Ralink rt2870 (USB) Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex RELEASE / Jaunty Jackalope / Karmic Koala RC HOWTO
Update! Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 testing now includes the rt2870sta driver. It should work right out of the box unless you have an unsupported usbid.
This is a howto on getting the Ralink rt2870 Wifi 802.11abgn chipset to work with Intrepid Ibex 8.10 RELEASE i386 and amd64. It has also been tested on Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope i386 alpha 3+.
It was tested with two ENGENIUS EUB-9701 EXT - EUB9701X2 which contain the rt2870 chipset made by Ralink. Since the 1.4.0.0 driver it is very easy to install and use the driver. Steps 1-4 can be done in Firefox and Nautilus if you wish. Steps 5-7 should be done in the Gnome terminal.
Installation
Open up the gnome-terminal (ALT-F2 -> input gnome-terminal -> ENTER).
1. Retrieve the driver
with a browser (firefox/chromium/chrome/opera/seamonkey)
from here http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=2
or retrieve from the wiki
wget http://ubunturt2870.pbworks.com/f/2009_0820_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.2.0.0.tar.bz2
2. Extract the compressed driver directory and files.
tar xvfj 2009_0820_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.2.0.0.tar.bz2
3. Enter the new directory
cd 2009_0820_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.2.0.0
4. You need to change some options in os/linux/config.mk to make it compatible with NetworkManager or more precisely Wpa supplicant. Replace that file with the one attached to this wiki. If you don't want to use the file on the wiki open the existing file in your driver directory and change all wpa_supplicant related lines to yes (y instead of n).
cd os/linux
rm config.mk
wget http://ubunturt2870.pbwiki.com/f/config.mk
5. Now get back to the root of the driver directory
cd ../../
6. Compile and install.
sudo make
sudo make install
7. If you are using Karmic koala you need to blacklist the new kernel driver as it doesn't work so good for the moment
sudo echo blacklist rt2800usb > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
8. Modprobe the new driver if you want to use it instantly
sudo modprobe rt2870sta
Networkmanager should see your available networks within one minute.
The driver should autoload on each reboot.
Please push the Ubuntu developers to integrate an updated version of this module into Ubuntu.
The rt2870 chipset has support in Karmic Koala within the Linux kernel (rt2x00/rt2800usb) but It's flakey at best. There are hardware encryption and scanning problems.
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/rt2800usb
PS.
If you want to restart the driver you have to take the interface down before modprobing then doing the opposite when bringing it back up.
Unload
sudo ifconfig ra0 down
sudo modprobe -r rt2870sta
Load
sudo modprobe rt2870sta
sudo ifconfig ra0 up
NetworkManager has a tendency of dying when updating an Ubuntu Intrepid or Jaunty system.
Bring it back up
sudo NetworkManager
Sometimes NetworkManager hangs.
Kill it and bring it back up.
sudo killall NetworkManager
sudo NetworkManager
Ralink rt2870sta webUI
Ralink does also provide a webUI at the same page of the driver. I have installed it but not gotten it to work.
http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Linux.html
Maybe it does work better for you?
Comments (8)
Alastair MacDiarmid said
at 2:54 pm on Mar 15, 2009
nice, and concise. I get an error with the build however, and being an unashamed newbie any help would be good.
CC tells me:
LD [M] /home/alastair/2008_0925_RT2870_Linux_STA_v1.4.0.0/os/linux/rt2870sta.o
WARNING: /home/alastair/2008_0925_RT2870_Linux_STA_v1.4.0.0/os/linux/rt2870sta.o(.text+0x4ed14): Section mismatch in reference from the function rtusb_probe() to the function .devinit.text:rt28xx_probe()
The function rtusb_probe() references
the function __devinit rt28xx_probe().
This is often because rtusb_probe lacks a __devinit
annotation or the annotation of rt28xx_probe is wrong.
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 1 modules
WARNING: /home/alastair/2008_0925_RT2870_Linux_STA_v1.4.0.0/os/linux/rt2870sta.o(.text+0x4ed14): Section mismatch in reference from the function rtusb_probe() to the function .devinit.text:rt28xx_probe()
The function rtusb_probe() references
the function __devinit rt28xx_probe().
This is often because rtusb_probe lacks a __devinit
annotation or the annotation of rt28xx_probe is wrong.
CC /home/alastair/2008_0925_RT2870_Linux_STA_v1.4.0.0/os/linux/rt2870sta.mod.o
LD [M] /home/alastair/2008_0925_RT2870_Linux_STA_v1.4.0.0/os/linux/rt2870sta.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.27-7-generic'
cp -f /home/alastair/2008_0925_RT2870_Linux_STA_v1.4.0.0/os/linux/rt2870sta.ko /tftpboot
razor1394 said
at 3:46 pm on Mar 15, 2009
Hello.
That doesn't really look like a compile failure error to me. I only see warnings. I get warnings as well when compiling under Intrepid but I'm not sure if mine are similar.
Are you able to modprobe the module (sudo modprobe rt2870sta)? What kernel and edition of Ubuntu (or maybe another distribution) are you using?
I currently do not have the possibility of testing the driver anymore as I don't use Linux on my desktops or laptops.
I recommend asking on the official Ubuntu forums (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/) because they may know exactly what may have gone wrong.
I'm far from an expert on compilation warnings and errors. I do know however that this driver works well (if you wouldn't mind the occasional NetworkManager problems) on Jaunty 9.04 out of the box. On Intrepid you will need to compile and install it.
razor1394 said
at 10:26 pm on Mar 31, 2009
Be careful with 20090302 2.1.0.0! I tested it on Jaunty beta and it resulted in a mildly disaster. System got slower and slower (NetworkManager reached 100% cpu usage) then it finally locked up. Magic SYSRQ was not possible.
I did:
sudo ifconfig ra0 down
sudo modprobe -r rt2870sta
then I compiled and installed the module after editing config.mk (changed the two wpa_supplicant parts from =n to =y)
sudo make && sudo make install
after that...
sudo modprobe rt2870sta
sudo ifconfig ra0 up
I checked the module with modinfo and it matched the new driver:
sudo modinfo rt2870sta
It seems I should have removed the driver from the /lib/modules dir right after removing the old module from memory but now I don't feel like trying until I've found the cause.
Alastair MacDiarmid said
at 5:00 am on Apr 1, 2009
I gave up on the linux native drivers, I do have this device working flawlessly with the windows drivers slightly hacked to include the vendor and device id, and NDISwrapper.
Needed to use a slighly older .inf and .sys than the ones included with the device.
If anyone wants them let me know and I'll post them up somewhere accesable.
MattP said
at 6:30 pm on Oct 24, 2009
will these steps work with 9.04 and the newly released drivers? If not, any possibility that you could help with adjusting the links above and your modified drivers to work for me?
razor1394 said
at 12:32 pm on Oct 25, 2009
I don't know. I use Karmic Koala and I can't compile the drivers there probably because of the new 2.6.31 kernel. But my understanding is that it will work better under Jaunty. I have changed the links and added some info. Please try it.
mark said
at 9:40 pm on Nov 9, 2009
i'm using kamic koala, and this worked perfectly. previously all I had to do was load ndiswrapper, windows wireless and load the old 2k file.
only problem I have with this one now is that on restart I have to modprobe the driver everytime, what do I have to do to get it auto load ? can I get some help.
thanks guys and gals,
mark said
at 11:59 pm on Nov 16, 2009
I got my to load on restart. Added rt2870sta to the etc/modules file. works a charm
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