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Ralink RT2870 devices

This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on the Ralink RT2800U[D] chipset on Debian systems.

rt2870sta is a module for the Ralink RT2800U[D] USB 802.11 draft-n wireless LAN chipset. Supported devices are listed at the end of this page.

This experimental vendor driver is included as a staging driver in the mainline Linux kernel since 2.6.29-rc1. It is present in Debian kernel images since 2.6.29 (i386, amd64).

Firmware has been removed from the driver in Debian kernel images as of 2.6.30.1 It is available in the firmware-ralink package since version 0.17.2

<!> The staging driver depends on the x86 or x86-64 architecture (Debian i386 and AMD64 ports respectively) at this time.

{i} Ralink 802.11n PCI devices are supported by the rt2860sta driver. Ralink 802.11g USB devices are supported by the rt73usb and rt2500usb drivers.

Installation

Lenny

  1. Add the Debian Backports repository to /etc/apt/sources.list, also including the "non-free" component. For example:

    # Backported packages for Debian Lenny
    deb http://www.backports.org/debian lenny-backports main contrib non-free
  2. Update the list of available packages and install the lenny-backports/debian-backports-keyring package:

    aptitude update
    aptitude -t lenny-backports install debian-backports-keyring

    As your system does not yet have the GnuPG archive key of the backports.org repository installed, you will be asked to confirm installation of a package from an untrusted repository. Enter Yes when prompted.

  3. Install a 2.6.30 (or later) kernel image appropriate for your system, along with the lenny-backports/firmware-ralink and wireless-tools packages. For example:

    aptitude update
    aptitude -t lenny-backports install linux-image-2.6.30-bpo.2-$(uname -r | sed 's,.*-,,g') firmware-ralink wireless-tools
  4. Restart your system and boot with the newly installed kernel. If not already performed, connect the device to your system.
  5. The necessary kernel module should be automatically loaded. If necessary, it can be manually loaded via:

    modprobe rt2870sta
  6. Verify your device has an available interface:

    iwconfig
  7. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

    ifconfig ra0 up
  8. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Squeeze

  1. Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

    # Debian Squeeze
    deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
  2. Update the list of available packages and install the firmware-ralink and wireless-tools packages:

    aptitude update
    aptitude install firmware-ralink wireless-tools
  3. If not already performed, connect the device to your system.
  4. The necessary kernel module should be automatically loaded. If necessary, it can be manually loaded via:

    modprobe rt2870sta
  5. Verify your device has an available interface:

    iwconfig
  6. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

    ifconfig ra0 up
  7. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Supported Devices

The page HowToIdentifyADevice/USB explains how to identify a USB device.

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo rt2870sta in Debian 2.6.30 kernel images.

See Also


CategoryHardware | CategoryWireless

  1. Resolves Debian bug 521553. (1)

  2. Resolves Debian bug 533847. (2)