RT2800 Wireless b/g/n PCI adapter setup

archange · Post by **archange** » 2011/02/18 15:48:15

Hi, thank you for having me on the forums.

Can anyone help me configure the RT2800 Wireless b/g/n PCI adapter that I've just bought? I tried to follow the readme in the drivers provided by the manufacturer (Edimax), compiled the drivers (rt2860sta.ko) and the device actually comes up as "ra0", but when I try to configure it in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ra0, I get a bunch of errors saying it cannot set the essid, channel and basically everything else...

I am using Centos 5.5 x86-64, kernel version 2.6.18-194.32.1.el5, on a fresh install - no current wireless drivers installed. I had to change my system drive anyway and I wanted to do this on a clean slate. The device itself is the last one in the output below.

[code]
# lspci -m
00:00.0 "Host bridge" "Intel Corporation" "4 Series Chipset DRAM Controller" -r03 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:02.0 "VGA compatible controller" "Intel Corporation" "4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller" -r03 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:1b.0 "Audio device" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller" -r01 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:1c.0 "PCI bridge" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1" -r01 "" ""
00:1c.1 "PCI bridge" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2" -r01 "" ""
00:1d.0 "USB Controller" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1" -r01 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:1d.1 "USB Controller" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2" -r01 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:1d.2 "USB Controller" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3" -r01 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:1d.3 "USB Controller" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4" -r01 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:1d.7 "USB Controller" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller" -r01 -p20 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:1e.0 "PCI bridge" "Intel Corporation" "82801 PCI Bridge" -re1 -p01 "" ""
00:1f.0 "ISA bridge" "Intel Corporation" "82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge" -r01 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:1f.1 "IDE interface" "Intel Corporation" "82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller" -r01 -p8a "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:1f.2 "IDE interface" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH7 Family SATA IDE Controller" -r01 -p8f "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
00:1f.3 "SMBus" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller" -r01 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
02:00.0 "Ethernet controller" "Atheros Communications" "Atheros AR8132 / L1c Gigabit Ethernet Adapter" -rc0 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." "Unknown device 7592"
03:00.0 "Ethernet controller" "Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd." "RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet" -r10 "Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd." "RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet"
03:01.0 "Network controller" "RaLink" "RT2800 802.11n PCI" "Edimax Computer Co." "Unknown device 7728"
[/code]

[url=http://pastebin.centos.org/36853]Full system details.[/url]
I wonder if I should have posted under "Hardware" instead...

Thank you for your valuable time.

AlanBartlett · Post by **AlanBartlett** » 2011/02/18 23:44:08

[quote]
I wonder if I should have posted under "Hardware" instead...
[/quote]
No, here is good enough. :-)

I've taken a look at your [url=http://pastebin.centos.org/36853]full system details[/url] to find the [i]Vendor:Device ID pairing[/i] (a.k.a. the device [i]fingerprint[/i]), which is [b]1814:0601[/b].

If you were to go to the [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/DeviceIDs]Device IDs[/url] page at the [url=http://elrepo.org]ELRepo Project[/url]'s website and search for that [i]fingerprint[/i], you will find it referenced under the [b]rt2860sta.ko[/b] module heading --

[quote]
pci 1432:7708 kmod-rt2860sta
pci 1432:7727 kmod-rt2860sta
pci 1432:7728 kmod-rt2860sta
pci 1432:7738 kmod-rt2860sta
pci 1432:7748 kmod-rt2860sta
pci 1432:7758 kmod-rt2860sta
pci 1432:7768 kmod-rt2860sta
[color=0000ff]pci 1814:0601 kmod-rt2860sta[/color]
pci 1814:0681 kmod-rt2860sta
pci 1814:0701 kmod-rt2860sta
pci 1814:0781 kmod-rt2860sta
pci 1A3B:1059 kmod-rt2860sta
[/quote]
The entry in the third column tells that the kernel independent, kABI tracking [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmod-rt2860sta]kmod-rt2860sta[/url] package should provide the correct driver for that device.

As you are running the 64-bit version of [i]CentOS[/i], the exact [i]kmod-rt2860sta[/i] package you should download and transfer to the target system is --

http://elrepo.org/linux/elrepo/el5/x86_64/RPMS/kmod-rt2860sta-2.1.2.0-2.el5.elrepo.x86_64.rpm

Once you have tidied up after your bout of kernel module self-compilation, just install the package, configure the system and (theoretically) all should be well.

Post by **NedSlider** » 2011/02/19 07:17:59

[quote]
AlanBartlett wrote:

As you are running the 64-bit version of [i]CentOS[/i], the exact [i]kmod-rt2860sta[/i] package you should download and transfer to the target system is --

http://elrepo.org/linux/elrepo/el5/x86_64/RPMS/kmod-rt2860sta-2.1.2.0-2.el5.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
[/quote]

You'll also want the accompanying firmware package too for that device:

http://elrepo.org/linux/elrepo/el5/x86_64/RPMS/rt2860-firmware-11-1.elrepo.noarch.rpm

archange · Post by **archange** » 2011/04/15 15:36:21

AlanBartlett, NedSlider,

Thank you both for pointing out the packages.
Forgive my n00bness, but can you tell me which needs to be addressed first: the firmware or the driver?
Also, details for the procedure would be most welcome, since this is the first time that I encounter any driver challenges...

pschaff · Post by **pschaff** » 2011/04/15 15:57:57

The safe bet is to do them at the same time. Create a temporary directory containing the packages. As [url=http://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/BecomingRoot]root[/url] cd to the directory and[code]rpm -Uvh *.rpm[/code]

archange · Post by **archange** » 2011/04/16 15:13:29

That's done, thanks.

Now, do I have to edit /etc/modprobe.conf and create the device alias, or is it better to run "setup" to add the new device?

pschaff · Post by **pschaff** » 2011/04/17 14:18:13

I'd just reboot before messing with anything else. If the device is not recognized then start looking at what else needs to be done.

archange · Post by **archange** » 2011/04/19 00:22:47

I did a reboot. Device ra0 appears now in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
Output:

# Please read /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
# for the documentation of these parameters.
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=ra0
HWADDR=00:1F:1F:D8:67:FD
MASTER=no
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=
BONDING_OPTS=
DOMAIN=
ONBOOT=no
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
ESSID=HS
CHANNEL=6
MODE=Master
SECURITYMODE=restricted
RATE=11M
BRIDGE=br0

The following errors appear when starting network:
[code]
Bringing up interface ra0: Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
SET failed on device ra0 ; Network is down.
Error for wireless request "Set Frequency" (8B04) :
SET failed on device ra0 ; Network is down.
Error for wireless request "Set Bit Rate" (8B20) :
SET failed on device ra0 ; Network is down.
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
SET failed on device ra0 ; Network is down.
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
SET failed on device ra0 ; Network is down.
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
SET failed on device ra0 ; Network is down.[/code]
[Moderator edit: Added [i]code[/i] tags to preserve formatting.]

Any ideas on how to proceed?

pschaff · Post by **pschaff** » 2011/04/19 10:23:37

How are you going about configuring the device? Have you read the Wiki [url=http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Laptops/NetworkManager]NetworkManager[/url] article?

archange · Post by **archange** » 2011/04/27 20:18:18

I did read it.

I'm under the impression that Network Manager is best suited for Laptops that need lots of profiles, whereas my machine is a home server with fixed functions.
Currently, it also serves as my Internet Gateway through masquerade. I have a bridge configured (br0) and my internal lan (eth1) is part of it. So should be my wireless interface (ra0).

Since I haven't completely foregone the graphics interface during installation, I can set up the wifi adapter through the graphical manager, if I connect some peripherals to the server...

What I need is to set up the wireless interface as an AP (master), complete with security and make it part of the bridge. And not to mess up what I've configured so far in the process, because I depend on this little server already. :-)

And here's where I got stuck.

CentOS