Can't get ralink rt2500 card working

Forum: Networking
Topic: Can't get ralink rt2500 card working
started by: ckx

Posted by ckx on April 11 2006,20:06

I've been trying to hookup my Thinkpad to my wireless network using ndiswrapper, so far without success. One problem is that although cardreader recognizes my wireless card (an E-Tech wgpc03, uses the Ralink Rt2500 chipset), but that the card doesn't seem to be active, i.e. the leds aren't on. Does anyone have any pointers how to activate the card? I've tried "iwpriv wlan0 ndis_reset" (tip from < http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Tips) > but that gives a message "no private ioctls".

Installing the driver goes smoothly enough. I've tried the win98, win2k and winxp versions, installing them from a terminal window directly from the program directory. ndiswrapper -l shows hardware present. But running "iwconfig wlan0" produces an error, no such device present. Any ideas?

Posted by clacker on April 11 2006,20:26

Have you tried

iwconfig eth0

or ifconfig to see what else is available? I'm hip shooting.

Posted by bufalo on April 11 2006,23:31

Quote (ckx @ April 11 2006,16:06)

i use the drive from www.ralinktech.com
but it would be good if DSL supported it out of the box

Posted by bigpilot on April 12 2006,16:15

I compiled a module from sourcecode which can be found on the Ralink website. Try that.

Posted by ckx on April 13 2006,19:21

Quote (bigpilot @ April 12 2006,12:15)

I compiled a module from sourcecode which can be found on the Ralink website. Try that.

No luck so far. I've installed gcc1.dsl, gnu-utils.dsl and kernelsource.dsl. ./Configure produces an error, "-lt: unary operator expected". More serious perhaps is that make produces the error "cc: Command not found". Are there other modules I should install? I've been trying the driver from ralink BTW, RT2500-Linux-STA-1.2.6.4. What next?

Posted by bufalo on April 14 2006,11:06

Quote (ckx @ April 13 2006,15:21)

Quote (bigpilot @ April 12 2006,12:15)

I compiled a module from sourcecode which can be found on the Ralink website. Try that.

strange i also get the cc error in make.

i was able to configure it in slackware but dsl does produce the error you mention

Posted by ckx on April 16 2006,17:37

Quote (bufalo @ April 14 2006,07:06)

strange i also get the cc error in make.

Well, I managed to compile the driver but it still doesn't work. I changed the line of the Makefile from "CC := cc" to "CC := gcc" and then I could get it to compile. It still wouldn't work though and now, if I run "ifconfig -a" the shell seems to hang. I get no output and ctrl-c doesn't work. Maybe I messed up?

I used the Makefile from Ralink for a 2.4.x kernel. Could that be causing the problems, since DSL is patched with parts of the 2.6 kernel? I also used "kernelsource.dsl" which may not have everything I need. Configure couldn't find the Makefile for linux so I added a link to linux/Documentation/DocBook/Makefile. Well, it was enough to get the driver to compile, but looks like it's not enough to get it to work. But the fact that ifconfig hangs doesn't bode well

Posted by Fordie on April 17 2006,08:01

Weird. I have been using Ralink's XP driver from their website (and initially from the supplied driver on the CD) for yonkers now via Ndiswrapper with a CNet CWP-854 PCI card.

PM me if you want to have my driver.

Posted by bigpilot on April 21 2006,15:35

I also installed kernel-headers but had no problems compiling.

I still haven't got my connection up and running, even though the card works fine and I can even connect to the network. It's just that my card won't acquire an IP through DHCP for some reason.

The DHCP client software ('pump') doesn't seem to work for the card for some reason. In the log I only see: 'Broadcasting DISCOVER' and that's it. When I do a 'ifup ra0' it simply returns: 'Operation failed' which seems to come from the 'pump' DHCP client but I have no idea what the problem is.

Posted by bigpilot on April 21 2006,15:39

Quote (ckx @ April 16 2006,13:37)

Quote (bufalo @ April 14 2006,07:06)

strange i also get the cc error in make.

Did you do the 'make install' and run the 'load' script?

Posted by zenlunatic on May 17 2006,02:05

I also have a rt2500 card which was recommended to me by the free software foundation because of its free software drivers. The light lights up on the card (not the transfer lights), but the card doesn't get detected or anything. My card is the asus 107G, and the manual says supported by Redhat 7.1, which means a 2.4 kernel should support it. My laptop is the dell inspiron 3500. The asus card is pcmcia. Any help will be appreciated as I really need this laptop now since I sold my other computer for parts (it broke). If someone is willing to help me by phone who really knows what they're talking about I will send money via paypal if you can help me that way if you think its better than the boards. Thanks.

Posted by roberts on May 17 2006,17:12

DSL has a SMP Kernel.

Just google this card and one will see that a native module requires a non-SMP kernel. So, it would appear that you will not only need to compile the module, but also a non-SMP kernel, and then of course all the modules that your system would require.

I am glad to read that someone has the card working with ndiswrapper.