Configure new wifi h/w (RT2870) in M11 [Solved]

[TenderFoot]

Preamble

Recently bought a couple of mAtx mobos and rather sweet compact cases. Two of my existing monsters are being cannibalized for the rest of the h/w as far as possible.

This is an interesting exercise in itself just to see how each o/s responds to the new environment as the hdd is installed! So far only Mepis 11 and MX-14 are coping without a hitch (but not Mepis 8 nor any other distro nor WinXP and Win7 - but at least Win98 doesn't actually crash, just no drivers!).

Question

This gives me the opportunity to replace the TP-Link pci wifi cards which had very poor reception with Dynamode WL-700N-RXS usb dongles. These devices are not even "seen" by M11 or MX14. They are variously described on the cd as RT2870 and on the Dynamode site as Realtek 8188SU Chipset and RT5370 Chipset which is somwhat confusing.

The cd contains linux drivers (and their site has a different set) but am not sure about installing them - would it be sufficient to make and make install them? I also see that Broadcom STA (proprietary?) drivers are available via Synaptic?

[kmathern]

At least one of the results when searching for "Dynamode WL-700N-RXS usb" (http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt ... p?p=392591) comes up with a "148f:7601" USB ID, which is a Ralink device (a "MT7601U Wireless Adapter"). That doesn't match the information you've posted.

Could you post the output of the `lsusb` command, so we can get a better idea what chipset your "Dynamode WL-700N-RXS usb dongle" is using?

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lsusb

If the lsusb command doesn't show the device, or if it doesn't give a short description of what the device is, you might try updating the list of USB IDs with the
`update-usbids` command (though you would need to have a working internet connection, i.e. a wired connection, for it to work).

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su -c update-usbids

If you update the list of USB IDs, rerun the lsusb command.


Btw I found an Ubuntu thread for the MT7601U here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... st12936176, but it would probably be best to post the output of the lsusb command first.

[TenderFoot]

Hi again kmathern!

Output from lsusb includes

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Bus 001 Device 003: ID 148f:7601 Ralink Technolgy, Corp.

PS My earlier search also took me to to the RaspberryPi site - but the "solution" didn't fill me optimism!

[kmathern]

Output from lsusb includes

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Bus 001 Device 003: ID 148f:7601 Ralink Technolgy, Corp.

Okay, you might try that Ubuntu howto I linked to.

If you're using Mepis 11 and/or MX14, I think you can skip the first part about installing the kernel headers, because they both come with the headers & build-essential preinstalled.

It looks likes the MT7601U source was released in September 2013. The 3.12 series kernel that MX14 uses was released in December 2013. The source might need to be patched before it will build without errors on MX14's 3.12 kernel, I think I saw a patch earlier in some of the search results I had.


edit: here's a patch that will let it build on the 3.12 kernel: http://www.arnelborja.com/compiling-rt2 ... in-fedora/ (scroll down the page to "Here’s the patch." )
The command on that page for applying the patch didn't work for me, I used:

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patch -p0 -i ../rt2870-mt7601Usta-kuid_t-kgid_t.patch 

(assumes that the patch file and the DPO_MT7601U_LinuxSTA_3.0.0.4_20130913 source folder are in the same directory, and that the pwd is DPO_MT7601U_LinuxSTA_3.0.0.4_20130913)

[TenderFoot]

Thanks - have downloaded file DPO_MT7601U_LinuxSTA_3.0.0.4_20130913.tar.bz2 and will go for install to M11 tomorrow!

(In the meantime this is the first time any of my h/w has been described as "This is a very new device..."!)

[TenderFoot]

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, went for it this morning!

Success! Though not without a couple of hairy moments. Lots of warnings during make phase but make-install went ok. No immediate connection so logged out/in and restarted compiz as usual but ended with blank screen. Ctrl+Alt+F10 faired no better so had to do brutal reset. However, on restart all is well (and didn't need the modprobe bit)!

[Prior to OP, had tried this method in liveusb session using the supplied driver with another distro but failed - perhaps because it was a live session.]

Anyway, still left with perennial problem in Mepis of not automatically making connection at start-up? EDIT Solved!

Now for MX - should I just (try to) follow guide in the link?

PS Just an oddity (to me) the wireless connection is identified as ra0 rather then the usual wlan0!