148f:7601 Ralink dongle, how I got it to work

[Eadwine Rose]

I purchased this particular thingamajig off of Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/231523406532 the "mini sans antenne", the one without the antenna.

Just for kicks, you know.. should my cable or ethernet card fail for whatever reason or just.. well actually it was just for fun

Windows 7, which I thought would just work, didn't know what to do with the thing, the seller even gave me some software to install, no dice. I continued looking for a linux solution, was about to actually post for help, but then found this link here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... st13380919

The two lines:

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sudo wget https://github.com/porjo/mt7601/raw/master/src/mcu/bin/MT7601.bin -O /lib/firmware/mt7601u.bin
sudo modprobe -r mt7601u  &&  sudo modprobe mt7601u

My terminal messages were pretty much the same as the poster above this particular post states, and the solution in this link got my thingamajig to work. I have an alternate install (an earlier clone) of my system to test things and performed those two lines on it, and I was finally able to connect to the wifi using it; I am typing this here now.


Here is what things are looking like now:

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$ lsmod | grep 7601
mt7601u               102400  0 
mac80211              630784  1 mt7601u
cfg80211              532480  2 mac80211,mt7601u
usbcore               233472  11 uas,snd_usb_audio,uvcvideo,usb_storage,ohci_hcd,ohci_pci,mt7601u,snd_usbmidi_lib,ehci_hcd,ehci_pci,usbhid



$ dmesg | grep 7601
[    1.795118] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=148f, idProduct=7601
[   12.938073] mt7601u 2-2:1.0: ASIC revision: 76010001 MAC revision: 76010500
[   12.976334] mt7601u 2-2:1.0: Warning: unsupported EEPROM version 0d
[   12.976339] mt7601u 2-2:1.0: EEPROM ver:0d fae:00
[   13.235363] usbcore: registered new interface driver mt7601u
[  166.316842] Modules linked in: nvidia_modeset(PO) cpufreq_powersave cpufreq_userspace cpufreq_stats cpufreq_conservative nvram video msr uinput nfsd auth_rpcgss oid_registry nfs_acl nfs lockd grace fscache sunrpc fuse loop lp arc4 mt7601u mac80211 cfg80211 rfkill snd_usb_audio uvcvideo snd_usbmidi_lib snd_rawmidi videobuf2_vmalloc videobuf2_memops videobuf2_core snd_seq_device mt20xx tea5767 tda9887 tda8290 ppdev nvidia(PO) tuner tda7432 kvm_amd tvaudio msp3400 kvm bttv tea575x tveeprom videobuf_dma_sg edac_mce_amd snd_hda_codec_hdmi videobuf_core rc_core v4l2_common edac_core pcspkr evdev serio_raw videodev media i2c_algo_bit k10temp drm snd_bt87x snd_hda_codec_via snd_hda_codec_generic snd_hda_intel 8250_fintek sp5100_tco asus_atk0110 i2c_piix4 snd_hda_codec snd_hda_core snd_hwdep snd_pcm snd_timer
[  166.317116]  [<ffffffffa111ec16>] ? mt7601u_complete_tx+0x86/0x190 [mt7601u]



$ lsusb
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 148f:7601 Ralink Technology, Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:09a4 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam E 3500
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 059f:1018 LaCie, Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:c00e Logitech, Inc. M-BJ58/M-BJ69 Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

I will post my earlier messages from the other (the actual running) system below when I boot into that and before performing those two lines so you can see the difference (if any) between mine and that poster's.

[Jerry3904]

Nice! I'm going to move this to Documentation.

[Eadwine Rose]

Just added those two lines into the post above, JUST in case the link decides to die for whatever reason!

Jerry do you think it is a wise thing to exchange that sudo for regular su to go to root in the terminal?

[Eadwine Rose]

Here are the messages as they are on my current running system. The dongle has not yet been recognized here:

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$ lsmod | grep 7601
mt7601u               102400  0 
mac80211              630784  1 mt7601u
cfg80211              532480  2 mac80211,mt7601u
usbcore               233472  11 uas,snd_usb_audio,uvcvideo,usb_storage,ohci_hcd,ohci_pci,mt7601u,snd_usbmidi_lib,ehci_hcd,ehci_pci,usbhid



$ dmesg | grep 7601
[    1.800052] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=148f, idProduct=7601
[   12.557593] mt7601u 2-2:1.0: ASIC revision: 76010001 MAC revision: 76010500
[   12.614538] mt7601u 2-2:1.0: Warning: unsupported EEPROM version 0d
[   12.614549] mt7601u 2-2:1.0: EEPROM ver:0d fae:00
[   12.904223] usbcore: registered new interface driver mt7601u

Err...

ok this is weird *checks tag on the drive inserted just now*

Ehh.. *scratches head* I did NOTHING to this system and suddenly it sees it??

*pulls out ethernet cable, inserts password for wifi*

And it's connected..

ok.. time for my jaw to drop




Mind, this thing is not a fast cookie, but that is ok. I am on a 60mbit/s down / 20mbit/s up connection when on the ethernet card, currently using the same speed service I am on 20 down and 28 up.

I am uploading faster using wireless than wired, how is that for weird.


Anyways.. this thing works in mx15, either after using those two lines, or off the bat *still puzzled how this happened*
It emits a nice little purplish reddish light by the way when on

[Jerry3904]

Jerry do you think it is a wise thing to exchange that sudo for regular su to go to root in the terminal?

Makes no practical difference that I can see for everyday usage, though subtleties on this question can be found in the Wiki.

[Eadwine Rose]

Jerry do you think it is a wise thing to exchange that sudo for regular su to go to root in the terminal?

Makes no practical difference that I can see for everyday usage, though subtleties on this question can be found in the Wiki.

Yeah if you have more than one user on the system that want to use the dongle, then su would be better. Makes no difference for me either, I always log in under the same name anyway.

[kmathern]

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sudo wget https://github.com/porjo/mt7601/raw/master/src/mcu/bin/MT7601.bin -O /lib/firmware/mt7601u.bin
sudo modprobe -r mt7601u  &&  sudo modprobe mt7601u

The mt7601u.bin firmware is already installed on my MX15 64bit install without needing to manually download it

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$ ls -l /lib/firmware/mt7601u.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45412 Jan 24 16:14 /lib/firmware/mt7601u.bin

And it appears to be the same file you downloaded (the md5sums match):

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$ md5sum /lib/firmware/mt7601u.bin 
696cedb8e76ecc0cda9f9b0d3972c64d  /lib/firmware/mt7601u.bin

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$ wget -qO- https://github.com/porjo/mt7601/raw/master/src/mcu/bin/MT7601.bin | md5sum
696cedb8e76ecc0cda9f9b0d3972c64d  -

It was installed by the firmware-misc-nonfree package

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$ dpkg -S /lib/firmware/mt7601u.bin 
firmware-misc-nonfree: /lib/firmware/mt7601u.bin

I do have the latest version of firmware-misc-nonfree from the testrepo installed.
The firmware-misc-nonfree package was installed by default in MX-15, but I don't know if the original package included the mt7601u.bin firmware file or not.

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$ apt-cache policy firmware-misc-nonfree 
firmware-misc-nonfree:
  Installed: 20160110-1mx150+1
  Candidate: 20160110-1mx150+1
  Version table:
 *** 20160110-1mx150+1 0
        500 http://iso.mxrepo.com/mx/testrepo/ mx15/test amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     20151018-2mx150+1 0
        500 http://iso.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ mx15/non-free amd64 Packages

[Eadwine Rose]

As I sit here I swear to you: the thing did not work before. It gave the same messages as that one poster I mentioned on both this hard drive and the other one I tested on initially. Now I DID reboot with the thing in, but I have done so before and then got that error -2 message in the boot messages as well.

*shrug* Color me confused

Glad it works though!

[kmathern]

...The firmware-misc-nonfree package was installed by default in MX-15, but I don't know if the original package included the mt7601u.bin firmware file or not. ...

Just checked the original firmware-misc-nonfree package (http://iso.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/pool/non- ... +1_all.deb), it doesn't include the mt7601u.bin firmware.

[KernSpy]

I see this ...

http://www.mediatek.com/en/downloads1/d ... 7601u-usb/
Source:
https://github.com/kuba-moo/mt7601u

My medialink / mediatek wasn't working at first, (even with firmware support) because it wasn't in just the right usb plug / slot. Once I found the right one (out of 10) it worked fine. This was on the Acer Aspire M3800 desktop.