Rt2x00 README
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Installation and configuration instructions for the rt2x00 Modules
Minimal requirements:
- Kernel
- Only kernel 2.6.13 or higher containing Wireless Extensions V18
- or higher are supported.
- Make sure your kernel sources match your running kernel.
- When using kernel sources installed from a rpm from your distro,
- it might be required to configure your kernel sources, this can be
- done by doing (as root):
- $ cd /usr/src/linux
- $ make cloneconfig
- $ make prepare
- ieee80211 stack
- And is currently maintained by Jiri Benc.
- The latest ieee80211 stack can be found in the ieee80211/ folder
- in the rt2x00 module source.
Build Instructions:
Before starting the building of the drivers, it is recomended to read the config file. In this file several configuration options can be set to optimize the build for the user. It is for example possible to enable or disable the build of the rt2x00 drivers seperately. To build rt2x00 simply do:
$ make
All modules (.ko files) will be created in the current directory.
Module installation:
The modules can be installed by doing:
$ make install
This will create a new folder named 'rt2x00' inside the kernel modules directory usually /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/, all modules (including the ieee80211 stack will be installed into that directory. Some distributions however do not comply with the kernel guidelines which causes the kernel to install the modules into the wrong directory. Thus users of the following distributions must manually install the modules:
- Debian & derivatives (i.e. Ubuntu)
- Mandriva
When manually installig the drivers you will have to find out how and where these distrobutions wish kernel modules to be installed and install all .ko files to the required location.
Module loading:
When the modules have been installed, the module handlers (i.e. modprobe) will automicly resolve all module dependencies. When loading the modules manually with insmod, you should load them in the following order:
- 80211.ko
- Main ieee80211 stack module.
- rate_control.ko
- Add support for improved TX rate control.
- radiobtn.ko (optional, needed for hardware radio support)
- Add support for hardware button support.
- rt2400pci.ko (optional, needed for rt2400 support)
- rt2400pci module, support RT2460 chipsets on PCI & PCMCIA cards.
- rt2500pci.ko (optional, needed for rt2500 support)
- rt2500pci module, support RT2560 chipsets on PCI & PCMCIA cards.
- rt2500usb.ko (optional, needed for rt2570 support)
- rt2500usb module, support RT2570 chipsets on USB sticks.
- rt61pci.ko (optional, needed for rt61 support)
- rt2500pci module, support rt2561(turbo) and rt2600 chipsets on PCI & PCMCIA cards.
- rt73usb.ko (optional, needed for rt73 support)
- rt2500pci module, support RT2573 chipsets on USB sticks.
Module options:
debug={0,1}
- This 'debug' module option is only available when the modules are
- build with debug capabilities (Which is the default build option).
- debug=0 (default) will disable debug output.
- debug=1 will enable debug output.
- After the module is loaded this variable can be changed by writing
- either N (or 0) to disable or Y (or 1) to enable debug to
- to the /sys/module/<modulename>/parameters/debug file.
- Where <modulename> can be rt2400pci, rt2500pci, rt2500usb, rt61pci
- or rt73usb.
poll_delay={in ms}
- The 'poll_delay' module option is only available when the driver
- has been build with the hardware button capabilities enabled.
- The value passed is in ms, and indicates the time between each check
- for the status of the hardware button.
Input events:
- Hardware button
- When the pci card contains a hardware button for the Wireless device, and the driver has been build with hardware button capabilities enabled, the card will send out events for the input device radiobtn/<modulename> which was created when the radiobtn module was loaded.
Firmware:
rt61pci and rt73usb require firmware to be available when loading the module. The latest firmware files are available in a seperate .zip archive and can be downloaded from the support page on the ralink website at http://www.ralinktech.com. The following firmware files are available for each driver:
- rt61pci
- rt2561.bin
- rt2561s.bin
- rt2661.bin
- rt73usb
- rt73.bin
The firmware file needed for the device depends on the RT chip of the device. Usually the correct firmware file can also be found on the installation medium that was shipped with your device. After obtaining the firmware file it should be placed in the firmware folder specific for your distribution (Usually /lib/firmware/)
Devices:
When unsure about which driver specific module should be used for a particular device, the best approach is to grab the Windows drivers for that device and check the name. Below follows the list of driver names long with the device specific module that should be used for that device.
- rt2400.inf
- rt2400pci.ko
- rt2500.inf
- rt2500pci.ko
- rt2570.inf
- rt2500usb.ko
- rt61.inf
- rt61pci.ko
- rt73.inf
- rt73usb.ko
Interfaces:
After loading the modules 2 interfaces will now be visible in ifconfig and iwconfig, namely wmaster0 and wlan0. The first device is the so called master device which is can be used by some userspace tools, but can normally be ignored by the user self. The second interface wlan0 is the client interface which the user can configure. With rt2x00 it is possible to run multiple client interfaces with only 1 single device. 1 client interface can run in adhoc, managed or master mode while a second or more client interface can run in monitor mode at the same time. To add more client interfaces the following command should be run from the shell:
$ echo -n $NAME > /sys/class/ieee80211/$DEV/add_iface
where the variable $NAME is the name of the client interface that should be added (i.e. wlan1), and $DEV is the physical device where the new client interface should be attached to (i.e. phy0).
Configuration:
After loading the modules the device should be configured for proper behaviour. Before bringing the client interface up, the working mode should be set:
$ iwconfig wlan0 mode managed
Configuration parts like essid and channel can be set before or after the client interface has been brought up. It is usually a good idea to set the essid:
$ iwconfig wlan0 essid myessid
In some situations the device also requires the channel to be manually set:
$ iwconfig wlan0 channel mychannel
To add WEP encryption
$ iwconfig wlan0 enc AABBCCDDEE
To bring the client interface up:
$ ifconfig wlan0 up
After the client interface has been brought up, scanning can be performed to check if the desired AP is being detected.
$ iwlist wlan0 scan
To start an authentication/association attempt, the AP address should be set:
$ iwconfig wlan0 ap mybssid
Ethtool:
Support for several ethtool functions is supported in rt2x00. When using ethtool, the master interface and not the client interface should be passed to ethtool. The features rt2x00 provide are:
- ethtool -i
- Information about the driver.
- ethtool -d
- A dump of the devices CSR register is returned.
- ethtool -e
- A dump of the devices EEPROM contents is returned.
- ethtool -s msglvl X
- This option is only available when the driver was build with debug enabled. Replace X with 1 or 0 to enable or disable respectively the rt2x00 debug output. This is an alternative for setting the module parameter.
Bug reporting:
When reporting a bug or problem with the rt2x00 module, make sure you report the following information:
- How to reproduce
- RT2x00 debug output, usually found in /var/log/messages.
- Module version.
- Wireless card chipset, model and manufacturer.
- Kernel version (i.e. 2.6.13)
- Hardware architecture (i.e. x86, AMD64, Sparc)
- Anything else you may think will help us resolve the issue.
Bug reports:
http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Rt2x00Wiki:Bug_reports
Contact us:
- Website
- Forums:
- Mailing list:
- general: rt2400-general@lists.sourceforge.net
- developers: rt2400-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
- Sourceforge:
rt2x00 FAQ:
This guide was put together to help people who are testing the rt2x00 suite of drives during the development phase. Please note that at this moment in time, the drivers are still in development and does not conform to the normal Linux wireless configuration process (you have to do special steps to get them going) nor are the drivers particularly stable. DO NOT USE THESE DRIVERS IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT (refer to the stable branch for the rt2500 and rt2400 drivers)
I cannot see any debug information
Have you compiled the drivers with “make debug” and have you modprobed the driver (rt{4|5}00{pci|usb} with debug=1? e.g. “modprobe rt2500pci debug=1”
The steps in the readme doesn't work
Have you following the steps verbatim (obviously substituting your network vars such as AP bessid and channel for your values)? This is a requirement at the moment since some of the functions in the card need to be initialised using the steps described in the README. Note that the driver does not comform to the normal wireless configuration process in that you will not be associated with an access point unless you follow the steps in the README.
(check http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Rt2x00Wiki:Bug_reports#Bug_No:_003)
I have a wep encrypted network
If you need to add WEP encryption add the following step after setting the essid (where AABBCCDDEE is your 48 bit encryption key in HEX) $iwconfig wlan0 key AABBCCDDEE
How do I know things worked?
You should see something like the following in dmesg: [4439180.426000] wlan0: associate with AP 00:50:18:36:b8:36 [4439180.428000] wlan0: RX ReassocResp from 00:50:18:36:b8:36 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=2) [4439180.428000] wlan0: associated
dmesg shows an authentication message time out
If you get something like below, makes sure that you have following the README verbatim and specifically that you set the channel and iwlist wlan0 scan. These steps are required to initialize the card properly.
[4438543.721000] wlan0: Initial auth_alg=0 [4438543.721000] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:50:18:36:b8:36 [4438543.921000] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:50:18:36:b8:36 [4438544.121000] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:50:18:36:b8:36 [4438544.321000] wlan0: authentication with AP 00:50:18:36:b8:36 timed out
I have done everything but still cannot associate with the ap?
Try lowering your channel on your access point as this might be a regional problem.
(check http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Rt2x00Wiki:Bug_reports#Bug_No:_004)
I loose association
Sometimes you see this in dmesg [4439570.806000] wlan0: RX deauthentication from 00:50:18:36:b8:36 (reason=6) [4439570.806000] wlan0: deauthenticated
I don't know what reason 6 means yet.
I cannot associate and get timed out messages in dmesg
[4321475.171000] wlan0: Initial auth_alg=0 [4321475.171000] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:50:18:36:b8:36 [4321475.371000] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:50:18:36:b8:36 [4321475.571000] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:50:18:36:b8:36 [4321475.771000] wlan0: authentication with AP 00:50:18:36:b8:36 timed out
You are either out of range of the AP or you have the same problem as me at the moment (will update this guide as soon as I figure out what it is)
I have a debian based system. What about moving the modules?
The issue here is that once you compile your new modules, they are installed in the root of your module tree (normally /lib/modules/2.6.xx-xx/rt2x00/). However, your old modules are still around in the tree and you have one of two options:
- Move the old modules out of the tree and leave your newly compiled modules where they are.
- Copy your new modules over your old ones.
BEWARE if you delete or overwrite the old modules and your new driver doesn't work the way you thought it would, then you will have to reinstall the kernel package (or boot up on an old kernel with the modules still intact) to get your old modules back. If you require a network connection in order to do this, then you might have a problem, so best strategy is to copy these items away.
make in the folder root fails
Makefile:52: /lib/modules/2.6.15-23-686/build/.config: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `/lib/modules/2.6.15-23-686/build/.config'. Stop.
The message is not always exactly the same since it is dependent on your kernel version. You need to install the development headers that will supply the file in question (/lib/modules/2.6.xxxxxx/build/.config).
If you have a debian based system, install the linux-headers-2.6.xxxxx package that conforms to your installed kernel
To find out your kernel version
$ uname -r
to install the headers
$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
Statistics don't work
Statistics have not received a high priority yet and many tools don't work correctly. We are looking for debugging information to help us identify the problem. See the debug howto on how to produce this information.
There is also currently a bug in the dscape stack and the wireless interface is not reported correctly in proc with the result that many tools does not detect the interface correctly.
This has consequences for report generation and configuration by many existing tools.
(check http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Rt2x00Wiki:Bug_reports#Bug_No:001)