HOWTO: Wireless with Rt2500 cards (wmp54g in particular) using WPA and latest driver

[bionnaki]

I have updated this HOW-TO. Everything should work smoothly. Confirmed to work with Dapper and Edgy

Howto: Wireless with Rt2500 cards using WPA and latest driver

This howto is for wireless pci cards that use the rt2500 driver which is included in the stock ubuntu installation. For whatever reason, the rt2500 driver that ships with ubuntu can be a bit buggy and annoying. This Howto will show you how to update your driver and connect to a WPA protected wireless network (you should use WPA over WEP, anyways).

I use a linksys wmp54g card and this howto is based on my experiences. Not sure if it'll work for other cards, but for the wmp54g you should be good.

1. First, check to see if your card uses the rt500 driver

lshw

check the output for Network, particularly under driver. If it says something else, then reconsider following this guide - this is probably not for you.

2. Be sure to set up WPA with your router. I find that you should use "wpa personal" and "TKIP" algorithm. A shared key of 52 alphanumerial characters is what I use. For some reason, whenever I try to use a higher number or non-alphanumerial characters, WPA does not work with ubuntu. I have also noticed that setting ESSID to be hidden makes wireless act slightly buggy, so make sure ESSID is visible (hiding the ESSID is a weak security method, so dont worry about it). Wireless MAC filtering is also buggy. These are just suggestions and your mileage may vary. I also recommend checking out these tips for tweaking your signal particularly if your router is a linksys: http://www.linksysinfo.org/portal/fo...ad.php?t=47284

I also recommend disabling onboard LAN functions if you have an onboard ethernet card. You can do this by editing your BIOS.

3. In order to use WPA, you must modify your /etc/network/interfaces file.

sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

substitute kate for gedit if you use kubuntu. or use nano if you prefer commandline.

copy and paste the following into that text file and save. Be sure to replace the *** with your own information.

For DHCP, use the following:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
mapping hotplug
script grep
map eth0

auto ra0

iface ra0 inet dhcp
pre-up ifconfig ra0 up
pre-up ifconfig ra0 down
pre-up ifconfig ra0 up
pre-up ifconfig ra0 down
pre-up iwconfig ra0 essid "******"
pre-up iwconfig ra0 mode Managed
pre-up iwpriv ra0 set AuthMode=WPAPSK
pre-up iwpriv ra0 set EncrypType=TKIP
pre-up iwpriv ra0 set WPAPSK="*********"
pre-up ifconfig ra0 up

For static IP addresses, use the following instead (be sure to modify the address, netmask and gateway for your own personal settings):

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
mapping hotplug
script grep
map eth0
auto ra0

iface ra0 inet static
address 192.168.x.xx
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
pre-up ifconfig ra0 up
pre-up ifconfig ra0 down
pre-up ifconfig ra0 up
pre-up ifconfig ra0 down
pre-up iwconfig ra0 essid "******"
pre-up iwconfig ra0 mode Managed
pre-up iwpriv ra0 set AuthMode=WPAPSK
pre-up iwpriv ra0 set EncrypType=TKIP
pre-up iwpriv ra0 set WPAPSK="*******"
pre-up ifconfig ra0 up

Of course, essid is the name of your network; channel is the frequency that you use and have specified in your router; wpapsk is your wpa shared key (be sure to use quotation marks).

Save and close the file.

You also need enter the DNS server information. This is essential:

sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

and enter your DNS info and search info. My resolv.conf looks like so:

nameserver 208.67.222.222
nameserver 208.67.220.220
search hsd1.xx.xxxx.net.

Your DNS will be different according to your ISP. I recommend using those nameservers as they are from opendns.com which is very fast. Your search will be different. You can aquire this info from your ISP if you do not know it.

4. Now, to update your driver to the latest rt2500.

I highly recommend updating the driver - it is quite easy to do if you simply follow the instructions line by line

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

This will install necessary packages for the compilation, after typing your password.

and then:

wget http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/rt2500-cvs-daily.tar.gz
tar -xzf rt2500-cvs-daily.tar.gz
cd ./rt2500*/Module
make
sudo ifdown ra0
sudo cp ~/rt2500*/Module/rt2500.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/
sudo cp ~/rt2500*/Module/rt2500.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00-legacy/rt2500/
sudo cp ~/rt2500*/Module/rt2500.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/ubuntu/wireless/rt2x00-legacy/rt2500
echo "alias ra0 rt2500" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rt2500
sudo depmod

Reboot your computer once installation is complete. If you get an error complaining about "***/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00-legacy/rt2500" or so not being found, dont worry about it.

If your wireless is not "up" or enabled, you can enable it via commandline with:

sudo ifup ra0

Your internet connection should work now. I will keep this howto up-to-date with suggestions. Let me know if it works or not. Credit to drag, jdong, AndyCooll, and the authors of this wiki for your posts that helped form this howto.

[bionnaki]

has anyone tried this yet?

[ttenpas]

I tried it and it worked perfectly. I only did steps 1-3 though as the driver update seemed a little complex for a complete newb like me. Also, I used TKIP encryption because that's what my router uses and I couldn't find any way to change it. I didn't need to enter my DNS information either.
Thanks for the help. I was about ready to give up on ubuntu because I refuse to use anything less than WPA.

[bionnaki]

great! good to know.

updating the driver isnt so bad, but if it works for you, then it works

[gannic]

Hello, my card is a wmp54g but identified itself as an RT61 - I presume thats differnt

[lkh]

Hi,

I have a RT25000 based card too and it works nearly perfect (WLAN is not good for online games). The driver from the serialmonkey is always looking for a config file "RT2500STA.dat" in "/etc/Wireless/RT2500STA". For me it was easier to edit only this file:

[Default]
ProfileID=myProfile
SSID=MYNET
NetworkType=Infra
PreambleType=Auto
AuthMode=WPAPSK
EncrypType=TKIP
WPAPSK=absolutelytopsecret

You can also use a Qt programm to create this file. But for this few lines ...

@gannic: use this driver: http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/rt61-cvs-daily.tar.gz and don't forget to read the README.

[God.Jr]

well i did something along these lines too......it worked at my friends house but when i try at home there is no internet conection but a strong *98%* signal strenght but there is no net.....completely puzzled.......i have put in the DNS and it still won't let me in......

this was what i followed to get my wireless to work.....

[AndyCooll]

I too want to add my thanks for this HOWTO.

I've been using Ubuntu for about a year and gone through the various trials of wireless. When I got my laptop working with WEP I've been too afraid to make any further changes in case I broke it!!!

Anyway took the plunge tonight. Like ttenpas I just followed steps 1-3, and that was enough. Wireless network with WPA works like a charm!

Just want to mention that for many folk using WPA, the default encryption type is TKIP so you might need to edit this line accordingly to your the encryption type your router is using :

pre-up iwpriv ra0 set EncrypType=AES

(When my initial attempt failed it was because I hadn't changed this setting)

Also thought it might be worth mentioning that this bit of your copy and paste isn't actually necessary for getting your wireless card working:

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
mapping hotplug
script grep
map eth0

bionnaki ...once again thanks very much for your HOWTO.

[timwoolsey]

Hello, my card is a wmp54g but identified itself as an RT61 - I presume thats differnt

my card identified itself as this too. but i know i bought a card with the rt2500 chipset. so i continued along. however i just did steps 1-3 because wireless is my only way of connecting to the web. but when i rebooted kubuntu hung up on "Configuring Network Interfaces..." and never got into KDE.

any ideas?

[velvet_undies]

my card identified itself as this too. but i know i bought a card with the rt2500 chipset. so i continued along. however i just did steps 1-3 because wireless is my only way of connecting to the web. but when i rebooted kubuntu hung up on "Configuring Network Interfaces..." and never got into KDE.

any ideas?

Mine has done this to any ideas on why??