F9: Installing Ndiswrapper for AWLL6070 (rt2870)

[Dan Thurman]

Daniel B. Thurman wrote:
>
> I have tried the Ralink way to try and get the Airlink-101 (rt2870)
> built from sources, to setup ra0, configuration and all that and got
> as far as getting the client to see the Access-points from the 
> neighborhood
> which was awesome, but failed to set the ESSID in order to connect
> to my Access point.  Giving up at this point, I thought I'd try out the
> Ndiswrapper method.
>
> I was able to follow the instructions from this link:
> http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=29659
>
> and from this link:
> http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/joomla/index.php?/component/option,com_openwiki/Itemid,33/id,installation/#install_windows_driver
>
> and so far it *appears* that the drivers were installed and the wlan0 
> alias
> was set up:
>
> # ndiswrapper -l
> rt2870 : driver installed
>     device (14B2:3C27) present
>
> # dmesg
> ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
> usb 1-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
> ndiswrapper: driver rt2870 (Ralink Technology, Corp.,11/16/2007,
> 1.00.05.0000) loaded
> wlan0: ethernet device 00:1d:6a:33:fd:42 using NDIS driver: rt2870,
> version: 0x0, NDIS version: 0x500, vendor: 'IEEE 802.11n Wireless
> Card.', 14B2:3C27.F.conf
> wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK;
> AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK
> usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper
>
> # /var/log/messages:
> ================
> Jul 16 08:23:15 bronze kernel: ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes,
> preempt=no)
> Jul 16 08:23:16 bronze kernel: usb 1-1: reset high speed USB device
> using ehci_hcd and address 2
> Jul 16 08:23:16 bronze kernel: ndiswrapper: driver rt2870 (Ralink
> Technology, Corp.,11/16/2007, 1.00.05.0000) loaded
> Jul 16 08:23:16 bronze kernel: wlan0: ethernet device 00:1d:6a:33:fd:42
> using NDIS driver: rt2870, version: 0x0, NDIS version: 0x500, vendor:
> 'IEEE 802.11n Wireless Card.', 14B2:3C27.F.conf
> Jul 16 08:23:16 bronze netplugd[7927]: wlan0: ignoring event
> Jul 16 08:23:16 bronze kernel: wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP;
> TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK
> Jul 16 08:23:16 bronze kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver
> ndiswrapper
> Jul 16 08:23:21 bronze netplugd[7927]: No interface name
> Jul 16 08:23:21 bronze netplugd[7927]: Callback failed
> <last two lines keep repeating, over and over...>
>
> What I do not understand is why is netplugd reporting this?
>
>
> So, I added:
>
> # vi /etc/netplugd.d/netplug:
> eth*
> wlan*
> <saved changes & quit>
>
> then:
> # service netplugd restart
> # vi /var/log/messages:
> ===================
> Jul 16 09:09:52 bronze netplugd[7927]: caught signal 15 - exiting
> Jul 16 09:09:53 bronze netplugd[18477]: /etc/netplug.d/netplug eth0 in
> -> pid 18477
> Jul 16 09:09:53 bronze netplugd[18478]: /etc/netplug.d/netplug wlan0 in
> -> pid 18478
> Jul 16 09:09:53 bronze netplugd[18476]: wlan0: state INNING pid 18478
> exited status 256
> Jul 16 09:09:53 bronze netplugd[18476]: eth0: state INNING pid 18477
> exited status 0
> Jul 16 09:09:54 bronze avahi-daemon[9132]: Registering new address
> record for fe80::21d:6aff:fe33:fd42 on wlan0.*.
>
> waited.... and then saw:
> Jul 16 09:11:04 bronze netplugd[18476]: No interface name
> Jul 16 09:11:04 bronze netplugd[18476]: Callback failed
> Jul 16 09:11:06 bronze ntpd[8519]: Listening on interface #6 wlan0,
> fe80::21d:6aff:fe33:fd42#123 Enabled
> Jul 16 09:11:22 bronze netplugd[18476]: No interface name
> Jul 16 09:11:22 bronze netplugd[18476]: Callback failed
>
> So, nothing changed.
>
> Continuing, I tried to test the wlan0 connection with:
> # iwconfig wlan0
> <computer completely froze up - hard to hard-reboot the computer>
>
> Any advice or suggestions?
>
I also wanted to add, that leaving the AWLL6070 (rt2870) driver as obtained
from either the Airlink-101 CD or from the Airlink-101 website downloaded
causes system instability.  In some cases, the system will freeze up 
completely
and on other causes, rebooting fails to allow Gnome to come up, GDM restarts
over and over with the gdm display flashing with a black/blue background,
failing to start up.

Dan