any luck with wireless USB adaptors?

DISCUSSION Mike Timmons 4 participants 8 messages Jan 27, 2009 – Feb 3, 2009

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Mike Timmons

author

2009-01-27 03:45 UTC #0 lore raw

I'm running 2.6.24 with Freescale's lite5200 as my base. I'm interested in this USB adaptor for wireless USB, but my web search does not make me confident that my effort will yield fruit.

Can anyone direct me to a good source outlining success stories with wireless USB adaptors? At present I'm mesing with Linksys WUSB54GC and some driver source from Ralink, but my cross-compile is not working.

I'll keep wrestling with it, but please offer some advice if you can.

Thanks!

Jon Smirl

2009-01-27 04:26 UTC #1 lore raw

Quoted 3 lines · Mike Timmons

I'm running 2.6.24 with Freescale's lite5200 as my base. I'm interested in this USB adaptor for wireless USB, but my web search does not make me confident that my effort will yield fruit.

I just turned on all wireless drivers in my mpc5200 build and they all built ok. I'm using Linus' current git tree.
rt2501 (WUSB54GC) is in the current kernel.

AFAIK these should work. Some times there are minor problems with endianess but they aren't hard to fix. The usual error is loading the firmware byte swapped.

Quoted 13 lines

Can anyone direct me to a good source outlining success stories with wireless USB adaptors? At present I'm mesing with Linksys WUSB54GC and some driver source from Ralink, but my cross-compile is not working.
I'll keep wrestling with it, but please offer some advice if you can.
Thanks!
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Jon Smirl
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Grant Likely

2009-01-27 05:01 UTC #2 lore raw

In reply to Mike Timmons

Quoted 7 lines · Mike Timmons

I'm running 2.6.24 with Freescale's lite5200 as my base. I'm interested in this USB adaptor for wireless USB, but my web search does not make me confident that my effort will yield fruit.
Can anyone direct me to a good source outlining success stories with wireless USB adaptors? At present I'm mesing with Linksys WUSB54GC and some driver source from Ralink, but my cross-compile is not working.

Umm, the WUSB54GC is not a "wireless USB" adapter. It is a USB WiFi adapter. If you're looking for wireless USB then it is the wrong device.

If you are looking for a suitable wifi adapter, then that device should work, but if you can go with a PCI or a miniPCI WiFi adapter instead then you should get better performance. The 5200 only has USB 1.1.

I'm having good success with an Atheros miniPCI adapter at the moment using a 2.6.28 kernel.

Mike Timmons

author

2009-01-27 06:50 UTC #3 lore raw

Thanks. Yes, USB wi fi is what I'm after. I did find the driver I needed after enabling the WLAN80211 and EXPERIMENTAL options. The device discovery appears to work, and with wireless tools I can iwconfig and see my interface.

QUESTION: when I "ifoncfig wlan0 up" it results in an attempt to load a firmwmare file as follows. as you can see, it fails. What are these firmware files? I can't find it in my build output. How do I build it or where do I get it? Where would I put it on my target?

I did search for answers to these questions and tried to stick an rt73.bin of unknown origin (to me anyway) in /lib/firmware but I got the same error.

-sh-2.05b# ifconfig wlan0 up

[ 2212.027071] phy1 -> rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt73.bin'.
[ 2272.058793] phy1 -> rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Error - Failed to request Firmware.

SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory

Thanks again,
Mike

Quoted 25 lines · Grant Likely

Quoted 8 lines · Mike Timmons
I'm running 2.6.24 with Freescale's lite5200 as my base. I'm interested in this USB adaptor for wireless USB, but my web search does not make me confident that my effort will yield fruit.
Can anyone direct me to a good source outlining success stories with wireless USB adaptors? At present I'm mesing with Linksys WUSB54GC and some driver source from Ralink, but my cross-compile is not working.
Umm, the WUSB54GC is not a "wireless USB" adapter. It is a USB WiFi adapter. If you're looking for wireless USB then it is the wrong device.
If you are looking for a suitable wifi adapter, then that device should work, but if you can go with a PCI or a miniPCI WiFi adapter instead then you should get better performance. The 5200 only has USB 1.1.
I'm having good success with an Atheros miniPCI adapter at the moment using a 2.6.28 kernel.
g.

Jon Smirl

2009-01-27 14:16 UTC #4 lore raw

Quoted 9 lines · Mike Timmons

Thanks. Yes, USB wi fi is what I'm after. I did find the driver I needed after enabling the WLAN80211 and EXPERIMENTAL options. The device discovery appears to work, and with wireless tools I can iwconfig and see my interface.
QUESTION: when I "ifoncfig wlan0 up" it results in an attempt to load a firmwmare file as follows. as you can see, it fails. What are these firmware files? I can't find it in my build output. How do I build it or where do I get it? Where would I put it on my target?

Kconfig
Device drivers
generic driver options
user space firmware support
check - include in-kernel firmware blobs in kernel binary

Quoted 54 lines

I did search for answers to these questions and tried to stick an rt73.bin of unknown origin (to me anyway) in /lib/firmware but I got the same error.
-sh-2.05b# ifconfig wlan0 up
[ 2212.027071] phy1 -> rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware
file 'rt73.bin'.
[ 2272.058793] phy1 -> rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Error - Failed to request
Firmware.
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
Thanks again,
Mike
\
Quoted 25 lines · Grant Likely
Quoted 11 lines · Mike Timmons
I'm running 2.6.24 with Freescale's lite5200 as my base. I'm interested in
this USB adaptor for wireless USB, but my web search does not make me confident that my effort will yield fruit.
Can anyone direct me to a good source outlining success stories with wireless USB adaptors? At present I'm mesing with Linksys WUSB54GC and some
driver source from Ralink, but my cross-compile is not working.
Umm, the WUSB54GC is not a "wireless USB" adapter. It is a USB WiFi adapter. If you're looking for wireless USB then it is the wrong device.
If you are looking for a suitable wifi adapter, then that device should work, but if you can go with a PCI or a miniPCI WiFi adapter instead then you should get better performance. The 5200 only has USB 1.1.
Quoted 5 lines
I'm having good success with an Atheros miniPCI adapter at the moment using a 2.6.28 kernel.
g.
_______________________________________________
Linuxppc-dev mailing list
[email protected]
https://ozlabs.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxppc-dev

Signature · 2 lines

Jon Smirl
[email protected]

Mike Timmons

author

2009-01-27 17:28 UTC #5 lore raw

Thanks Jon. I'm still struggling with this rt73.bin issue. My 2.6.24 Kconfig presents options slightly different from what you describe below. I've tried a few different settings and I placed the rt73.bin you sent me under /lib/firmware.

I'm still getting the "failure to load rt73.bin" error on "ifconfig wlan0 up".

my "generic" Kconfig options read as follows. I'm not sure if/what option maps to, "include in-kernel firmware blobs in kernel binary"

Could this be a udev issue?

(/sbin/hotplug) path to uevent helper
? ? [*] Select only drivers that don't need compile-time external firmware ? ? [ ] Prevent firmware from being built
? ? {*} Userspace firmware loading support
? ? [ ] Driver Core verbose debug messages
? ? [ ] Managed device resources verbose debug messages

I'll keep trying different things, but if you can provide additional guidance I will appreciate it very much. Thanks again.

Quoted 78 lines · Jon Smirl

Quoted 10 lines · Mike Timmons
Thanks. Yes, USB wi fi is what I'm after. I did find the driver I needed after enabling the WLAN80211 and EXPERIMENTAL options. The device discovery appears to work, and with wireless tools I can iwconfig and see my interface.
QUESTION: when I "ifoncfig wlan0 up" it results in an attempt to load a firmwmare file as follows. as you can see, it fails. What are these firmware files? I can't find it in my build output. How do I build it or where do I get it? Where would I put it on my target?
Kconfig
Device drivers
generic driver options
user space firmware support
check - include in-kernel firmware blobs in kernel binary
Quoted 54 lines
I did search for answers to these questions and tried to stick an rt73.bin of unknown origin (to me anyway) in /lib/firmware but I got the same error.
-sh-2.05b# ifconfig wlan0 up
[ 2212.027071] phy1 -> rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware
file 'rt73.bin'.
[ 2272.058793] phy1 -> rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Error - Failed to request
Firmware.
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
Thanks again,
Mike
\
Quoted 24 lines · Grant Likely
Quoted 11 lines · Mike Timmons
I'm running 2.6.24 with Freescale's lite5200 as my base. I'm interested in
this USB adaptor for wireless USB, but my web search does not make me confident that my effort will yield fruit.
Can anyone direct me to a good source outlining success stories with wireless USB adaptors? At present I'm mesing with Linksys WUSB54GC and some
driver source from Ralink, but my cross-compile is not working.
Umm, the WUSB54GC is not a "wireless USB" adapter. It is a USB WiFi adapter. If you're looking for wireless USB then it is the wrong device.
If you are looking for a suitable wifi adapter, then that device should work, but if you can go with a PCI or a miniPCI WiFi adapter instead then you should get better performance. The 5200 only has USB 1.1.
Quoted 6 lines
I'm having good success with an Atheros miniPCI adapter at the moment using a 2.6.28 kernel.
g.
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John W. Linville

2009-01-27 18:31 UTC #6 lore raw

Quoted 7 lines · Mike Timmons

Thanks Jon. I'm still struggling with this rt73.bin issue. My 2.6.24 Kconfig presents options slightly different from what you describe below. I've tried a few different settings and I placed the rt73.bin you sent me under /lib/firmware.
I'm still getting the "failure to load rt73.bin" error on "ifconfig wlan0 up".

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/rt73usb#devicefirmware

Hth!

John

Signature · 2 lines

John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
[email protected]			might be all we have.  Be ready.

Mike Timmons

author

2009-02-03 05:23 UTC #7 lore raw

kernel 2.6.24 USB wlan firmware loading issue(s): rt73.bin...

In reply to Mike Timmons

I received great help last week in getting a USB wi fi device working. Thanks again, but can someone read below and advise me on kernel 2.6.24? The best out-of-the box solution for me was 2.6.27.8, for which I needed a Denx eldx toolchain in place of the toolchain I was using to compile 2.6.24. The significance of all this is that I did get USB wi fi working, but...

I'm not in a position to upgrade from 2.6.24 at this time. I need to get the USB wi wi (Linksys WUSB54GC) working under 2.6.24.

After success with linking firmware with the 2.6.27.8 kernel, 2.6.24 I keep hitting this error when loading from user space (I don't appear to have the, "link with kernel" option with 2.6.24)...

sh-2.05b# ifconfig wlan0 up

[  764.744354] phy0 -> rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt73.bin'.

I have spent many, many hours following leads (and links) this group has directed me to. I've done the following...

1)placed rt73.bin in various locations (/lib/firmware, lib/firmware/'uname -a', and the location specified by my /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent)

None of this appears to make a difference.

2) I'm a bit confused by the hotplug dependancy, although I do have hotplug enabled. "hotplug" makes me think I should be configuring some script to load the firmware upon device insertion, but, "ifconfig wlan0 up" appears to want to load the firmware anyway so I'm guessing if I just get rt73.bin in the right spot it should work.

Comparing my working 2.6.27.8 to 2.6.24 in the areas of "firmware: and the ralink rt2x00 drivers reveals MANY changes, no doubt for the better.

QUESTIONS:
1) Am I missing something VERY simple on this firmware loading topic that should make this work under 2.6.24, or am I bumping into the reason so much of this code has changed between 2.6.24 and 2.6.27.8?

2) am I correctly, "installing" the firmware just by placing rt73.bin in the correct location in my filesystem, or is there some other magic required before, "request_firmware()" will work?

Just when I thought I understood some of the kernel I hit a new topic: firmware loading! Any help much appreciated...

-Mike

Quoted 100 lines · Mike Timmons

Thanks Jon. I'm still struggling with this rt73.bin issue. My 2.6.24 Kconfig presents options slightly different from what you describe below. I've tried a few different settings and I placed the rt73.bin you sent me under /lib/firmware.
I'm still getting the "failure to load rt73.bin" error on "ifconfig wlan0 up".
my "generic" Kconfig options read as follows. I'm not sure if/what option maps to, "include in-kernel firmware blobs in kernel binary"
Could this be a udev issue?
(/sbin/hotplug) path to uevent helper
? ? [*] Select only drivers that don't need compile-time external firmware ? ? [ ] Prevent firmware from being built
? ? {*} Userspace firmware loading support
? ? [ ] Driver Core verbose debug messages
? ? [ ] Managed device resources verbose debug messages
I'll keep trying different things, but if you can provide additional guidance I will appreciate it very much. Thanks again.
Quoted 78 lines · Jon Smirl
Quoted 10 lines · Mike Timmons
Thanks. Yes, USB wi fi is what I'm after. I did find the driver I needed after enabling the WLAN80211 and EXPERIMENTAL options. The device discovery appears to work, and with wireless tools I can iwconfig and see my interface.
QUESTION: when I "ifoncfig wlan0 up" it results in an attempt to load a firmwmare file as follows. as you can see, it fails. What are these firmware files? I can't find it in my build output. How do I build it or where do I get it? Where would I put it on my target?
Kconfig
Device drivers
generic driver options
user space firmware support
check - include in-kernel firmware blobs in kernel binary
Quoted 54 lines
I did search for answers to these questions and tried to stick an rt73.bin of unknown origin (to me anyway) in /lib/firmware but I got the same error.
-sh-2.05b# ifconfig wlan0 up
[ 2212.027071] phy1 -> rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware
file 'rt73.bin'.
[ 2272.058793] phy1 -> rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Error - Failed to request
Firmware.
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
Thanks again,
Mike
\
Quoted 24 lines · Grant Likely
Quoted 11 lines · Mike Timmons
I'm running 2.6.24 with Freescale's lite5200 as my base. I'm interested in
this USB adaptor for wireless USB, but my web search does not make me confident that my effort will yield fruit.
Can anyone direct me to a good source outlining success stories with wireless USB adaptors? At present I'm mesing with Linksys WUSB54GC and some
driver source from Ralink, but my cross-compile is not working.
Umm, the WUSB54GC is not a "wireless USB" adapter. It is a USB WiFi adapter. If you're looking for wireless USB then it is the wrong device.
If you are looking for a suitable wifi adapter, then that device should work, but if you can go with a PCI or a miniPCI WiFi adapter instead then you should get better performance. The 5200 only has USB 1.1.
Quoted 6 lines
I'm having good success with an Atheros miniPCI adapter at the moment using a 2.6.28 kernel.
g.
_______________________________________________
Linuxppc-dev mailing list
[email protected]
https://ozlabs.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxppc-dev