Ralink rt2870 (USB) Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex RELEASE / Jaunty Jackalope / Karmic Koala RC HOWTO
Update! Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 testing now includes the rt2870sta driver. It should work right out of the box unless you have an unsupported usbid.
This is a howto on getting the Ralink rt2870 Wifi 802.11abgn chipset to work with Intrepid Ibex 8.10 RELEASE i386 and amd64. It has also been tested on Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope i386 alpha 3+.
It was tested with two ENGENIUS EUB-9701 EXT - EUB9701X2 which contain the rt2870 chipset made by Ralink. Since the 1.4.0.0 driver it is very easy to install and use the driver. Steps 1-4 can be done in Firefox and Nautilus if you wish. Steps 5-7 should be done in the Gnome terminal.
Installation
Open up the gnome-terminal (ALT-F2 -> input gnome-terminal -> ENTER).
1. Retrieve the driver
with a browser (firefox/chromium/chrome/opera/seamonkey)
from here http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=2
or retrieve from the wiki
wget http://ubunturt2870.pbworks.com/f/2009_0820_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.2.0.0.tar.bz2
2. Extract the compressed driver directory and files.
tar xvfj 2009_0820_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.2.0.0.tar.bz2
3. Enter the new directory
cd 2009_0820_RT2870_Linux_STA_V2.2.0.0
4. You need to change some options in os/linux/config.mk to make it compatible with NetworkManager or more precisely Wpa supplicant. Replace that file with the one attached to this wiki. If you don't want to use the file on the wiki open the existing file in your driver directory and change all wpa_supplicant related lines to yes (y instead of n).
cd os/linux
rm config.mk
wget http://ubunturt2870.pbwiki.com/f/config.mk
5. Now get back to the root of the driver directory
cd ../../
6. Compile and install.
sudo make
sudo make install
7. If you are using Karmic koala you need to blacklist the new kernel driver as it doesn't work so good for the moment
sudo echo rt2800usb > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
8. Modprobe the new driver if you want to use it instantly
sudo modprobe rt2870sta
Networkmanager should see your available networks within one minute.
The driver should autoload on each reboot.
Please push the Ubuntu developers to integrate an updated version of this module into Ubuntu.
The rt2870 chipset has support in Karmic Koala within the Linux kernel (rt2x00/rt2800usb) but It's flakey at best. There are hardware encryption and scanning problems.
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/rt2800usb
PS.
If you want to restart the driver you have to take the interface down before modprobing then doing the opposite when bringing it back up.
Unload
sudo ifconfig ra0 down
sudo modprobe -r rt2870sta
Load
sudo modprobe rt2870sta
sudo ifconfig ra0 up
NetworkManager has a tendency of dying when updating an Ubuntu Intrepid or Jaunty system.
Bring it back up
sudo NetworkManager
Sometimes NetworkManager hangs.
Kill it and bring it back up.
sudo killall NetworkManager
sudo NetworkManager
Ralink rt2870sta webUI
Ralink does also provide a webUI at the same page of the driver. I have installed it but not gotten it to work.
http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Linux.html
Maybe it does work better for you?
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