rt2500 Wireless PCMCIA card only worked first time **Solved*

[frankc]

I had this old Gateway laptop that I was going to give to charity. Then I read about PuppyLInux and I changed my mind. I did some reading up. The laptop has a Hawking HWC54G wireless PCMCIA card, Rev R. Research told me that the chipset was rt2500. More research led me to tempestous's writeups.

So I installed PuppyLinux 4.0.0. I manually entered the iwpriv and iwconfig commands. I used WPA2. I made some typos but finally got it right. Then I entered the dhcpcd command. The interface (ra0) acquired an IP address . I was able to surf the internet and start a chat session. Boy was I happy. I then created a script that had all the commands in it. Or so I thought. I rebooted the machine to test it out. I have not been able to get it to work since which is really frustrating.

I also tried re-installing but that also did not work.

I have also used the additional modprobe commands to load the additional encryption modules.

Anyone have any suggestions.

Frank

[jcwyatt]

Hi Frank,

I am having a similar problem.

Fujitsu C-series lifebook
Puppy 4.00
Dlink DWL-G650+ (also tried with Ralink 2500)
Dlink wireless router


After a few initial problems I managed to get onto the internet. After rebooting I haven't been able to get on since.

Are you able to connect to your network? I seem to be connected to my LAN; I can ping my router, ping other machines on the network but nothing outside of that network.

The network wizard appears to work and shows a live network.

'xautoconnect to wireless network' gives an error because it can't ping google.

I can login to my router and it shows that puppy has been assigned 192.168.1.3.

I read in one of the development forums that this was a common problem but haven;t found any help on this forum - yet!

Hope we get solutions soon.

Jason

[jcwyatt]

I rebooted from the CD with the RT2500 card and after running pwireless I am connected.

Obviously I've changed a few variables, so I need to find out which one has done the trick, whether it's using Pwireless or whether it's booting from the CD.

I'll report back.

Jason

[deniros]

frankc,

Can you tell which commands you used to connect with wpa to your router?

For i have an asus card (wl-107g), which is rt2500 based. I can connect when using no encryption at all, but the wizzard in alpha 4 tells me wpa is not supported. Might be I have to recompile the rt2500 myself. But maybe it works out of the box by just using a proper command in the console.

Anyway, it would be nice if you can write the commands you used here.

[tempestuous]

Can you tell which commands you used to connect with wpa to your router?

It's all explained in PART 3 of the Wifi HOWTO -
"WPA encryption with Ralink devices"
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 339#159339

The Network Wizard uses wpa_supplicant for WPA configuration, which is a separate application, and the rt2500 driver is not compatible with wpa_supplicant.
But the rt2500 driver does support WPA encryption, via inbuilt hardware functionality which can only be accessed via "iwpriv" (not "iwconfig") commands.

I have heard that the "RutilT" application will handle WPA configuration with the rt2500 driver, but I cannot confirm this.

So go ahead and use iwpriv commands for WPA setup, but the best way to avoid this confusion is to upgrade to Puppy 4.1alpha5 which contains completely overhauled Ralink wifi drivers, now fully compatible with "conventional" WPA configuration.
The new Ralink driver is "rt2500pci", not "rt2500" as before.

[frankc]

So go ahead and use iwpriv commands for WPA setup, but the best way to avoid this confusion is to upgrade to Puppy 4.1alpha5 which contains completely overhauled Ralink wifi drivers, now fully compatible with "conventional" WPA configuration.
The new Ralink driver is "rt2500pci", not "rt2500" as before.

I am downloading the file puppy-4.0.5.seamonkey.iso from the test/puppy4.1alpha5 directory as I am writing this. I will report back the results.

Do I still follow the command line instructions or will the wizard work?

Frank

[frankc]

Forgot to ask:
In the same directory as the iso file is a sfs file. Do I need this file? Are there directions somewhere for how to use it?

Thanks,
Frank

[frankc]

Ok. I booted up off the 4.1Alpha/4.0.5 CD. I noticed that the network interface went from ra0 to wlan0. I entered the command:
ifconfig wlan0 up

Followed by:
iwpriv wlan0 set NetworkType=Infra

Got the following:
wlan0 no private ioctls.

I received the same message for any iwpriv command that I entered.

iwconfig commands seemed to work.
iwconfig wlan0 essid my_ssid

did not complain. And
iwconfig

listed the ESSID as I entered it.

Am I doing things correctly or should I be using something else?


Frank

[tempestuous]

In the same directory as the iso file is a sfs file. Do I need this file?

No. That's the devx_405.sfs squashfile, which adds the developer tools if you want to compile applications from source code.

Do I still follow the command line instructions or will the wizard work?

The Network Wizard should work. But if the Wizard fails, the commands you should use are the "conventional" wpa_supplicant commands explained in the Wifi HOWTO, not the Ralink-specific instructions. The Ralink-specific instructions only apply to the older "legacy" Ralink wifi drivers, not the new "rt2x00" series drivers, as contained in Puppy 4.1.

[frankc]

The Network Wizard should work. But if the Wizard fails, the commands you should use are the "conventional" wpa_supplicant commands explained in the Wifi HOWTO, not the Ralink-specific instructions. The Ralink-specific instructions only apply to the older "legacy" Ralink wifi drivers, not the new "rt2x00" series drivers, as contained in Puppy 4.1.

I clicked on the 'connect' icon on the desktop. The wizard sees the card and recognizes it. However when I click on the 'Wireless' button to configure the wireless network, I get the message:
Note: The interface you have selected uses the module rt2500pci,
which does not support WPA encryption.

So I looked in /etc for wpa_supplicant2.conf...no such file. But wpa_supplicant.conf was there. I modified it as follows:
ssid="my_ssid"
psk="my psk"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=AES
group=AES

I then ran: wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -D wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -dd

Messages:
Line 10: invalid cipher 'AES'.
Line 10: failed to parse pairwise AES
Line 11: invalid cipher 'AES'.
Line 11: failed to parse group 'AES'.

[frankc]

In /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, I changed AES to CCMP on pairwise and group lines. Still did not work. Only this this there is lots of output. The messages seems to repeat as if wpa_supplicant is in a loop.

BTW, the link and activity lights on the card were on while wpa_supplicant was running.

Frank

[tempestuous]

However when I click on the 'Wireless' button to configure the wireless network, I get the message:
Note: The interface you have selected uses the module rt2500pci, which does not support WPA encryption.

Oops, that's my fault. When the Wizard was being modified for recent kernels I advised Barry on the Developer Blog what new modules supported WPA, and I missed the rt2500pci. I will report this in the Network Wizard thread.

I looked in /etc for wpa_supplicant2.conf...no such file.

That's weird, it's been in every version of Puppy since about 3.01. I will also report this in the Network Wizard thread.

A dotpet with these two fixes is attached.

[frankc]

tempestuous,
Thanks.

I downloaded the .pet file. But I don't know what to do with it. Are there instructions on the web?

[tempestuous]

In ROX, just click the dotpet to install.
Hopefully the Network Wizard will now work.
But if it fails, you now have the correct wpa_supplicant2.conf file to use with manual commands.

[frankc]

Nogo.

In the Network wizard, I click on "Wireless LAN" -> wlan0 -> Wireless -> Scan.

It sees a network with a hidden ESSID and encryption on. I select it.

In the Edit Profile frame, I click WPA2, enter a profile name, ESSID and Shared Key. BTW Security says Open and Restricted is grayed out. I click Save and then Use this Profile. It comes back with 'Unable to establish WPA connection'.

Onto the command line.

I edit /etc/wpa_supplicant2.conf and change the ssid and psk. In one window, I enter:
wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -D wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant2.conf -dd

Lots of messages appear.

In a separate window, I enter:
dhcpcd -t 30 -h puppypc2 -d wlan0

It also displays lots of messages. But the IP address that it eventually uses is 169.254.2.167. Not the right one. It should be in the range 192.168.2.x.

BTW both the Link and Activity lights on the wireless card are on solid.

Is there anything that I could post to help further.

BTW, thanks for all the help.

Frank

[tempestuous]

In one window, I enter:
wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -D wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant2.conf -dd
Lots of messages appear.

That sounds like a successful WPA2 connection ... as long as the messages come to a conclusion, and there's no obvious error reported. I'm guessing that maybe dhcpcd is failing. Two suggestions;

1. try the alternate dhcpcd command as suggested by rerwin -

Code: Select all

dhcpcd -I '' -t 30 -h puppypc2 -d wlan0

That's two apostrophes, not a quotation mark.

2. try a static IP address, let's say 192.168.2.9. Modify /etc/resolv.conf to include your nameservers, then

Code: Select all

ifconfig wlan0 192.168.2.9 broadcast 192.168.2.255 netmask 255.255.255.0
route add default gw 192.168.2.1 wlan0

If option 1 fails, but option 2 works, clearly dhcpcd is at fault. I could provide the latest dhcpcd version (3.2.3) ... but let's wait and see.

[frankc]

The wpa_supplicant / dhcpd (with the -I'' option) combination did not work. Again it assigned the IP address 169.254.2.167.

I downed the interface.


Contents of /etc/resolv.conf:
domain Belkin
search Belkin
nameserver 192.168.2.1

I copied this from a working Linux box with a wired network interface and dhcp.

I assigned a static IP address and added the route with wpa_supplicant still up and running. No complaints.

When I attempt to ping the router (192.168.2.1), nothing comes back.

I repeated the above procedure without wpa_supplicant running. Same results.

[tempestuous]

Well it seems that a WPA connection is not being properly established, so dhcpcd is not at fault.
We're now at the point of trial and error. I suggest that before running the wpa_supplicant command, load any/all encryption-related modules -

Code: Select all

modrpobe arc4
modprobe ecb
modprobe crypto_blkcipher
modprobe aes_generic
modprobe crc32c

If still no success, it would seem that the rt2500pci module is not working with wpa_supplicant as it should. I could try compiling the latest wpa_supplicant, but before going this far it's probably wise to first check that WEP encryption is OK. I would change encryption at the router to WEP and try to make a connection using the appropriate iwconfig commands.

[frankc]

Well it seems that a WPA connection is not being properly established, so dhcpcd is not at fault.
We're now at the point of trial and error. I suggest that before running the wpa_supplicant command, load any/all encryption-related modules -

Code: Select all

modrpobe arc4
modprobe ecb
modprobe crypto_blkcipher
modprobe aes_generic
modprobe crc32c

If still no success, it would seem that the rt2500pci module is not working with wpa_supplicant as it should. I could try compiling the latest wpa_supplicant, but before going this far it's probably wise to first check that WEP encryption is OK. I would change encryption at the router to WEP and try to make a connection using the appropriate iwconfig commands.

All the modules were already loaded. I checked by doing an lsmod | grep command for each module.

I changed the router to WEP and issued the following commands:
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid my_essid key 1234567890 mode managed

dhcpcd -t 30 -h puppypc2 -d wlan0

It assigned the IP address: 192.168.2.6.

Pinging the router (192.168.2.1) works.

Hot damn. But I really don't want to do WEP.

[tempestuous]

OK, WEP is working but WPA is the problem.
frankc, your results are very helpful. There have been similar reports about connection failures at the point of DHCP, but with your accurate reporting it seems that the problem is clearly with wpa_supplicant.
Later tonight I will investigate the state of play with wpa_supplicant.