RT73 / RT2x00 Driver
The rt2x00 drivers is maintained by http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/. An incomplete list of [#supported-devices Supported Devices] is listed at the bottom of this page.
Note: If you are using Debian testing (Lenny), follow the [#procedure procedure] at the bottom of this page to set up your rt73 wireless device.
Installation (using module-assistant)
We will use module-assistant to build the package etch/rt2x00-source (or rt73-source).
The package description is : RT2x00 wireless network drivers source ?BR This package provides the source code of the Linux drivers for wireless network cards using the Ralink RT2x00 chips. It is a complete rewrite of the RT2400/RT2500/RT2570 drivers, it uses the standard iw* configuration tools, and it aims to be integrated in the kernel tree.?BRIn order to compile the kernel modules you need the kernel sources (or the kernel-headers for the kernel-image packages from Debian). For compile instructions look into [http://sysinf0.klabs.be/usr/share/doc/rt2x00-source/README.Debian?f=view;dist=etch;component=main;arch=i386;pkg=rt2x00-source;ver=0cvs20060928-1 /usr/share/doc/rt2x00-source/README.Debian] or simply use the module-assistant utility. ?BR WARNING: This driver is still experimental, it only works for a few cards. You will need a 2.6.17 or later kernel to use it. |
Open a terminal as root
Add the contrib and [:Synaptic#repository:non-free] component
- Then run
apt-get install module-assistant module-assistant prepare module-assistant update module-assistant build rt2x00
You can the copy the package you just build, named /usr/src/rt2x00-modules-2.6.18****.deb, to the target computer, then install it with :
dpkg -i /tmp/path/to/rt2x00-modules-2.6.18*deb
Manual compilation from CVS
This procedure is not recommended
Setting up for off-line install
If you have a current internet access skip to the internet install section.
First thing you are going to need to do is download the RT73 driver on another computer and put it on a flash drive (or some other medium) to transfer it to your Debian machine.
You can download the cvs at
http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz
After you get into Debian you need to copy it to /lib/firmware then unzip it. *Make sure you have root access
cp /path/to/rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz /lib/firmware cd /lib/firmware tar -xvzf rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz
If you don't have gcc installed you need to make sure you have the cdrom in your sources and do
aptitude install gcc
You can now skip past the internet part
If you have internet access
If you have internet access you can download it directly from Debian using wget
wget http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz -O /usr/src/rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz cd /lib/firmware tar -xvzf rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz
Check if you have gcc installed
gcc --version
If you don't get a version you need to install it
aptitude install gcc
Install needed dependencies
You need to install needed dependencies before you can build the driver
aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
Build
Next you need to cd to the Module directory in the files you extracted
cd /usr/src/rt73-cvs-yyyymmddhh/Module
If you are unsure what the yyymmddhh is then use
ls -d rt73*
This should tell you the correct directory.
After you are in the Module directory you need to us
make
In some kernels you may get the following warning
!!! WARNING: Module file much too big (>1MB) !!! Check your kernel settings or use 'strip'
In that case run the command
strip -S rt73.ko
Finally you can install the driver
make install
configuring the driver
You will need to make sure that you have any network manager disabled. You will then need to manually configure your internet
#Load Driver ifconfig wlan0 down modprobe -v rt73 #Configure internet ifconfig wlan0 up iwconfig wlan0 essid YOUR_NETWORK_NAME_HERE iwconfig wlan0 key YOUR_WEP_KEY_HERE_OR_"off"_FOR_NO_KEY dhclient wlan0
You should now be able to connect to the internet. If you are unable to connect to the internet please go back and make sure you followed all the steps correctly.
Setting up auto connect during boot
You need to edit the network/interfaces file to connect to the internet on boot.
gksu gedit /etc/network/interfaces (if you are using Ubuntu) kdesu kate /etc/network/interfaces (if you are using Kubuntu)
Inside you need to add the following
auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp pre-up ifconfig wlan0 up pre-up iwconfig wlan0 essid YOUR_ESSID pre-up iwconfig wlan0 key WEP_KEY_OR_"OFF"_IF_YOU_HAVE_NONE
If you have WPA you need to use the following instead
auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp pre-up ifconfig wlan0 up pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set AuthMode=WPAPSK pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set EncrypType=TKIP pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set WPAPSK="YOUR_WPA_PSK_KEY" pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set SSID="YOUR_SSID" pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set NetworkType=Infra
If you have WPA2 you need to use the following instead
auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp pre-up ifconfig wlan0 up pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set AuthMode=WPA2PSK pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set EncrypType=TKIP pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set WPAPSK="YOUR_WPA2_PSK_KEY" pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set SSID="YOUR_SSID" pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set NetworkType=Infra
If you have a static ip address, then you should try the following
auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet static address STATIC_IP_ADDRESS netmask 255.255.255.0 network ROUTER_IP gateway ROUTER_IP pre-up ifconfig wlan0 up pre-up iwconfig wlan0 essid YOUR_ESSID pre-up iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed ## add any additional WPA information, etc if needed
Rebuilding for new kernel
If you upgrade kernels you will need to re-build the driver. To do so you can do the following below
cd /usr/src/rt73-cvs-yyyymmddhh/Module make clean make ifdown wlan0 modprobe -rv rt73 make install modprobe -v rt73 ifup wlan0
?Anchor(supported-devices)
Supported devices
If you are using the kernel 2.6.x or later, chances are that the following hardware (but not limited to) will work using the open source RT73 driver.
- Asus WL-167g
- Sitecom WL113 v1-002
- GW-US54HP
- D-Link DWL-G122 (new rev)
- Digitus DN-7003GR (VPR 1.0)
Belkin ?F5D7050 Ver 3
- Edimax EW-7318USg
- Hawking HWUG1
- Linksys WUSB54 x
Again the driver is not limited to just these NICs.
Device Identification (["HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI"], ["HowToIdentifyADevice/USB"]). |
|
under DebianEtch , kernel2.6.18 + rt2x00 0cvs20060928-1 |
|
pci |
1814:0101 |
pci |
1814:0201 |
pci |
1814:0301 |
pci |
1814:0302 |
pci |
1814:0401 |
usb |
0411:0066 |
usb |
0411:0067 |
usb |
0411:008B |
usb |
050D:7050 |
usb |
050D:7050 |
usb |
050D:7051 |
usb |
050D:705A |
usb |
050D:705A |
usb |
06F8:E000 |
usb |
06F8:E010 |
usb |
0707:EE13 |
usb |
07D1:3C03 |
usb |
07D1:3C04 |
usb |
0B05:1706 |
usb |
0B05:1707 |
usb |
0DB0:6861 |
usb |
0DB0:6865 |
usb |
0DB0:6869 |
usb |
0DB0:6877 |
usb |
0DB0:A874 |
usb |
0DF6:9712 |
usb |
0EB0:9020 |
usb |
1044:8001 |
usb |
1044:8007 |
usb |
1044:8008 |
usb |
114B:0110 |
usb |
13B1:000D |
usb |
13B1:0011 |
usb |
13B1:001A |
usb |
13B1:0020 |
usb |
148F:1706 |
usb |
148F:2570 |
usb |
148F:2573 |
usb |
148F:2573 |
usb |
148F:2671 |
usb |
148F:9020 |
usb |
14B2:3C02 |
usb |
14B2:3C22 |
usb |
18E8:6196 |
usb |
2001:3C00 |
usb |
5A57:0260 |
?Anchor(procedure)
Setting up rt73 on Debian testing
If you are using Debian testing (lenny), you may have encountered the following error when booting the machine after initial installation of the OS: "rt2x00...Failed to Request Firmware"
To correctly install and configure your rt73 device, you may follow the procedure below:
First make sure you have the "contrib" component in your /etc/apt/sources.list. If not, add it and run "aptitude update".
In a root terminal:
aptitude install rt73-common rt73-modules-2.6.24-1-amd64 rt73-modules-2.6-amd64
Note that I am running the kernel version 2.6.24 on amd64. Replace the kernel versions above with what you are currently running.
And then:
update-rt73-firmware
This will download the rt73 firmware automatically from the Realtek website.
Reboot your machine. After rebooting, the "rt2x00...Failed to Request Firmware" error should disappear.
Then:
aptitude install wireless-tools rutilt
Note: Rutilt is a program designed to manage rt2x00 and other wireless devices.
At this point, if you try to bring up the interface (wlan0),
ifconfig wlan0 up
you may encounter an error about "invalid arguments". This is due to a bug. A workaround is to use the following command (needed every time after you reboot your machine):
Manually set the MAC address of wlan0:
ifconfig wlan0 hw ether 01:02:03:04:05:06
Here you may use the MAC address of your wireless card, or whatever MAC address you like.
Now you can bring up the interface:
ifconfig wlan0 up
After this, find RutilT WLAN Manager in the Gnome/KDE menu, or type:
rutilt
in a terminal window. This will launch the RutilT WLAN Manager. In it, you can scan for wireless networks, configure profiles and join networks. Encryptions available include WEP, WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK.
Note:
- If you upgrade your kernel later, you may need to repeat the procedures above to install the rt73 modules for your new kernel.
- If you encounter any problems, try purging(removing) the packages network-manager and network-manager-gnome, and then follow the procedures above.