[SOLVED] RT2500 an absolute waste of time and effort - any better suggestions?

I had a few issues with this card in Gutsy, but it worked.

RT2500 in Hardy has been the bane of my life. I've tried suggestions posted in myriad places, from ndiswrapper (on a 64bit system = headache... in fact, scratch that - ndiswrapper ITSELF = headache) to serialmonkey to supposed 'better' drivers in unstable & testing. I could've sworn that when I looked at the supported list of wireless chipsets, the rt2500 was right up there - how can that be so when (at the very least) the drivers that come with Ubuntu are simply awful?

Incorrectly setting the wrong transfer rate to 1mb is daft and forgivable. Weaker connection than the same hardware running XP is a bit annoying, but again, at least you can get online. Then when the connection decides to randomly work/NOT work, it gets beyond a joke. I hate seeing this in other rant threads, but i'm > < this close to calling it a day with Hardy until I can find something more viable.

As I type this on my Eee, i'm randomly trying to connect to my network on the desktop, and it's just more infuriating every time it comes up with nothing... or... yes, there it is: Connected with zero signal strength. Joy.

To make matters worse, i've got my partner asking 'why can't you just give up and put Vista on it?'. Well, no, not asking. Taunting me with her laptop (Vista) which, she confidently tells me, is SOOOOO much better than my (yeah, we claimed ownership of the computers after I refused to put Vista on the desktop) computer - because hers WORKS.

Normally - at least with every other Linux 'hiccup' (i'm going to start referring to them as rungs on a ladder to... somewhere good) I first assume I broke something, then try to fix it. Best way to learn, right? Then, if that's not the case, I scour the web for known issues and workarounds (and think up some for myself - honest!). If nothing works, i'll bite the bullet and do a fresh install, see if I can replicate the problem, figure out what did it, and not do it again. Workflow, see?

No amount of effort, logic or re-installations can solve the rt2500 drama. I reckon it's magic. Or propaganda. Or perhaps aliens.

Is there a way of making it work? I dunno. Pretty much every thread i've read has been solved my either fixing a stupid mistake on the OP's end, or the connection magically working again!

So I went to PC World, convinced that the card would simply not work anymore: "Do you know if this is Linux compatible?" I asked. Laugh? I nearly cried. Stupid me.

The one I bought (Netgear WG311) is apparently nigh on impossible to get working with 64bit Linux - at least I could find that out after a little searching - no wall+head=pain there. A simple 'nope'.

Next idea: my Eee has lovely fast internet - y'reckon there's a PCI with the same chipset available that I can use the Eee's driver with? And out of interest, does anyone know of another distro that handles the rt2500 better than Ubuntu? Guess I should have a go at another one anyway, playing with Ubuntu has been so much fun.

If you've read this far, please... PLEASE. If you know anything that I can do, let me know. Hell, i'll give out my home address for a letter, come meet you anywhere in the country, whatever. It's not a case of getting it working now - it's a battle for superiority over the evil Ralink.

/rant

I'm sorry you're having such trouble. I've had issues too with the Ralink drivers that ship with Ubuntu, like the interface randomly crashes. But using the legacy drivers from serialmonkey solved the problem. I have two USB sticks, one using rt73 and one on rt2500. I've never used rt2500 to actually connect to a network (I bought it expressly for wardriving purposes), but it works great in monitor mode sniffing packets under the serialmonkey drivers (but yes, the default drivers in Ubuntu were a joke for that card). I don't know if it's the same card as you have, though.

If you want to give rt2500 a final shot, post the output of the lspci command and I'll do my best to help you. If it worked alright in Gutsy, then there must be a way to make it work in Hardy--if worst comes to worst you could always downgrade to the Gutsy kernel.

I don't know about any 64 vs 32 bit issues, but the r2x00 drivers shipped with HH do have some issues. I have an older laptop with dapper and using the legacy rt2500 driver and combination of programs could connect most anywhere. On Hardy, with the r2x00 driver, there is no support for ad hoc mode and some other missing functionality. When I built and installed a legacy rt2500 driver I was able to get everything to work, but (get ready) NetworkManager does not work with the older drivers!

It became moot for me after I installed an intel 2200 pci card so I could keep the rt2500 card with the older machine. But, I feel your pain! I'm still not happy about the way NetworkManager doesn't really manage networking.

Quote:

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When I built and installed a legacy rt2500 driver I was able to get everything to work, but (get ready) NetworkManager does not work with the older drivers!

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This is a good point; to the original poster: were you trying to use Network Manager to connect after installing the legacy drivers from serialmonkey? It won't work (even though it might pretend that it can); you have to use Rutilt (sudo apt-get install rutilt). It's dumb, yes, but it's what you have to do.

You also have to make sure that you blacklist the default Ralink drivers by adding them to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist before the serialmonkey ones will work.

Hey - thanks for listening :)


Yeah, I tried both RutilT and Wicd and... Wireless Radar is it called? Also blacklisted rt2500pci... then all rt2500 drivers I could find reference to. No luck.

**edit** this line of actions ended with another fresh install, after hosing Xorg, and not being bothered to go through the rigmarole of fixing it.

Thanks for the offer of help Pytheas22, i'll gladly take you up on it - just putting baby to bed and making sure everybody's happy this end, then i'll get back to you.

If it helps in the interim though, from memory, lspci gives the right card (Belkin F5D7000 (V3 if I remember correctly), using rt2500pci driver (a lot of this info is starting to get burned into my retinas, I think)...

Thanks again

lspci gives

Code:

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neur0m4ncer@box:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8500 GT (rev a1)
04:01.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)
neur0m4ncer@box:~$

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It gets better. Followed these instructions, which didn't work - then followed the 'revert' instructions. Now I can't even search for network... no wlan0. Annoying. lspci gives the same result as above, jusy nm-applet says no interface found.

Ugh.

Thanks for the information. Unless you disagree, I think the best approach to take is to use the legacy drivers from serialmonkey--some quick Internet searches indicate that, as you say, this card seems badly broken using the default drivers in Hardy. If it doesn't work this way, ndiswrapper is the next option, but you shouldn't need that. I know you've already tried serialmonkey, but I think it's worth a second shot, because it should really work. Here is what I think you should do:

1. make sure all of the rt2x00 modules are good and blacklisted

Code:

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sudo -s
echo 'blacklist rt2500usb' >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
echo 'blacklist rt2500pci' >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
echo 'blacklist rt61pci' >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
echo 'blacklist rt2x00pci' >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
echo 'blacklist rt2400pci' >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
echo 'blacklist rt2x00lib' >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
echo 'blacklist rt2x00usb' >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
exit

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2. get build tools if you haven't already (I know you probably have, but just to be safe):

Code:

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sudo apt-get install build-essential

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3. get legacy driver source:

Code:

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wget http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/rt2500-cvs-daily.tar.gz

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4. unpack, build and install:

Code:

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tar -xzvf rt25*
cd rt25*
cd Module
make
sudo make install

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5. reboot

6. now see if the card works (using Rutilt, not NM). If it doesn't, please post the output at this point of:

Code:

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iwconfig
ifconfig
cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
iwlist ra0 scan

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I'm tentatively excited -

<whispers>it's working...

The only difference I can tell is that your instructions blacklisted more drivers than the other turorial did - that, and the fact that I compiled RutilT from source (having had to download it on the laptop and transfer it across...).

Wow. Thank-you so much!

I hope it stays up (no pun intended). I guess the only questions I have now are to do with RutilT - in the site survey tab it says Link=0 and Channel=0 - is this right?

Also, looking through the options (never got it working before, so it's kinda new to me), I see 'Turbo Rate'. It sounds sexy. I wanna enable it :)- should I?

Thanks again for your patience and help!

...now to google the hell out of RutilT and get it connecting on startup...

I'm glad it finally works. I read once that some of the rt2x00 drivers (that is, the ones that ship by default with Ubuntu) can interfere even with devices that they shouldn't be touching--e.g. rt61pci could be mucking up the operation of the rt2500 legacy driver even though rt61pci should not have anything to do with the devices that rt2500 would control. That's why I had you blacklist all of the rt2x00 drivers; maybe that made the difference.

Also for future reference, keep in mind that you can always install packages on a machine without an Internet connection by downloading them from http://packages.ubuntu.com/ . Usually this method is easier than compiling. Of course, maybe building Rutilt from source made the difference.

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I hope it stays up (no pun intended). I guess the only questions I have now are to do with RutilT - in the site survey tab it says Link=0 and Channel=0 - is this right?

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Probably not. I don't think you can be on channel 0. What does iwconfig say about the signal strength and channel? If iwconfig gives the same misinformation, then the problem probably lies with the driver itself. If iwconfig gives good information, then it's probably Rutilt making some mistake. Either way, at least it works, right?

Quote:

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Also, looking through the options (never got it working before, so it's kinda new to me), I see 'Turbo Rate'. It sounds sexy. I wanna enable it - should I?

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I have no idea what turbo rate does; never tried it. But it /probably/ couldn't hurt to try.

Quote:

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...now to google the hell out of RutilT and get it connecting on startup...

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I also had to deal with this issue at one point. The best solution I found was to write a script (only a couple lines) to make Rutilt automatically connect to my home network when I log into Gnome. Rutilt has some command-line options that allow you to do this; take a look at its man page for details. Then simply call the script by adding it to the "Startup Programs" list at System>Preferences>Sessions. You could probably also write a script to add to /etc/init.d to achieve the same result, but that would be a little more involved.