloneconfig but that too failed with:
No rule to make target 'cloneconfig'
I admit I am baffled by the Unix file system. I have no idea where things are supposed to be so I suppose that something is at the wrong location and so far I haven't even been able to tell whether the header files are installed since I don't know what the files look like.
Sorry for the long history but I really hoped to be able to solve this problem on my own.

Suse 9.2 is a really old distribution at this point. Any reason for not moving to a more recent release?

Thanks for the reply grim76. I already have the complete package for Suse 9.2, which I had installed on a steam-powered 486. I really didn't want to invest in a new distribution or put in the work to build a newer kernel myself, considering the "new" hardware is almost 10 years old. The card is of a the same vintage.
In the mean time I have learned a bit. I installed a newer version of Wireless.h to avoid numerous compilation errors and reset the WIRELESS_EXT variable to avoid others and I have gotten a clean compilation (except for a number or warnings). It seems that the driver and firmware are installed but I'm struggling with configuration. The device doesn't seem to respond to iwconfig parameters like essid or mode etc. Next I'll try to tackle RT61STA.dat, which also appears to be antiquated technology. What can you expect from a mainframe dinosaur? Have a good one.

Just keep in mind that you won't have security updates or anything like that.

Two points:
- Linux is open source, you don't need to buy Linux, you can download it legally for free.
- Even if your hardware is old there is no point in running an outdated and totally unsupported distribution. There are distributions specifically aimed at older hardware, like antiX, Vector Light or ConnochaetOS. They come with newer software and will most likely have support for your hardware without the need to re-compile anything.

Considering the amount of time it took me just to install the software for the Wireless card, I think it would take me weeks to do a complete kernel build and get it to work. But that is all a moot point considering I still have no access to the Internet.
The matter of security is less important to me since I doubt that I will ever have any sensitive data on Linux.
Still the idea does sound interesting to go the whole 9 yards but first I've got to see that the Level One 0301 gets up and running.

There seem to be some serious misconceptions on your side:
- You don't need to compile a kernel to install Linux. Nowadays many distributions come with automated installers that do all the work for you.
- With a recent distribution your complete hardware will most likely work out of the box, without any need to compile drivers.
- There is more about security than your data. If your system is compromised (which can be done by every script-kiddy if you use software with known security holes) it can be used for several different things, like sending spam to our mailboxes, attacking other servers with DDOS attacks, trying to break into other systems using brute force attacks, hosting illegal material (from copyrighted material to child porn, which can bring YOU into serious troubles) and anything else a criminal mind can imagine. Therefore it is highly recommended to only use supported distributions on machines that are exposed to the net.

Your points are well-taken that's why I only use internet and email from a system that has a professional firewall, virus scanner and an up-to-date OS, unfortunately Win7. But to even start thinking about putting in a current version of any distribution, I need local (Linux) access to the Internet which I won't have until I get this WLAN card problem solved.
Right now I can't even get an iwlist to complete on the device ra0. I get a segmentation error. Any ideas?

Would you mind to post your hardware specs so what we can see exactly which hardware you have and may be can recommend a distribution that will work out of the box on your hardware, including the network devices? Nowadays you don't need such thinks like ndiswrapper for Ralink cards.

Is there some Linux command that will provide the information you need?

Yes, please post the outputs of the commands

Here are the files. The memory Attachment 9849

Attachment 9850

Attachment 9851is: MemTotal: 515636 kB

OK, with a machine like that you should be able to run any Linux distribution, as long as you don't try to run the bigger desktop environments, like KDE 4, Gnome 3 or Unity.
I personally would recommend to try either SalineOS, Bodhi Linux or Salix XFCE, maybe Salix MATE, they all should run really fine on that machine and should come with all necessary drivers.

Thanks TobiSGD. As soon as I get a connection through to the Internet, I'll investigate which of the distributions is best for me. It should take long now because iwlist ra0 ap finds both my router and my repeater. It seems that the problem is that the driver can't find the can't locate the correct BSSID even though the SSID it is looking for is correct. Thanks for your help.
I'll take your concerns about security in Internet seriously. I'll make sure not to use email on the Linux platform when it is running and I'll keep the Internet connection manual so I can use ifconfig ra0 up and ifconfig ra0 down to connect only when I'm looking for a new package. The best Internet security is no connection. :-)