HOWTO: Edimax EW-7128g / Ralink RT61 wireless

[gregswinford]

RaLink RT61 Wireless chipset HOWTO for Ubuntu Breezy Badger
Written for Edimax EW-7128g wireless card (RT61 version) with a fresh Breezy install

This howto is a modified version of judgekaster's howto at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=132980. Hopefully it'll make installing this card easier for newbies like me... Many thanks to all those who have helped me!

Please note that at the time of writing (2006-04-06), Dapper Drake (Flight 6) does not work with this card (a driver is loaded but does not function correctly).


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If you can't connect to the internet because your wireless card isn't working (!), try to connect using Ethernet (for example, Internet Connection Sharing from a PC or Mac that has a working connection, or direct connection into a router).


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1) Check that you have an RT61 wireless card installed

Open a terminal window and type lspci -n

Somewhere in the list should be the numbers 1814:0301 or 1814:0302



2) Get driver source code from Ralink

Download this file
http://www.ralinktech.com/drivers/Li...1.0.3.0.tar.gz



3) Extract the source code

In the terminal window, navigate to the directory you have downloaded the file to (e.g. type cd /home/yourusername/Desktop)

Extract the source code by typing the following into the terminal window and entering your password when requested:
sudo tar -xzf 2005_1230_RT61_Linux_STA_Drv1.0.3.0.tar.gz



4) Make sure you have the necessary tools to build the drivers

In the terminal window, type sudo apt-get install gcc-3.4 build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Type Y then Enter to accept and wait for the files to be downloaded.



5) Build the driver

In the terminal window, navigate to the extracted folder by typing the following:
cd RT61_Linux_STA_Drv1.0.3.0_200512230/Module

In the terminal window, type the following:
sudo cp Makefile.6 Makefile
sudo make all

Wait!



6) Copy files to a new location

In the terminal window, type the following:
sudo mkdir /etc/Wireless
sudo mkdir /etc/Wireless/RT61STA
sudo cp *.bin /etc/Wireless/RT61STA/
sudo cp rt61sta.dat /etc/Wireless/RT61STA/



7) Copy the driver file to the modules directory and load it

In the terminal window, type the following:
sudo cp rt61.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/
sudo depmod
sudo modprobe rt61

The driver module should be loaded automatically every time you boot your machine...



8) Check that the driver was loaded

In the terminal window, type the following:
iwconfig

This should show some information for "ra0"

Exit the terminal by typing exit



9) Configure the card in the Networking application

Click on 'System > Administration > Networking'

Click on the 'Wireless connection' section and click 'Properties'

Click the checkbox next to 'Enable this connection' to enable the card

Enter the appropriate settings for your wireless network. It's probably best to try to get the card working without WEP first, so if possible, disable this on your wireless router.

Enter the appropriate IP settings for the connection (if you don't know these, you should probably set it to DHCP)

Click on the DNS tab and enter your wireless router's IP address (otherwise, you'll be able to ping IP addresses, but not domain names).

Click 'OK'



10) Test the network

Unplug whatever other connections you'd been using to connect to the internet, if any.

Try opening up a browser window and typing in http://www.google.co.uk

If this doesn't work, try pinging your router (eg. type ping 10.0.0.2 into a terminal window) and then an external IP address (e.g. type ping 4.2.2.2). If this works but pinging www.google.co.uk doesn't, your DNS settings are wrong.



11) Delete unnecessary files

Delete the downloaded file and extracted folder from your desktop.

You may need to use a terminal to do so (eg. type sudo rm -r /home/yourusername/Desktop/filename)



--------------------

Greg Swinford
Ubuntu Forums username: gregswinford

[gregswinford]

This is currently giving me some problems, I'll edit this howto once I've figured out what's happening. (The problem at the moment is that the driver causes the kernel to crash on boot).

Sorry!
Greg.

[bruno321]

Hi, I'd like to inform that my Edimax EW-7128G worked out of the box with Kubuntu 6.10. I didn't have to do anything the OP mentioned. Perhaps the driver wasn't built in on 5.10, but it is on 6.10 (at least).

[jogege]

I have this exact same card working without any problem in Feisty fawn without any modifications. The only problem so far is that I have to manually configure the IP address since for some reason, DHCP does not work.

I have not also been able to get WPA to work but it connects to my WEP enabled wireless router without any problems whatsoever.

[Agent86]

I was able to get my Edimax EW-7128G (V3.0) card up and running with DHCP and WPA-PSK/TKIP using the instructions at:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...ver/RalinkRT61

The instructions are written for Edgy 6.10, but they worked on my Dapper 6.06 Xubuntu install. Nice to hear that things are more out-of-the-box in Feisty.

[razta]

This worked great with me. The only problem is that the link to the driver is different. Im using ubuntu 7.04

Heres the updated link:
http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/dr....1.2.0.tar.bz2

[dadec]

hi

i'm a complete newbie to ubuntu and even linux in general, i've tried the steps outlined here for hardy heron but it doesn't work, can anyone help me with this? thanks in advance!!

edit: i can get as far as the "make all" command where it wont build the module

[dadec]

ok so i got the wireless card to install but when i reboot into ubuntu it doesn't work unless i run the command

$sudo /sbin/ifconfig ra0 inet IP_ADDRESS up

and reconfigure network manager with the WPA password.

Does anyone know how to get this working automatically every time i boot up?

Thanks

[Agent86]

I've installed Xubuntu Hardy (and run the Ubuntu Hardy LiveCD) on two machines equipped with the Edimax EW-7128g card/RT61 chipset, and one machine with the older RT2500 chipset. In all cases, all that was required to connect was clicking on the network icon in the panel, then clicking on the name of the network I wanted to connect to. If a key is required, a window will pop-up where you can enter your WEP or WPA key.

If you get a window after that requesting that you enter a password to encrypt your keyring, you can enter your login password, no password at all (insecure), or a separate password (you'll have to remember it - you must enter it every time you connect).

As far as I can see, Ralink chipset wireless is fully integrated with Hardy's Network Manager. No compiling or editing of text files is required - it all works out of the box.

[dadec]

I've tried using network manager but every time i reboot i have to enter in the wpa password again. Should this not be saved in network manager?