HOWTO: RT73 (RT71) serialmonkey drivers

[diepruis]

Please note: You can automate the process below using this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=757607

Warning: The script above has not been tested extensively.

Currently, the wiki page on rt73 drivers is a tad out of date. I found that many of the instructions didn't make sense, as ralink have apparently changed things without incrementing the driver version.

A much simpler approach to getting this chipset to work is using the drivers from rt2x00.serialmonkey.com The only drivers available from this site for rt73 devices is CVS source code, so it might be slightly unstable. I haven't experienced any problems so far, however. If you do experience problems with the driver, please upload debug information to their forums. See the TESTING file (which comes with the source code) for more information on how to do this.

Okay, so here's a quick howto on setting up your rt73 / rt71 device to work in Linux by using a completely free driver.

1. Open a terminal.
2. Go to the directory where we'll keep the driver's source code:
   

   cd /usr/src

3. Download the source code. (NOTE: because /usr/src is a privileged directory, we'll need to prefix all our command with sudo from here on. Type "man sudo_root" for more information.)
   

   sudo wget http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz -O /usr/src/rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz

4. If you have no internet access on the Linux install already, you will need to download this file from another PC (or from Windows) and then copy it to /usr/src. Just copy the file to a flash disk or something, boot your Linux install and copy the file to your home directory. Then do the following in a terminal:
   

   sudo cp ~/rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz /usr/src
   cd /usr/src

5. Extract the archive you just downloaded.
   

   sudo tar -xvzf rt73-cvs-daily.tar.gz

6. Install needed dependencies.
   

   sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

   If you don't have internet access on the Linux install, refer to the section below.
7. Compile the module.
   

   cd /usr/src/rt73-cvs-yyyymmddhh/Module
   sudo make

   Note that there wont be a directory named literally "rt73-cvs-yyyymmddhh". The yyyymmddhh characters are placeholders which will be filled with different characters depending on the version you downloaded. To see what the actual name is, you can perform the command
   

   ls -d rt73*

   The blue entry, or the entry without the .tar.gz at the end which contains 10 numbers, is the one you want. Replace the "rt73-cvs-yyyymmddhh" above with that entry.
8. If the module is too big, strip unnecessary stuff from it.
   
   On some systems, the rt73 kernel module compiles to a file that is unnecessarily large. If this happens to you, you will receive a warning like this:
   

   !!! WARNING: Module file much too big (>1MB)
   !!! Check your kernel settings or use 'strip'

   If you want to make doubly sure, you can check the file's size by typing
   

   ls -alh rt73.ko

   If the file's size is in the megabytes, you are affected by this issue (it's not really a bug).
   
   Luckily this is easily fixed, just type
   

   sudo strip -S rt73.ko

   As Abadaar points out, that -S might appear to be lower case on some displays, note that it should be upper case.
   
   All this does is remove debugging symbols, which most users don't require. After the strip command, you can check the file size again, it should be around 240K.
   
9. Install the module.
   

   sudo make install

10. Make sure neither the Ubuntu, nor the RaLink modules are loaded (the former doesn't work, while the latter causes conflicts). Some other modules need to be removed as well. Don't worry if your computer complains about these modules not being found - that's a good thing.
    

    sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
    sudo modprobe -r rt73usb
    sudo modprobe -r rt2570
    sudo modprobe -r rt2500usb
    sudo modprobe -r rt2x00lib

11. Blacklist these modules, so that they aren't loaded on startup.
    

    gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist (if you are using Ubuntu)
    kdesu kate /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist (if you are using Kubuntu)

    Add the following lines to the text file:
    

    # Blacklist rt73usb, as it is a non-functional beta module which conflicts with the working rt73 module.
    blacklist rt73usb
    # Blacklist rt2570, as it causes conflicts with rt73
    blacklist rt2570
    # Other modules that break rt73
    blacklist rt2500usb
    blacklist rt2x00lib

12. Load the new module.
    

    sudo modprobe -v rt73

13. Check whether your hardware is being detected.
    

    ifconfig -a

    This command lists all networking devices on your PC. You'll probably find several entries here, "lo" will always be present, "eth0" will be present on most modern computers. What you're looking for is an entry like "wlan0" or "wlan1". If you have a new entry that starts with "wlan", the kernel is now detecting your RT73 device and you can proceed to configure it. Note that from here on out, I assume that the interface name (that "wlan" thing) is "wlan0". If yours is "wlan1" or something similiar, you should substitute that in place of "wlan0" below.
14. Configure the interface.
    

    sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
    sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid YOUR_NETWORK_NAME_HERE
    sudo iwconfig wlan0 key YOUR_WEP_KEY_HERE_OR_"off"_FOR_NO_KEY
    sudo dhclient wlan0

    Note that you must insert your network essid where it says YOUR_NETWORK_NAME_HERE and your WEP key where it says YOUR_WEP_KEY_HERE_OR_"off"_FOR_NO_KEY. Type "off" instead if you don't have a WEP key to secure your network. All this should be typed without quotation marks.

The interface should now acquire an ip address. You should now be able to browse the internet, access the network etc. If you can't then something went wrong, and you should ask for help on the forums, providing a link to this HOWTO and perhaps even posting a reply here with a link to the new topic so I can help you. Please provide any relevant output in your post, for example error messages or anything else that looks fishy to you. Note that I cannot help wth WPA related queries, as my router only supports WEP. If someone could provide instructions on getting WPA etc. to work, I would be very grateful.

If the instructions above did work for you, here's what you can do to make the interface be brought up automatically across reboots:

1. Edit the /etc/network/interfaces file
   

   gksu gedit /etc/network/interfaces (if you are using Ubuntu)
   kdesu kate /etc/network/interfaces (if you are using Kubuntu)

2. Look for a section containing "wlan0", if there is no such section, add the following to the bottom of the file:
   

   auto wlan0
   iface wlan0 inet dhcp

3. Beneath those lines, add the following (*):
   

   	pre-up ifconfig wlan0 up
   	pre-up iwconfig wlan0 essid YOUR_ESSID
   	pre-up iwconfig wlan0 key WEP_KEY_OR_"OFF"_IF_YOU_HAVE_NONE

4. If you have it installed (you will if you are using dapper), remove network manager (!)
   

   sudo aptitude purge network-manager

If you have an ASCII wep key, make sure to prefix it with an "s:" (without the quotes). There should be no white space between the semicolon and the actual key. If the key is shared you need to add "restricted" (again without the quotes) directly after the "key" part. Make sure to seperate "restricted" with a space on either side of the word. Thanks to NewWithoutClue for pointing this out.

If you are using WPA security on your wireless network, then your /etc/network/interfaces file should look like this:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
    pre-up ifconfig wlan0 up
    pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set AuthMode=WPAPSK
    pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set EncrypType=TKIP
    pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set WPAPSK="YOUR_WPA_PSK_KEY"
    pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set SSID="YOUR_SSID"
    pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set NetworkType=Infra

Thanks to peterthewolf, sefs & Austin_KW for helping with this part.

If you are using a static IP address (i.e. the DHCP server on your router doesn't assign you one), use these settings (thanks to kevdog)

Just to follow-up, one of the users I was helping posted this about getting a static IP address to work. I thought I would pass it along for the sake of completeness auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet static address STATIC_IP_ADDRESS netmask 255.255.255.0 network ROUTER_IP gateway ROUTER_IP pre-up ifconfig wlan0 up pre-up iwconfig wlan0 essid YOUR_ESSID pre-up iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed

Of course, you'll need to add settings for WEP and WPA, depending on which one you're using.

NOTE: As Austin_KW rightly pointed out, if you install a new kernel (this is sometimes included in the updates), you will have to recompile the module, strip it again (if necessary) and install it over the previous one. To do this, open the terminal and go to the directory where you extracted the code originally and issue the commands listed:

cd /usr/src/rt73-cvs-yyyymmddhh/Module
sudo make clean
sudo make
sudo ifdown wlan0
sudo modprobe -rv rt73
sudo make install
sudo modprobe -v rt73
sudo ifup wlan0

Please post your results with this steps, as I need that information to make this HOWTO better. If you experience problems, please ask in a separate thread and post a link to that thread here. Please also note that I typed most of this up from memory, so there may be a few typos and glitches. If something looks fishy to you or doesn't work, please report it.

If you have no other method of internet access on your Linux installation

Originally Posted by kevdog In order to compile the serial monkey drivers from source the build-essential package is required along with the linux kernel header files. If you already have an internet connection (ie a working wired ethernet connection), please skip to step #4. Without any internet connection, please begin at step #1. All commands typed at command prompt: After booting into Ubuntu, put the Ubuntu installation CD in drive and wait for it to "spin up" sudo apt-cdrom add sudo aptitude update sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

Troubleshooting

If your system hard locks after installing this driver, you should try to install a different kernel, boot into that and follow the guide again.

sudo aptitude install linux-server

TODO: Other wireless security methods (WPA etc.)

* For the more technically minded: the reason the device is brought up before DHCP and before it's values are set is because the module requires this for some reason.

! This is because of the way network manager sets things like ESSIDs and WEPs, which is not supported by the module. The standard way network manager uses should be working with the rt73usb module, as soon as it becomes more stable.

[joeally]

Thanks for the guide ive been trying for ages to get my belkin rt73 usb dongle thing to work
. I've been stuck wiith ndiswrapper for ages now, It works and detects my network, but wont connect to anything.

So I'll try this tonight

I'll tell ya if it works

Thanks Joe

[joeally]

I have installed the drivers but it wont find my belkin usb device

joe@joe-desktop:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

rausb0 RT73 WLAN 
 Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:113
 Rx invalid nwid:0 invalid crypt:0 invalid misc:0

joe@joe-desktop:~$ sudo iwconfig rausb0 essid Ally
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
 SET failed on device rausb0 ; Network is down.

do you know why tyhis happens and how to fix it

Thanks for your help
Joe

[diepruis]

Originally Posted by joeally do you know why tyhis happens and how to fix it Thanks for your help Joe

It is being picked up, you just aren't configuring it correctly. The device needs to be brought up before you set the essid and the wep key. Sorry, this was my error, didn't notice when I was configuring the device yesterday. Please try this:

sudo ifconfig rausb0 down
sudo ifconfig rausb0 up
sudo ifconfig rausb0 essid ESSID
sudo ifconfig rausb0 key WEP_KEY
sudo dhclient rausb0

[joeally]

sorry for late reply to get it to work I just edited the etc/network/interfaces. And I put this at the bottom:

auto rausb0
iface rausb inet dhcp

and then you the iwconfig and dhclinet bit worked.

I have to to this on every start up to get my internet working:

sudo dhclient rausb0
sudo iwconfig rausb0 essid Ally
sudo iwconfig rausb0 key a0000000000000000000000001
sudo dhclient rausb0

Thanks for the tutorial I was stuck for days,messing around with ndiswrapper, until I read your forum post

[diepruis]

Originally Posted by joeally sudo iwconfig rausb0 essid Ally sudo iwconfig rausb0 key a0000000000000000000000001 sudo dhclient rausb0

You can put all those commands in /etc/networking/interfaces as well, so it gets run automagically each boot. See the manpage for "interfaces".

Thanks for the tutorial I was stuck for days,messing around with ndiswrapper, until I read your forum post

Sure thing. Glad I could help.

[Austin_KW]

You should be able to put all the config commands into etc/network/interfaces. If it does not work on boot then cycle the interface with ifdown ra0; ifup ra0.

The ifup & down commands can be added to /etc/rc.local (as indeed can the ifconfig,iwconfig and iwpriv commands) to automatically configure ra0 at the end of the boot sequence.

I notice this howto removes the old driver from the running system with sudo modprobe -r rt73usb but this does not prevent it from reloading on boot. The rt73usb should be blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

[diepruis]

Originally Posted by Austin_KW You should be able to put all the config commands into etc/network/interfaces. If it does not work on boot then cycle the interface with ifdown ra0; ifup ra0. The ifup & down commands can be added to /etc/rc.local (as indeed can the ifconfig,iwconfig and iwpriv commands) to automatically configure ra0 at the end of the boot sequence.

I was only waiting until I had tested this before adding it. I'll edit my original post now. Isn't ifup and ifdown already run by default? I didn't have to add anything to make them run by default...

Originally Posted by Austin_KW I notice this howto removes the old driver from the running system with sudo modprobe -r rt73usb but this does not prevent it from reloading on boot. The rt73usb should be blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Indeed you are correct. Thanks for your comments.

[Austin_KW]

Yes the ifup is done by default, However I had to add an additional ifdown, ifup sequence as it did not always succeed the dhcp request the first time. My comment (badly worded) was that any additional configuration (ifup/ifconfig/iwconfig/iwpriv) could be done automatically at the end of the boot sequence by adding the commands to /etc/rc.local.

[joeally]

thanks diepruis. Nice tip now i dont have to type in console every reboot