rt2x00.serialmonkey.com

Hello,

i compiled the rt73usb and the hostapd deamon with the latest git sources.
I can run hostapd and the wlan device switch into the master mode.
On an other PC I see the AP with the SSID name but I can't connect
to the hostapd AP.
In the hostapd Log are a lot of MGMT (TX callback) fail errors
and I asume that they are the reason why the connection fails.

I found a post on the gmane.linux.kernel.wireless.general forum
from Ivo van Doorn with the date 2008-08-15
The posting contains a conversation about the topic but without a solution.
So my question is, are there news regarding the MGMT (TX callback) fail problem?

A solution was thought of, and it will be implemented, although the details for the implementation are at this time not completely clear yet.

Thanks for the quick reply.

But if I understand that correct, until the fix will be implemented,
within the rt73usb driver or the mac80211, the hostapd support
of the rt73usb driver is broken and will not work at the moment?

Rgeards
Markus

that is right.

Thanks a lot for the answer.
This will save me a lot of time, I am sitting here the last two days
and try how to get these things to work

Regards
Markus

I have the same problem. When (days? weeks? months?) will this issue be fixed at USB chips?

no idea.

As far as I know the windows driver does support master mode and RalinkTech also encourages open source developers to do their best in improving their drivers for Linux/UNIX. This may sound stupid to You, but I need to ask: Have you contacted with Ralink with these kinds of issues?

By the way, may the windows driver of Ralink supports master mode but the one for Linux does not, I already tried. Is there any other solution to bring this device into master mode?

Thanks
stringZ

They do? Perhaps some experimental versions...



Well if they are interested in advancing the Linux drivers then they are free to contribute their code, but they are releasing Linux drivers without Master mode support. So that means they leave it up to us to conjure up some sort of support based on guesses on how it should work for Ralink hardware.
And yes, we have contacted Ralink about more direct input from them for the in-kernel drivers, but that happen only for the next-generation wireless card they produce, and even that is not sure. Overall they prefer the release of their own out-of-kernel Linux driver which this project maintains as the "legacy driver" (which still doesn't include master mode, because Ralink didn't put it in there)

Oh and before people start complaining that I am not complete in my answer: They did develop an Master mode capable driver together with ASUS but that was for rt2560 only and was completely closed source.



A: Use Ad-hoc mode
B: Buy an AP and use managed mode

Also could you point me to a windows Ralink driver with Master mode support, I have several windows drivers from them and none of them support master mode.

Thanks for your answer.


So that's their dirty business, unfortunately, I completely see that



Official drivers from Ralink, like the one I use on Windows IS_AP_STA_7x (can be reached from http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Windows.html - the second one from the top) do support AP mode. There's a tool (Ralink configuration Tool - replaces Wireless Zero Configuration) that gets installed along with the driver and loads into the system tray, so when I right click on it there's a shortcut menu item "Switch to AP mode". When I click it I get an options dialog where I can configure my USB Dongle to be an access point.

Here are a little detailed information which comfirm the presence of AP mode...







Greets,
stringZ

Hmm apparently that was added recently when they merged the drivers for rt73 and rt2570.
Well their legacy driver still lacks master mode support, and that is where the in-kernel drivers is based on.

But the legacy drivers don't fit into the kernel/mac80211 design so their trick to determining if a frame was send succesfully or not would probably not work. Additionally I doubt that their solution would work with hostapd which could cause a lot of people complaining about that as well.

Other drivers (from other manufacturers) have the same issue with determining TX status as well with USB hardware, so I hope a generic solution will be found and merged into the kernel soon.

stringZ:

What is your interest in master mode support?

Thanks,

I'm eagerly waiting for that moment



I have a homeserver which is also a gateway and a router with two ethernet cards (one connected to the internet, the other connected to the LAN) runing Debian Linux. This manages my LAN and NAT. I would like to extend this to wireless and make an access point out of my homeserver, that's why. Since my motherboard (Pentium I / Gigabyte) is not PCI 2.2 compliant, only PCI 2.1 devices run properly and manufacturers don't give a shit about writing it down in their specifications what kinds of PCI slots would their product be working in (e.g. I have another card, Linksys Wireless.G, with Broadcom chipset (bcm43xx) and it's not working in this machine, it's listed in `lspci` as an Unknown Device and I can't do anything about it), so the only way I can connect a wireless device to my homeserver is USB.

Greets
stringZ

Howdy,

I'm curious about when this will work because I'm trying to create an access point for a product and we're trying to use the Ralink chipset.

One of their PDF advertisements says that linux host AP support exists.

We don't have the ability to use PCI, so we're kind of pushed into using the USB stuff by schedule and hardware.

Thanks,

-mgessner

As I said, Ralink might have some solution for the USB TX status reporting, but I doubt it is a correct behavior. Secondly I have serious doubts if their AP mode implementation would work with hostapd.