[HOWTO] Ralink RT73 wifi chipsets

[tiagor]

As with my other thread on the RT2570 chipsets, I will describe the steps necessary to be able to use Ralink RT73 chipset based USB wifi dongles working on the NMT. I'll be as straight forward as needed so if you want more detail please check the other thread.

The Ralink RT73 is in many ways different from the RT2570, mainly being that it's firmware must be loaded everytime the usb stick is activated. This presented as a problem since the udev hotplug in the NMT seems to be broken in respect to taking the necessary actions to load new firmware on the fly, resulting in the firmware binary not being loaded. This actualy ended up causing a series of segmentation faults and unaligned memory access. We'll fix this by temporarily redirecting the flow of the hotplug kernel hook to our own script, and then returning control to udevsend.

USB adapters known to be working:
- D-Link DWL-G122

Known issues and limitations:
- Expect slower transfers than ethernet, as with any other USB wifi dongle in the NMT (please check this thread for more on this)
- Only tested with WEP encryption so far

You can download the cross-compiled module and the rt73 firmware here . Please bear in mind the firmware is not GPL. The source of the rt73 legacy driver can be found here, if you want to cross-compile it yourself.

Disclaimer:
Although this is working for me, your mileage may vary. Do this only if you know what you are doing and remember this is in no way supported by the vendor. It is just a tweak so I could put a spare wifi USB dongle to good use. I'll also link the "Alternate dongles" from "Wireless configuration" on NMTWiki to this thread.

-------

Step by step installation
Please follow this steps at your own risk. I do not know what is Syabas position on using this tweaks, so I'm only providing this information for informational purposes only.

Requirements:
- telnet access to the NMT is enabled (please search the forum as there are several ways to do this)
- have a working network connection (ethernet) setup and working, to allow the initial configuration of the wifi


Steps:
1- Go to the "Setup" and then "NMT Applications" on the screen menu.
A list of running services will appear. Make sure the "FTP Server" status is "running". If it isn't, then start it.

2- Use a FTP client (e.g. winscp if you are using windows) and connect to the NMT. Make sure you use FTP and not SCP or SFTP. The default user is "ftpuser" and password is "1234" (without the quotes).

3- You will see on the root of the hard drive a file named start_app.sh
Transfer this file to your computer and use wordpad to edit it. You should see something like this:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
#

#M_A_R_K_E_R_do_not_remove_me
cd /opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/bin/ && ./telnetd -l /bin/sh &

exit 0

If you can see that then you are good to go. If not, then either you don't have the telnet active or have done something wrong. Now copy this file to some other place so you may restore it if something goes wrong.

4- Before the "exit 0" line, add the following lines, replacing what is between the "< >" signs with information from your network:

Code:

mkdir /lib/modules/2.6.15-sigma/kernel/drivers/usb
mkdir /lib/firmware
cp /share/rt73.ko /lib/modules/2.6.15-sigma/kernel/drivers/usb
cp /share/rt73.bin /lib/firmware
cp /share/hotplug /sbin
chmod 755 /sbin/hotplug
echo "/lib/modules/2.6.15-sigma/kernel/drivers/usb/rt73.ko:" >> /lib/modules/2.6
echo 7194 > /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes
HOTPLG=`cat /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug`
echo "/sbin/hotplug" > /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug
modprobe rt73
echo $HOTPLG > /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug

/opt/wifi/bin/iwconfig eth1 essid [i]<your wifi network name>[/i]/opt/wifi/bin/iwconfig eth1 mode managed
/opt/wifi/bin/iwconfig eth1 channel [i]<your wifi channel>[/i]
/opt/wifi/bin/iwconfig eth1 key [i]<your WEP key>[/i]
/sbin/ifconfig eth1 [i]<your NMT IP>[/i] up
/sbin/route add default gw [i]<your default gateway (router IP)>[/i]

5- Save the file and transfer it back to the NMT.
Download the rt73_nmt.rar file here , decompress the 2 files (rt73.ko and rt73.bin) to a folder on your computer and upload them using the FTP client to the same directory as the start_app.sh file on the NMT.

6- Create a text file named "hotplug" (without the quotes. the name is very important) on your hard drive with the following contents:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
HOTPLUG_FW_DIR=/lib/firmware
echo 1 > /sys/$DEVPATH/loading
cat $HOTPLUG_FW_DIR/$FIRMWARE > /sys/$DEVPATH/data
echo 0 > /sys/$DEVPATH/loading

Save the file to your hard drive and upload it to the same folder of the other files, on the NMT.

7- Insert your USB dongle on the NMT, take off the ethernet cable and reboot the NMT

That's it. After the NMT reboots you should have network.

Troubleshooting:
If you are sure you have done everything as I said above and still don't have network over the wireless dongle:

- Plug in again your ethernet cable to the NMT, telnet into the NMT (e.g. using putty if you're using windows), run the following commands (without the quotes) and post the output here so I can take a look:
- "/sbin/ifconfig -a"
- "dmesg" (only the last 20 lines are needed)
- "/opt/wifi/bin/iwconfig"
- "lsmod"

Good luck and have fun,

Tiago Rodrigues

PS: This (RT2570 and RT73) were the only 2 USB wifi dongle chipsets I had at hand in my home. If I come across other chipsets I may test to see if I can make them work on the NMT but for the moment, this is it.

[chris57]

Great guide and im sure v.much appreciated by those sitting there with a none working USB dongle. Iv'e copied it to the Guides Section so please monitor it in there aswell.

[Takenover83]

Hmmm, I am unsure if my adapter is supported. A quick google search shows that it may be based off of "rt2870". The adapter is question is a Linksys WUSB600N.

[tiagor]

(05-17-2009 04:17 AM)Takenover83 Wrote:  Hmmm, I am unsure if my adapter is supported. A quick google search shows that it may be based off of "rt2870". The adapter is question is a Linksys WUSB600N.

Yes, it is a different chipset and I doubt it would work with the rt73 drivers.
It may be possible to use it, but you'd need to cross-compile the right drivers and test it for yourself. Besides using the correct drivers, it should not be very different though.

[Takenover83]

OK, I am now at the point where I am going to have to try this. I have two Wireless N adapters, and both use the rt2870 chipset. Any info on cross compiling?

[tiagor]

(07-24-2009 04:32 AM)Takenover83 Wrote:  OK, I am now at the point where I am going to have to try this. I have two Wireless N adapters, and both use the rt2870 chipset. Any info on cross compiling?

If it is a legacy driver it should be straightforward if you use the syabas toolchain/sigma kernel.
If you use the new drivers beware that you'll need to cross-compile several kernel modules in order for it to work (and that I expect to be painful).

Good luck,

Tiago

[regzno]

Tiagor, can you cross-compile rt2500 driver for me ? Thanks :-)

[tiagor]

(07-31-2009 08:39 PM)regzno Wrote:  Tiagor, can you cross-compile rt2500 driver for me ? Thanks :-)

Hi,

I suppose you mean the rt2570 (the rt2500 is the PCI version while the rt2570 is the usb token driver). You may find the compiled driver along with an installation howto for those chipsets in this other thread I wrote (please read it whole since the instructions are somewhat different from the RT73 chipsets).
Please let me know if it worked for you and the make/model of your dongle.

Good luck,

Tiago Rodrigues

[regzno]

I have Asus WL-167g v.2 dongle. RT2571WF inside. rt2570 drivers not work. Dmesg output:

Code:

rt2570: init
usbcore: registered new driver rt2570
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using tangox-ehci-hcd and address 3

And when I use your solution for RT73 dmesg output:

Code:

rt73: init
rt73: idVendor = 0xb05, idProduct = 0x1723
rt73: Failed to request_firmware. Check your firmware file location
rt73: Failed to load Firmware.
rt73: probe of 1-1:1.0 failed with error -2
usbcore: registered new driver rt73
rt73: driver version - 1.0.3.6 CVS
rt73: Firmware not load
Unhandled kernel unaligned access[#1]:
Cpu 0
$ 0   : 00000000 00000000 9032bfd4 00000051
$ 4   : 91a29000 7f3fef88 000001c0 7f3fef88
$ 8   : 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000
$12   : 00000002 92cafdf4 00000000 cc00a8c0
$16   : 7f3fef88 91a29000 000001c0 00000040
$20   : 00000200 9076df58 903f0000 7f3feed0
$24   : 00000000 9032e0e8
$28   : 92cae000 92cafde0 7f3feed8 902da8c8
Hi    : 00000120
Lo    : 00000048
epc   : 9032c000 inet_gifconf+0x2c/0x140     Tainted: PF
ra    : 902da8c8 dev_ioctl+0x158/0x710
Status: 10001c03    KERNEL EXL IE
Cause : 40808010
BadVA : 0000005d
PrId  : 00019068
Modules linked in: rt73 em8xxx arusb_lnx ide_generic ide_cd ide_disk tangox_bmide ide_core llad
Process upnpapp (pid: 930, threadinfo=92cae000, task=92331408)
Stack : 9042b780 90021784 92cafe50 7f3ff1d4 30687465 00000000 00000000 00000000
        00000002 cc00a8c0 00000000 00000000 9076dee0 91a29000 7f3fef48 00000040
        00000200 902da8c8 92cafe30 00000006 00000001 00000000 00000200 7f3fef48
        92cafebc ffffffff 0bcd3d80 0000000d 90760000 0f377af8 0000000a ffffffff
        ffffffff 00000000 92cafecc 92ace940 00000011 93fd8648 00008912 7f3feed0
        ...
Call Trace:
[<9042b780>] init_physmap+0x6c0/0x6f8
[<90021784>] tangox_irq_end+0x74/0xbc
[<902da8c8>] dev_ioctl+0x158/0x710
[<900bde60>] do_ioctl+0x40/0xd4
[<902cbc04>] sock_map_fd+0x1e8/0x218
[<902ca7a4>] __sock_create+0x27c/0x544
[<902ca610>] __sock_create+0xe8/0x544
[<900bdf68>] vfs_ioctl+0x74/0x400
[<900be344>] sys_ioctl+0x50/0x9c
[<900be320>] sys_ioctl+0x2c/0x9c
[<902cbfa4>] sys_socket+0x24/0x64
[<9002f9c0>] stack_done+0x20/0x3c
[<9002f9c0>] stack_done+0x20/0x3c


Code: 00a08021  10600032  00c09021 <8c71000c> 1220002f  0000a021  27b30010  27a40010  00002821

And I have "Segmentation fault" after ifconfig command.

PS. Sorry for bad English :-)

[tiagor]

[quote='regzno' pid='219663' dateline='1249072457']
I have Asus WL-167g v.2 dongle. RT2571WF inside. rt2570 drivers not work. Dmesg output:

Code:

rt2570: init
usbcore: registered new driver rt2570
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using tangox-ehci-hcd and address 3

As I said, you cannot use the rt73 drivers. The chipsets are completely different (the rt73 loads the firmware to the chip in realtime while the rt257x chipset has embedded firmware).
From the dmesg output above, the rt2570 loaded fine and it detected the device. What is the output from: "/opt/wifi/bin/iwconfig" ?

[Ger Teunis]

Hi tiagor,
Thanks for your work on the driver.
I am trying to get this driver into CSI, but I am not able to test.
Could you verify the changes I made and test it using CSI?

1. Download the package from: http://repository.nmtinstaller.com/Appli...s/RT73.zip
2. Open CSI
3. Choose file.. Install from file and point to the RT73.zip
4. Press next a few times
5. Edit the file /Apps/Ralink RT73/settings and put correct values there
6. Restart Ralink RT73 in CSI

I've made some small changes where the driver and kernel module are loaded.
Because of this it could be that the package isn't working anymore, not able to test, could you please verify?

If we get the package working we can offer it to all the CSI users.

[tiagor]

(09-01-2009 09:41 AM)Ger Teunis Wrote:  Hi tiagor,
Thanks for your work on the driver.
I am trying to get this driver into CSI, but I am not able to test.
Could you verify the changes I made and test it using CSI?

1. Download the package from: http://repository.nmtinstaller.com/Appli...s/RT73.zip
2. Open CSI
3. Choose file.. Install from file and point to the RT73.zip
4. Press next a few times
5. Edit the file /Apps/Ralink RT73/settings and put correct values there
6. Restart Ralink RT73 in CSI

I've made some small changes where the driver and kernel module are loaded.
Because of this it could be that the package isn't working anymore, not able to test, could you please verify?

If we get the package working we can offer it to all the CSI users.

Hi, that would be great as it would greatly simplify the process for most non-tech oriented users. I'll probably only have time to test it over the weekend but I'll let you know if it worked ok.

Thanks,

Tiago Rodrigues

[WWWW3]

Hi Tiago, thank-you for support.

I follow your istruction but something doesn't work correctly...
I plug D-Link DWL-G122 USB Adapter but it seams not working.

I write suggest command into Putty Window and obtain:

/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK # /sbin/ifconfig -a

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:06C:80:5BC
inet addr:172.21.1.21 Bcast:172.21.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:80 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:364 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:7254 (7.0 KiB) TX bytes:65514 (63.9 KiB)
Interrupt:46

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:235 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:235 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:50818 (49.6 KiB) TX bytes:50818 (49.6 KiB)



dmesg ---> last 20 lines:

EXT3 FS on hda1, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on hda3, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Adding 506036k swap on /dev/hda2. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:506036k
FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
ir: Enable NEC decoder (0x00000000)
ir: Enable RC5 decoder (0x00000000)
ir: Enable RC6 decoder
Algorithmics/MIPS FPU Emulator v1.5
Module len 365155 truncated
Module len 365155 truncated
NFSD: Using /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery as the NFSv4 state recovery directory
NFSD: recovery directory /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery doesn't exist
NFSD: starting 90-second grace period
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x41E1
Module len 365155 truncated
Module len 365155 truncated


/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK # /opt/wifi/bin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.


/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK # lsmod
em8xxx 878832 2 - Live 0xce2c2000
arusb_lnx 393104 0 - Live 0xce176000
ide_generic 1248 0 - Live 0xc8008000
ide_disk 20784 4 - Live 0xc804f000
tangox_bmide 13024 0 - Live 0xc800e000
ide_core 127120 3 ide_generic,ide_disk,tangox_bmide, Live 0xca081000
llad 116128 3 em8xxx, Live 0xc8031000

******************************************************
This is the contain of /

ftp> dir
200 PORT command successful
150 Connecting to port 60038
drwxr-xr-x 4 1001 1001 4096 Oct 9 17:44 Apps
drwxrwxrwx 2 1001 1001 4096 Oct 8 18:55 Download
drwxrwxrwx 2 1001 1001 4096 Oct 8 18:54 Music
drwxrwxrwx 3 1001 1001 4096 Jan 1 2000 Photo
drwxr-xr-x 3 1001 1001 4096 Oct 8 18:55 Podcast
drwxrwxrwx 2 1001 1001 4096 Oct 8 22:17 Video
-rw-r--r-- 1 1001 1001 151 Oct 9 22:23 hotplug
drwxrwxrwx 2 1001 1001 16384 Oct 8 18:46 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 1001 1001 2046 Oct 9 22:26 rt73.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 1001 1001 365155 Oct 9 22:26 rt73.ko
-rwxrwxrwx 1 1001 1001 1484 Oct 9 22:23 start_app.sh
226-Options: -l
226 11 matches total
ftp: 716 bytes received in 0,01secondi 47,73Kbyte/sec)

Also I need to know what you exactly intend:
"4- Before the "exit 0" line, add the following lines, replacing what is between the "< >" signs with information from your network:"
I must replace Also <> signs? Or only what is between <> signs?


/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK # ls -la /sbin/hotplug
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 151 Oct 10 22:49 /sbin/hotplug
/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK #
/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK # ls -la /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Oct 10 22:51 /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug
/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK #
/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK # cat /sbin/hotplug
#!/bin/sh
HOTPLUG_FW_DIR=/lib/firmware
echo 1 > /sys/$DEVPATH/loading
cat $HOTPLUG_FW_DIR/$FIRMWARE > /sys/$DEVPATH/data
echo 0 > /sys/$DEVPATH/loading/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK #
/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK #
/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK #
/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK # ls -la /lib/firmware
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Oct 10 22:49 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 531 root 0 Jan 1 2000 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2046 Oct 10 22:49 rt73.bin
/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK #



I waiting your istructions.

Kind regards.

Luca.

---

[frendeze]

Hi,

I read that comment.It have so many usefull contents.Well the description of the topic with code is amazing.I really want to appreciate you for that.Please keep sharing such things.Than k you for sharing this one..