Ralink RT2870 USB Stick works well with SLED 10

[tjenkner]

Hello all,

due to several WLAN chipset and HW questions i want to inform you about the WLAN USB Stick chipset Ralink rt2870 (802.11n Draft 2.0) that i just bought and that it is working pretty well with SLED 10 SP2 with Ralink's native driver.
I just got it working yesterday. You can use it in the following way and this should do for several WLAN USB Sticks as long as they use the RT2870 chipset from Ralink.

It seems so far this is the only 802.11n chipset vendor that supports a native Linux driver. Just get the driver here: Ralink Technology: Linux (not the WebUI, it's not needed, i used the other one, but you can also try with WebUI of course)

There is an installation description included. The installation worked for me a bit different with SLED 10 SP2 than the given one and even easier than described, my comments in brackets []:

1> $tar -xvzf DPO_RT2870_Linux_STA_x.x.x.x.tgz
go to "./DPO_RT2870_Linux_STA_x.x.x.x" directory.

[ok!]

2> In Makefile
set the "MODE = STA" in Makefile and chose the TARGET to Linux by set "TARGET = LINUX"
define the linux kernel source include file path LINUX_SRC
modify to meet your need.

[both were already set and the Linux_src i did not need to change.]

3> In os/linux/config.mk
define the GCC and LD of the target machine
define the compiler flags CFLAGS
modify to meet your need.
** Build for being controlled by NetworkManager
Please set 'HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y' and 'HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y'.
** Build for being controlled by WpaSupplicant with Ralink Custom Event
Please set 'HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y' and 'HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=n'.
command: #./wpa_supplicant -Dralink -ira0 -c wpa_supplicant.conf -d

[i set both to "y" but it was not controllable via Network Manager afterwards, but no matter, it works anyway! And i did not call any command here]

4> $make # compile driver source code

[Be aware : i had to install the "kernel source" package with YAST online update before "make" worked, because make uses several packages from the kernel]

5> $cp RT2870STA.dat /etc/Wireless/RT2870STA/RT2870STA.dat

[this was just unnecessary to do, also /etc/Wireless did not exist before calling "make install", so whether this copy nor the make install was necessary ]

6> load driver, go to "os/linux/" directory.
#[kernel 2.4]
# $/sbin/insmod rt2870sta.o
# $/sbin/ifconfig ra0 inet YOUR_IP up

#[kernel 2.6]
# $/sbin/insmod rt2870sta.ko
# $/sbin/ifconfig ra0 inet YOUR_IP up

[For SLED10 kernel 2.6 is relevant obviously, i copied the rt2870sta.ko to a location of my choice and execute just $/sbin/insmod rt2870sta.ko each time after i logged in in SLED 10. Because i had a WLAN 11g connection with my notebooks HW already configured before which i shut off, the keystore password/-phrase is asked and after entering them you can directly use Mozilla e.g. You'll get an IP and an internet connection automatically via Stick! This works pretty well and easy. And that's it.]

7> unload driver
$/sbin/ifconfig ra0 down
$/sbin/rmmod rt2870sta

[just if you need it..]

hope this helps

tjenkner