Ralink RT2870 or Realtek RTL8191S wireles usb on CentOS 5.8 with no GUI

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centosmart
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Joined: 2012/04/06 18:21:59

Ralink RT2870 or Realtek RTL8191S wireles usb on CentOS 5.8 with no GUI

Post by centosmart » 2012/04/07 15:24:26

Hi there,
Just installed Centos 5.8 with only the Basic package selected, so no GUI. I want to use this for an Asterisk PBX server.
I would like to use a Ralink RT2870 (Linksys WUSB100) wireless USB on it.
When I do a iwconfig, it says it has no wireless, so I am assuming I would install the driver the same way as described here, but using the proper driver for RT2870: http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Laptops/Wireless#head-a7388039af96da5400e599133447452d2ca61fb5
I would want to do the install ofline using a flash drive.
According to the instructions, I have to use NetoworkManager, but since I don't have a GUI installed, I am assuming I can't do that.

May questions are:

Are those the right driver and firmware (the RT2870 ones) to use?
How do I install the drivers offline (is it rpm -Uhv )?
Do I have to do a modprobe at one point?
How do I connect to my router once the driver is installed?
Or am I totally on the wrong path here?

As an alternative, I also have a Realtek RTL8191S and a Zydas ZD1211 wiereless USB (I only would want to use the ZD1211 as as last resort, as it tends to overheat). Would these be easier to install?
It looks like this could be the driver for the Realtek: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=21&PFid=48&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

Thanks in advance for your help.

pschaff
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Ralink RT2870 or Realtek RTL8191S wireles usb on CentOS 5.8

Post by pschaff » 2012/04/08 02:07:47

It is possible to configure wireless without NetworkManager, although it tends to be easier with. I am not up on all the details of command-line wireless configuration, but the first thing is to get the right drivers installed. In pursuit of that objective, please [url=http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=28723&forum=54]provide more information about your system[/url] by running "./getinfo.sh driver", with the device you want to use plugged in, and showing us the output file.

Crunch
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Re: Ralink RT2870 or Realtek RTL8191S wireles usb on CentOS 5.8 with no GUI

Post by Crunch » 2012/04/08 02:44:11

what Phil said

centosmart
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Re: Ralink RT2870 or Realtek RTL8191S wireles usb on CentOS 5.8 with no GUI

Post by centosmart » 2012/04/08 04:04:19

Thanks for your sugestions, but when I tried to run ./getinfo.sh driver, and all I get from CentOS is:
[code]-bash: ./getinfo.sh: No such file or directory[/code]

lsusb returns this:
[code]Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1737:0070 Linksys WUSB100 v1 RangePlus Wireless Network Adapter [Ralink RT2870][/code]

lsmod | grep rt2 returns nothing.

I don't know if the information I am providing is helpful.

centosmart
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Re: Ralink RT2870 or Realtek RTL8191S wireles usb on CentOS 5.8 with no GUI

Post by centosmart » 2012/04/08 04:39:51

Please pardon my ignorance. I just realised you had a link to all the info in your post, so I ran it, and this is what I got:

Information for driver problems.
[code]
== BEGIN uname -rmi ==
2.6.18-308.el5 i686 i386
== END uname -rmi ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa \*-release\* ==
centos-release-notes-5.8-0
centos-release-5-8.el5.centos
== END rpm -qa \*-release\* ==

== BEGIN cat /etc/redhat-release ==
CentOS release 5.8 (Final)
== END cat /etc/redhat-release ==

== BEGIN getenforce ==
Enforcing
== END getenforce ==

== BEGIN free -m ==
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 241 234 6 0 10 131
-/+ buffers/cache: 92 148
Swap: 511 0 511
== END free -m ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa kernel\* | sort ==
kernel-2.6.18-308.el5
== END rpm -qa kernel\* | sort ==

== BEGIN lspci -nn ==
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface [8086:2570] (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2572] (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:24d2] (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:24d4] (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:24d7] (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:24de] (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:24dd] (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev c2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:24d0] (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller [8086:24db] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller [8086:24d3] (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:24d5] (rev 02)
01:01.0 Communication controller [0780]: Tiger Jet Network Inc. Tiger3XX Modem/ISDN interface [e159:0001]
01:03.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139] (rev 10)
== END lspci -nn ==

== BEGIN lsusb ==
Protocol spec without prior Class and Subclass spec at line 4297
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 013: ID 1737:0070 Linksys WUSB100 v1 RangePlus Wireless Network Adapter [Ralink RT2870]
Bus 001 Device 012: ID 058f:6387 Alcor Micro Corp. Transcend JetFlash Flash Drive
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
== END lsusb ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa kmod\* kmdl\* ==
== END rpm -qa kmod\* kmdl\* ==

[/code]

pschaff
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Re: Ralink RT2870 or Realtek RTL8191S wireles usb on CentOS 5.8 with no GUI

Post by pschaff » 2012/04/08 12:18:16

Based on the Vendor:DeviceID fingerprint:
[code]$ grep -i 1737 /lib/modules/*/modules.alias | grep -i 0070
/lib/modules/2.6.39-4.1.el5.elrepo/modules.alias:alias usb:v1737p0070d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip* rt2800usb[/code]

That shows no support in the standard CentOS-5 kernels, but there is a driver in the [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/kernel-ml]ELRepo mainline kernel[/url].

It can also be located on the [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/DeviceIDs]DeviceIDs[/url] page which shows that the [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmod-rt2870sta]kmod-rt2870sta[/url] driver should work with current kernels - the first thing to try before going to the non-standard kernel; so, install [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/tiki-index.php]elrepo-release[/url] and[code]yum install kmod-rt2870sta[/code]

You should also "yum update" as the current kernel is 2.6.18-308.1.1.el5 so you are probably missing other updates as well.

centosmart
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Joined: 2012/04/06 18:21:59

Re: Ralink RT2870 or Realtek RTL8191S wireles usb on CentOS 5.8 with no GUI

Post by centosmart » 2012/04/08 22:22:36

Ok, I have installed the driver from elrepo.

lsmod | grep rt28
[code]rt2870sta 481264 0[/code]

iwconfig
[code]ra0 Ralink STA[/code]

Now I am ready to connect to my wireless router, but am not sure how.

I did an ifconfig ra0 up and it looks like it works. I also did an iwlist scan, and it returns my router's ESSID.

I currently have WEP as security, but want to switch to WPA next week when I get a new router.

Thanks for you help.

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