HOWTO: RT61 on Egdy Eft with WPA

[phq]

This guide is for all Edgy users running a RT61 chipset WLAN card. If you follow all the steps described below, you should have running a WPA (WPA-PSK/TKIP) connection to your Access Point.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions or if something is wrong.
I've got everything running doing all these steps on a fresh and clean installation of Kubuntu Edgy Eft with standard options.

1.) Download the latest original Ralink RT61 drivers from:

$> wget http://www.ralinktech.com/drivers/Linux/RT61_Linux_STA_Drv1.1.0.0.tar.gz

Note: I wrote the guide for 1.0.4.0, but it is no longer available for download. However, it should work with the new driver as well. If it does, please post that.
2.) Compile the Module
Install the kernel headers corresponding to your kernel (In most cases it should be installed by default, but it seems there are derivates which won't do that)

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

$> tar xvfz RT61_Linux_STA_Drv1.0.4.0.tar.gz
$> cd RT61_Linux_STA_Drv1.0.4.0/Module/
$> cp -f Makefile.6 Makefile
$> make all

3.) Get root

$> sudo su

4.) Prepare Config directory for the module

#> mkdir -p /etc/Wireless/RT61STA/
#> cp *.bin /etc/Wireless/RT61STA/
#> cp rt61sta.dat /etc/Wireless/RT61STA/

5.) Install Kernel Module

#> cp rt61.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/
#> depmod

6.) Configure module via rt61sta.dat (use binary edit mode)

#> vi -b /etc/Wireless/RT61STA/rt61sta.dat

See readme file in Modules directory for description.
For WPAPSK Authentification I've changed settings as following:

SSID=<SSID of Access Point>
NetworkType=Infra
AuthMode=WPAPSK
EncrypType=TKIP
WPAPSK=<Secret WPA key>

NOTE: For some reason there seem to be problems if the WPA key is longer than 52 characters and/or contains non-alphanumeric characters.

7.) Remove broken preinstalled Module

#> modprobe --remove rt61pci

8.) Load module rt61

#> modprobe rt61

9.) Check whether device ra0 has been loaded

#> iwconfig

10.) Configure and test device

#> ifconfig ra0 <IpAddress> netmask 255.255.255.0 up
#> ping <Access Point>

Now everything SHOULD work!

Of course we want the device to be up after next reboot, so let's edit some more files:

Edit modprobe and network config files

Add broken module to blacklist:

#> echo 'blacklist rt61pci' >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Add the new module to module autostart

#> echo 'rt61' >> /etc/modules

and create an alias

#> echo 'alias ra0 rt61' >> /etc/modprobe.d/aliases

Now add the interface with your settings to /etc/network/interfaces

#> vi /etc/network/interfaces

comment out the preconfigured wlan0 interface and add following lines (with your ips)
For a static IP address:

iface ra0 inet static
address <your ip>
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway <ip of your access point>
auto ra0

If you want to use DHCP (thanks to neveceral):

iface ra0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid YOURESSID
auto ra0

Reboot - Try - Be Happy!

[RyanTMulligan]

Your tutorial is missing an important step. You do not have people downloading the kernel headers anywhere.

[techstop]

The drivers were in Dapper, are they broken in Edgy? ie. why do you need to compile from source? Looks to be much the same instructions as found here;

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=132980

...apart from compiling the module.

[zakhooi]

The drivers were in Dapper, are they broken in Edgy? ie. why do you need to compile from source? Looks to be much the same instructions as found here;

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=132980

...apart from compiling the module.

Well for me the procedure in the first post DID work whereas the procedure in the other thread did not work for me.

So, thanks a lot!

[poshmoggy]

phq you are a star! For a week I've been following various guides, but none seemed to do the trick. Came across yours an hour ago and followed it to the letter. And now I have wireless again. Woohoo

[Raubsau]

I just can't get it working with WPA...

It worked fine without encryption, with WEP128bit, but not with WPA-PSK and I defenitly do not know where to look for the (i bet it's my human...) error.

Could anybody help me, please?
Greets, Raubsau (noob)

[bodhi.zazen]

Nice How-to

This thread has been added to the UDSF wiki.

bodhi.zazen

[phq]

Thanks for your replies and I'm glad I was able to help some of you guys!

Sure, this guide may contain similar steps as other guides, but I wanted to reflect exactly the steps I did to get it working on my machine. As i wrote this guide is especially for clean Edgy installations which requires some different steps than described in other guides (like blacklisting the rt61pci module and _not_ downloading any kernel headers).

[phq]

I just can't get it working with WPA...

It worked fine without encryption, with WEP128bit, but not with WPA-PSK and I defenitly do not know where to look for the (i bet it's my human...) error.

Could anybody help me, please?
Greets, Raubsau (noob)

tried the guide?

[Raubsau]

Yes, that's what I did. Still it won't work

Or should I do the next clean install and try it again? It works fine without any encryption, but only a MAC filter for security? Too many bad kids around...