FC7 and WMP54G (RT51) not working?

[ByteBuffer]

Just installed Fedore 7 and trying to get it to work with a Linksys WMP54G PCI wlan card that has RaLink RT2561/RT61 chipset.

The network configuration (using the desktop tools) detects the hardware and says the status is ok. However, when I try to activate wlan0 in the devices, I get the following message:

------------- system-config-network: -------
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No buffer space available

Determining IP information for wlan0: SIOCSIFFLAGS: No buffer space available
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No buffer space available
-------------------------------------------------

I've read tons of postings how to get RaLink-chipset wlan cards to work with earlier Fedoras, but I'm a bit lost that how is the situation with Fedore 7? Should it work? Do I have to do some firmware/module compile stuff like folks have done with earlier Fedoras? Do I need to download something from Ralink site?

[bbfuller]

Hello ByteBuffer

Welcome to the forum.

I have a pci card with that chipset although it's not connected at the moment. As you suspect, you need the firmware, but no need to compile.

When I set it up, I made the following notes:

download firmware from Ralink site:

http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/RT61_Firmware_v1.2.zip

unzip and copy into /lib/firmware - change permissions to 0644

Set up as normal, probably easier to reboot.

[harmeet]

Here is the correct link -

http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/RT61_Firmware_v1.2.zip

[bbfuller]

Hello harmeet

Of course you are right. Thanks for spotting it.

I made an edit to my original post but found I'd got two copies, one correct, one not. I obviously deleted the wrong one.

To avoid any possibility of someone trying to follow the wrong link I'll edit my post. Again!

[ByteBuffer]

Thanks guys, I got it working (sort of) with those firmware files and struggling a while with the wpa_supplicant.

Anyway, I have a very weird problem with the system now.

The wlan works usually for a while after I boot the server (e.g. 24-48 hours or so), but then it stops responding. I have the server in another room and I have a high-power Buffalo wlan router next to my and when the server works, the ping latency is typically 2ms so the radiolayer connection should be ok. The basic WLAN configuration with WPA-security works fine as the wlan usually works for a good while. But then, for no apparant reason, the server stops responding to pings (from my desktop computer that's connectected to the Buffalo wlan-router with a cable).

Any ideas why the wlan would work for a while and then die out completely?

If I look at the Wlan MAC filter-registry (i've only allowed my known MAC's to connect to the router) on the wlan router, the MAC-address for the server is supposed to be connected (according to the Buffalo web-admin interface) but it still doesn't respond to pinging.

Note that nothing special is happening on the Linux system when this happens, it's just running idle and nobody is using it.

I can't really think of any other solution than to add a watchdog entry that would ping the gateway IP-address on the router and then reboot if it doesn't get a response.

Any ideas what could be the issue here?

[bbfuller]

Hello ByteBuffer

No particular thoughts on that particular issue I'm afraid.

Since we talked previously, I've put the machine that holds that card back into service and I see that I'm using it with ndiswrapper, not the native drivers now. I can't remember though what prompted me to make the change. It's performing pretty reliably there though once connected.

Have you tried to see if the effect is still present with other kernels? You should have at least the one previous to boot into. If you are running the kernel-2.6.22.4-65.fc7 it does appear to have certain wireless issues not shared by the previous kernel or the subsequent testing kernel.

If it's the same with other kernels then ndiswrapper may be worth a try. You would have to balcklist the kernel modules you are using at present though. Blacklisting need only be a temporary measure so you should be able to revert to the current setup without too much difficulty.

[ByteBuffer]

Hello,

Ok, I see from kernel.org that 2.6.22.6 seems to be the latest kernel there.

Do you think upgrading to that could help?

BTW, how to upgrade the FC7 kernel most conveniently? I have done it previously (many years ago, when I used SuSE Linux) by getting the kernel sources from kernel.org and compiling it myself. Is there some easier way to upgrade a FC7 kernel to a newer version or do I still do it the manual way?

Upgrading the kernel is the first thing I'd like to try, as I have now sort of semi-working (when it works, it works fine...) configuration with the wlan. Using the ndiswrapper doesn't quite feel like it's the first thing I want to try.

I installed the FC7 from the live cd distro couple of weeks ago so I have the kernel that was in there. Can't check the version now as (surprise) I can't open a shell to the server as it's not responding... Have to move the maching next to my monitor later today, but no time just right now.

[bbfuller]

Hello ByteBuffer

I've never compiled a kernel for myself, I find quite enough excitement coping with the various oddities in the fedora ones.

If you have the standard installation kernel then these have appeared from Fedora since:

kernel-2.6.21-1.3228.fc7
kernel-2.6.22.1-27.fc7
kernel-2.6.22.1-33.fc7
kernel-2.6.22.1-41.fc7
kernel-2.6.22.4-65.fc7

as part of the standard upgrade process. From install I think you have kernel-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7

I'm not aware of any real wireless issues with 3194, If you do a standard Fedora update you will now get the kernel-2.6.22.4-65.fc7 which is the one with the wireless problems.

Updating Fedora is a bandwidth consuming process. If you issued the command:

yum update

from a root terminal you would have 600-700MB of download to do depending on what you have installed.

yum install yumex

would give you a nice graphical frontend to allow you to choose. Though probably not a kernel other than 65.

Post #18 on this thread:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=165292&page=2

will tell you how leigh123@linux talked me through updating to the latest testing kernel - which works well.

But I suspect using ndiswrapper on your card may be the more profitable option to try first.

[ByteBuffer]

Ok, I carried to server next to my desktop and hooked it to the monitor. You know what, I think that my problem isn't possibly related to the kernel or wlan card drivers at all....

I ran iwconfig multiple times over and over again and I noticed something: Initially the Bit Rate = 1 Mb/s and ping works fine. Link Quality = 93...97/100

Then, at random (seemingly) times the card seems to be wanting to go higher speeds and the Bit Rate goes up to 54 Mb/s and at the same time Link Quality goes way down to 34...37/100 and pings stop responding. Then the Bit Rates starts to creep down and when it reaches 2 or 1 Mb/s, Link Quality goes up again to 93...97 range and the server starts replying to pings again.

Very weird, why can't it do 54 Mb/s decently even now as the server and wlan-router are less than 1M apart from each other...

I thought that there might some problem with the wireless channels and perhaps some overlap with some neighbours wlan router and I changed the channel to automatic on the router and on Linux but that didn't fix the problem.

Very weird... I don't think that the ndiswrapper or upgrading the kernel are the solutions here. Perhaps I'll change the Rate from Auto to 1Mb/s in the wlan-configuration... But 1MB/s??? come on, the system should be able to do better than that... rats... Perhaps try a new antenna for the wlan-card on the server... go figure...

[ByteBuffer]

I'm not aware of any real wireless issues with 3194, If you do a standard Fedora update you will now get the kernel-2.6.22.4-65.fc7 which is the one with the wireless problems.

GOTCHA!!! Damn, I have actually done the yum update without really thinking about it, I think it was because the desktop suggested the update and I just let it do it... A huge download, as you mentioned...

And sure enough:
# uname -a
Linux servo 2.6.22.4-65.fc7 #1 SMP Tue Aug 21 22:36:56 EDT 2007 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

So now we are talking!

Now, the question is how do I fix the situation? hmm... Get the latest kernel from kernel.org and compile it? Go back one version?

Hmm.... Any good suggestions? This is def the thing to fix first.

[ByteBuffer]

Silly me, the original kernel from the live cd installation (2.6.21-1.3194) seems to be there as well, so I'll just revert to it... No need to get fancy... ;)

[ByteBuffer]

Crap, the older kernel has some issues with wlan it seems:

# ifup wlan0
Error for wireless request "Set Bit Rate" (8B20) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.

Determining IP information for wlan0...

.... and just hangs there

[bbfuller]

Hello ByteBuffer,

Don't want to depress you, but I've just booted my machine with the 3194 kernel. As I hadn't ever used ndiswrapper on that one I was able to modprobe the rt61pci driver and try it.

I found that the first time I tried to connect it failed. The second time it connected without problem and that's using a WPA key.

I have found that there is a difference between clicking on the graphic representation of your network in NetworkManager and selecting "Other Wireless Network" and specifying the lot. Might be worth a try.

[ByteBuffer]

Ok, let's share my final solution:

Step 1:
- Got the latest stable kernel source from kernel.org
- Compiled it, stripping out all non-essential stuff (like Token Ring etc...) that I definitely don't need.

Not sure if I needed to do Step 1, but "my internal geek" just wants to have the latest kernel as well as getting it stripped down to bare minimum... ;) What the heck I'm going to do with e.g. Token Ring or IRDA in my server anyway.

Step 2:
- Downloaded rt61 source from serialmonkey
- Compiled it exactly as instructed.

Step 3:
- Downloaded wpa_supplicant from it's home site
- Patched it with the serialmonkey rt61 driver as instructed in the serialmonkey rt61 source files.
- Compiled it and replaced the FC7 wpa_supplicant with this version.

Step 4:
- Started the whole shebang, wpa_supplicant running (with -Dralink, not -Dwext) and ifup wlan0

Not connecting...?!? Hmm... Enable SSID broadcasting on my router... BINGO! For some reason the older wpa_supplicant version didn't want to connect with the configured SSID when the router didn't broadcast it. The newer wpa_supplicant did connect (once in a while) without the SSID broadcast but as u can read earlier, that solution wasn't really working very well.

Now I have 54Mb/s working with consistent >=80 link quality! And a mean lean stripped down kernel of the latest stable variety.... ;)

[FriedChips]

Nov 07 13:26:34 Installed: kernel-devel - 2.6.23.1-21.fc7.i686
Nov 07 13:32:17 Installed: kernel - 2.6.23.1-21.fc7.i586

I really think you should have a look at this.
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=139751

[mlehman]

Thanks, FriedChips that was the problem. Now I need to get it working with wpa_supplicant. Should I first get the wireless adapter running without wpa running on the router?/

[mlehman]

Step 3:
- Downloaded wpa_supplicant from it's home site
- Patched it with the serialmonkey rt61 driver as instructed in the serialmonkey rt61 source files.
- Compiled it and replaced the FC7 wpa_supplicant with this version.

Can you elaborate with this please? I don't understand the exact steps that you went through.

I've compiled the driver, (Step 2) but when I run system-config-network, I now have a device called ra0 that is type - 'unknown' and it cannot be edited. Should I remove this device?

Following is the output I get from running iwlist scan:

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:1C:10:A6:90:1A
ESSID:"lehman304"
Mode:Master
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=49/100 Signal level=-62 dBm
Encryption key:on
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=000000cb151e60e4

Mike