[rt2x00-users] Linux-2.6.32 and RT2870 based WiFi devices

[Aleksandar Milivojevic]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 2:31 AM, kanagesh radhakrishnan
<rkanagesh at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I am working with the TI DaVinci DM6446 EVM (DVEVM).  My objective is to get
> Wi-Fi working on the DVEVM using the D-Link DWA-140 USB Wi-Fi dongle. This
> device uses the Ralink 2870 based chipset
>
> I am facing some issues which I have summarized below.
>
> * The Linux kernel I am working with is Linux-2.6.32.  I have enabled
> support for Wireless, Ralink based WiFi drivers, specifically for RT2870 USB
> devices.
> * On insertion of the USB Wi-Fi Dongle to the DVEVM, the WiFi module is
> detected.
> * I am able to bring up the WLAN network, scan and receive responses from
> Access Points in the vicinity
> * On attempting to connect to a secure network, authentication with an
> Access Point (WPA2) always fails.
> * To connect to the secure Access Point, I am using wpa_supplicant (0.5.7)
> * Using the same target, hardware and Root FS (no change in wpa_supplicant),
> if I use Linux-2.6.34, I am able to connect to the Access Point without any
> problem

As Helmut said, your best bet is to download, compile and install
compat-wireless.  I found that even in 2.6.35 (on Ubuntu Maverick),
included rt2xxx drivers don't work well with my rt2780 based WiFi USB
dongle (able to connect to AP, but *very* slow and a lot of
disconnects and other problems).  Current drivers from compat-wireless
work perfectly.

Few more notes:

Check if your Linux distribution includes rt2780sta driver (for
example, Ubuntu includes it in kernel/drivers/staging directory).  If
it does, blacklist it so that it doesn't conflict with rt2xxx drivers.
 I found rt2780sta included with Ubuntu distribution to be inferior in
features (for example, rt2780sta doesn't seem to support 5GHz band).

If you run Ubuntu, the compat-wireless package for Ubuntu (also
mentioned on the compat-wireless download page) did not work very well
for me (possible that it lags at least several months behind the
tarball?).  Downloading compat-wireless tarball and compiling it
worked perfectly in my case.  If you run Ubuntu, I'd say try the
package first (as it's a bit less work when you install kernel
updates).  If you run into problems, deinstall the package and compile
from the tarball.