Error compiling Ralink RT2500 drivers in VL 5.8 Std

[said]

hi, I have the same card but I don't understand what I've to do to install the driver. Please help!   sorry but I'm a noob

[uelsk8s]

here is the driver:
http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-5.0/updates/rt2500-20050418_2.6.12-i586-4vl5.tgz
download it then as root do
installpkg rt2500-20050418_2.6.12-i586-4vl5.tgz

[said]

thanks for the answer! I installed the driver but I can't see any changes: the command iwconfig doesn't show my card in the list

[uelsk8s]

said,
can you post the out put of the following commands?

cat /etc/vector-version
uname -r

thanks,
Uelsk8s

[said]

Code:

cat /etc/vector-version
Vector Linux 5.8 Standard 12-16-2006

Code:

uname -r
2.6.18.5

now i'm going to try to update the system with my ethernet card

[mithion]

There are several things you can try to see if your card is loaded.  First off, you can enter

Code:

lsmod

This will list the modules that are loaded in the kernel.  You should look for an entry called rt2500.  If it's not there, you can try the following commands.

Code:

depmod -aq

Code:

modprobe -i rt2500

Assuming you've got the module somewhere, these two commands should configure and load the rt2500 module necessary to run the card (btw, you can think of modules as drivers if you're familiar with windows).  Then, go and edit the file modprobe.conf using this command.

Code:

mcedit /etc/modprobe.conf

Add a line which says alias wlan0 rt2500.  Then modify the ifplugd.conf file using this.

Code:

mcedit /etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.conf

Find the line where it says INTERFACES="eth0" and replace it with INTERFACES="eth0 wlan0".  Then entering the following command should initialize the wlan0 interface.

Code:

service ifplugd restart

Then, if all this works, you can use the gui tools at your disposal in VL to enter the information for your access point.  If you want to use wifi-radar which is really nifty, you'll probably have to modify the following file.

Code:

mcedit /etc/wifi-radar/wifi-radar.conf

Find the line where it says interface = and just add wlan0 (it might already be configured correctly, but better check in case it doesn't work).  If you have any problems, please let me know and I'll try to help.

[said]

modprobe -i rt2500
Module rt2500 not found

[mithion]

That would explain why your card isn't working.  So your first step would be to find yourself a module.  With the ralink rt2500 chipset, that probably means finding source code somewhere, compile it and install it.  This isn't really that hard.  All you need to get is the kernel source.  If you selected to install it during the VL installation, you already have the kernel source.  If you don't you can probably slapt-get it from the cd-rom or the internet if you can get Ethernet.  If you don't have it, do this.

Code:

slapt-get --install kernel-src

Then you can get the source code of the drivers.  Ralink has linux drivers, but I have had tremendous trouble making them work for some reason.  I would use the drivers from the opensource community serialmonkey which can can downloaded here.
http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/rt2500-cvs-daily.tar.gz
Then, simply follow the instructions found here.
http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php?title=Slackware_Howto
Once the module is loaded in the kernel, then you can follow the steps I laid out in my previous post.  Please let me know if you have problems.

[said]

thanks for your help!! I did it! driver installed!
all seems to work: I configured all with iwconfig and ifconfig(i'm sure, i did it many times), the lights of my pcmcia are up but I can't connect on the net. I tried to ping my gateway but it's unreachable. I tried to disable the firewall with vasm but it's always the same. I tried also to change dns. I can't understand why I can't connect.

[mithion]

I'm using a rt61 based card which is similar to the rt2500 chipset.  The iwconfig command did not work for me.  I would enter the information as usual.

For example:

Code:

iwconfig ra0 essid "myessid"

When I would enter the iwconfig ra0 with no additional arguments just to print what configuration is in use, all the fields would stay blank.  Somehow for me, it wasn't recording the information I was feeding it.  Maybe you have the same trouble as I had and it's not recording it.  Please check whether your network configuration is being recorded with

Code:

iwconfig wlan0

If the fields are blank, I suggest trying one of the gui programs like wifi-radar.  With that one in particular, you can setup a profile for your access point, and then you don't need to enter all your information each time.  If the fields are not blank and what you inputed got recorded as its suppose to, maybe all you need to do is "ask" for an IP with the following command.

Code:

dhcpcd -t 25 -d wlan0

If you get an IP address, then you should be able to connect to the internet afterwards.