ralink 802.11 n WLAN adaptor help

[andyn11]

after figuring that my internal wifi card is useless i went and got a ralink 802.11 n WLAN usb antena ... got it in the post today and plugged it in exspecting it to work (iam not a mega linux user and everything has worked for me on default in the past ... most of the time) but i cant get it working

got a driver CD with it but as iam no mega linux user it all looks mumble jumble to me

on my connections tab it detects it but all is dull and it says it is disabled by hardware switch

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy1: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

the usb is phy1 and has no actual buttons on the usb antena ... just a small light

nothing happens with rfkill unblock all and thats about as far as i can get by myself

[chili555]

after figuring that my internal wifi card is useless

Why is that?

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy1: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

Many laptops, including my Lenovo, are built to disallow wireless networking if the wireless switch is off. I'd turn it on and try again. If your internal really is useless, which I doubt, I'd blacklist its driver. If its driver loads and interferes with the USB, then maybe it isn't useless.

[andyn11]

its useless coz no matter if i try win xp or ubuntu it doesnt work

phy0: is the internal that doesnt turn on with wifi button on the laptop

phy1: is the new usb wifi antena i bought that aparently works with linux (got the drivers on mini CD but dont know wut to do with em

[andyn11]

im using the laptop now running ubuntu and using my mobiles USB tethering to supply it with net

[chili555]

What does this tell us with the Ralink inserted?

lspci -nn | grep 0280
lsusb

The pipe symbol | is on the right side of my US keyboard on the same key with \.

[andyn11]

andy@andy-330:~$ lspci -nn | grep 0280
00:05.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection [8086:4220] (rev 05)
andy@andy-330:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 148f:5370 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT5370 Wireless Adapter
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0fce:7169 Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB
andy@andy-330:~$

[chili555]

I would blacklist the driver for the internal, just in case:

sudo su
echo "blacklist ipw2200" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
modprobe -r ipw2200

And add the driver for the USB so it loads automatically:

echo rt2800usb >> /etc/modules

And load it:

modprobe rt2800usb
exit

Did a wireless interface get created, ideally wlan0?

iwconfig

How recent is your Ubuntu version?

lsb_release -d

I ask because 148f:5370 is a relatively recent device and won't be covered, for example, in 10.04.

[andyn11]

andy@andy-330:~$ sudo su
[sudo] password for andy:
root@andy-330:/home/andy# echo "blacklist ipw2200" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
root@andy-330:/home/andy# modprobe -r ipw2200
root@andy-330:/home/andy# echo rt2800usb >> /etc/modules
root@andy-330:/home/andy# modprobe rt2800usb
root@andy-330:/home/andy# exit
exit
andy@andy-330:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSIDff/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementn

eth0 no wireless extensions.

andy@andy-330:~$ lsb_release -d
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS

[andyn11]

wut ever you told me to type worked thanks a million been trying to get the wireless working in some way on this laptop and you solved it in no time lol great !

[chili555]

Glad it's working! It's a wonder what a few thousand posts worth of experience can do!

Please edit the title of your thread to add [SOLVED]. Thanks.