FAQ
From Rt2x00Wiki
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What are rt2400, rt2500, rt2570, rt61, rt73 ?
A. These are chipsets developed by Ralink Inc for the wireless market. They are the basis around which many manufacturer cards are built.
Q. Why do we have this project ?
A. Ralink initially released the drivers under a closed source license.
After a period of time in the market, Minitar worked with Ralink to bring the drivers into the open-source community such that we can bugfix and enhance the driver ourselves.
Q. Why are all these chipset drivers in the same SourceForge project ?
A. Because we are developing a new Linux driver from scratch that will support all Ralink-based cards under a new driver called rt2x00.
Q. Hang on, the SF project is called rt2400, not rt2x00 ! How come !?
A. We started this project when only the rt2400 code was GPL. Since then other code has been released but we wanted to keep all code-bases under the control of a single project. Why you ask ?
Q. Will you then rename the SF project to rt2x00 ?
A. No, because SourceForge doesn't allow it. We will just make sure all the documentation is up-to-date and reflects the fact that we are supporting several card types.
Q. Who are the main developers ?
A. See the developers page
Q. Are these driver stable ?
A. Most of them are, but there are a few known issues with some. You can see the current buglist at our SF project bugs tracker.
Q. How do I get help ?
A. Check out our support forum and mailing lists. We monitor both and will be able to offer assistance on any problems you have.
Q. What is the RutilT ?
A. It is a X11 based application using the QT framework that replicates the standard interface you would expect when using the driver under a Windows operating system. It allows you to scan for active WLANs, configure/connect to them, etc.
Q. How come I can't use <insert feature here> ?
A. Probably because we haven't developed it yet. Please check out the SF Feature Request listing and add it if it's missing.
Q. Why do I get lots of errors when trying to compile ?
A. Probably because you haven't got your kernel sources configured correctly. Ensure that you have the sources in the expected locations (/usr/src/linux-2.x.x) and that you have a symlink from /lib/modules/2.x.x/build to that source folder)
Q. Why does 'make' tell me that I'm missing the kernel wireless support ?
A. Because you are either missing it (i.e. you haven't compiled wireless into your kernel) or you haven't actually compiled your kernel sources at all.
Q. How can I offer information on crashes/bugs i'm having ?
A. By enabling DEBUG mode.
Q. How do I enable DEBUG mode ?
A. You should read the Module/TESTING file that came with the driver sources.
Q. How can I get wpa_supplicant to work with legacy drivers ?
A. Legacy drivers do not support wpa_supplicant. All encryption is handled by the driver itself.
RutilT can help you configure encryption in place of other wpa_supplicant GUI tools.
Q. What encryption types are currently supported ?
A. WEP128/64 for rt2400. WEP128/64 + WPAPSK for rt2500/2570.
Q. Should I be using iwconfig or iwpriv to configure the card ?
A. You should always, where possible, use iwconfig. The only time you need to use iwpriv is to set the 3 parameters required for WPA (AuthMode, EncrypType, WPAPSK) or if you wish to enable some extended functionality (like AdhocOfdm).
Q. How come I can't get greater than 11mb in Adhoc mode ?
A. Because, going by the 802.11 specifications, 11mb/s is the fastest rate you can obtain under an adhoc connection. Some cards support "breaking the rules" though to get the full 54mb/s. To enable this, check the iwpriv_usage.txt file and look for other AdhocOfdm parameter.
Q. I downloaded the driver from the Ralink website, but I have trouble getting it to work. Can you help me?
A. No. If you want to use the drivers from the Ralink website, go to the Ralink website and ask for help there. We only support drivers downloaded from our website.