Ralink rt5390 driver causing kernel panic.

[dotpc]

When running Ubuntu 12.10 (or any os with a kernel 3.5 or greater, this problem also happens in Fedora) I encounter a kernel panic after compiling and installing the latest Ralink driver for the rt5390.

My laptop is an hp dv6.6135dx.

Here's what I do:

(this works perfectly in 12.04)

Download Ralink's latest driver and rename it.

tar xjvf rt.bz2.bz2

Edit /os/linux/config.mk to make sure these two below values are accurate.

HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y
HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y

Then the compiling (after installing build-essential and linux-headers-generic of course).

cd rt5390
sudo su
make clean
make
make install
modprobe rt5390sta
exit

I get some warnings but no errors. I then edit:

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

and add:

blacklist rt2800pci
blacklist rt2800lib
blacklist rt2x00pci
blacklist rt2x00lib

Then I get a kernel panic on reboot, I've taken a picture since I can't take a screen-shot.

Please help, I really would like to use 12.10 so I could have access to the latest AMD drivers.

[chili555]

Are you able to boot at all, even in recovery mode? If so, uninstall rt5390sta:

cd rt5390
sudo su
make uninstall
modprobe -r rt5390sta
exit

Then reboot and remove the rt2800pci blacklist and tell us what works or not. I believe in 12.10 and forward that rt2800pci covers your device.

[dotpc]

Unfortunately I can't even log in to the recovery console (ctrl+alt+f1, is that what you even call it?) before the kernel panic occurs. The rt2800pci driver is compatible but drops the wireless connection every 5 minutes.

[chiec]

Exactly the same over here. I can boot, but it gaves me a kernel panic in 5 minutes or so before it happens. At least the wifi works perfectly before it.

Thank you very much chili555, you're the master of this!

[chili555]

Unfortunately I can't even log in to the recovery console (ctrl+alt+f1, is that what you even call it?) before the kernel panic occurs. The rt2800pci driver is compatible but drops the wireless connection every 5 minutes.

I meant when the GRUB menu comes up or you bring it up with the shift key: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

[chiec]

I can even log in, and use the wifi, but the kernel panic happens in 5 minutes or so.
Uninstalling the rt5390sta module is not an option for me because im a little far from the router and the connection drops a lot with the other module, if I can't fix this I should buy a usb key...

[dotpc]

Alas, I've also tried this but it doesn't really matter since the rt2800pci driver works so poorly.

[dotpc]

Chili,
Do you know of any steps to improve rt2800pci's resiliency?

[chiec]

Seeing this make me realize I'm not the only one with this issue so I'm going to report the bug in LinuxMint Launchpad (it's the distribution I use) although it should be the same for Ubuntu since Mint is Ubuntu + some packages.

I'm gonna post the link here when I finish.

Cya!

[chili555]

Chili,
Do you know of any steps to improve rt2800pci's resiliency?

Certainly. You might try the Ubuntu version of compat-wireless. With a wired ethernet connection temporarily, do:

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-cw-3.6-quantal-generic

Reboot and tell us if it's working better.

You might also try a driver parameter:

sudo modprobe -r rt2800pci
sudo modprobe rt2800pci nohwcrypt=Y

If this helps, we'll write a quick file to make it persistent.

You might also set the router to WPA2 only, not WPA/WPA2 mixed mode. If it's available, try shutting off N speeds in the router.