[SLL] USB WiFi and Linux (rt2870)

[Jarod Wilson]

On Fri, 2008-12-26 at 15:28 -0800, Brian Lane wrote:
> I've got a project here where I am trying to get a USB WiFi adapter
> working with Fedora 9. I've got a WUSB600N and an Edimax EW-7718 which
> both use the ralink ra2870 driver. The 600N needs a patch so that its
> USB ID is recognized, the 7718 doesn't.
> 
> The are recognized by the system, show up in lsusb just fine, and when I
> install the rt2870 meta package iwconfig the other iwtools show their
> status.
> 
> But for the life of me I am unable to get either of them to work
> (defined as connecting to an AP and getting an IP).
> 
> I have a brand new Linksys AP here that isn't connected to anything. It
> is setup in open mode. Both adapters see it and when I try to connect
> (using either the iwpriv commands suggested by the ra2870 docs) or the
> /etc/Wireless/RA... setup file -- but when I run iwconfig repeatedly I
> can see them associate with the AP (showing its SSID and MAC) and then
> they drop it. And re-associate, then drop. I can't get an IP from it at all.
> 
> When trying to associate with my WPA2 protected AP the association looks
> good and stable. Repeated runs of iwconfig always show its SSID and MAC.
> Connection quality is good (100/100). But setting the encryption key
> doesn't work! iwconfig continues to show no key and it won't get an IP.
> 
> Has anyone successfully used a rt2870 based USB WiFi? Do you have any
> suggestions as to what to try? I'm pretty well out of ideas. Everything
> I see on the net says 'It works'. Everything I try says 'its a POS'.

Odd. The exact same Edimax stick in my possession connects to both my
D-Link DIR-655 802.11n AP w/WPA2 protection here at home, and the
(Cisco, I think) 802.11G AP('s) w/WEP at the office just fine, gets an
IP via DHCP, etc. We should be using pretty similar kernels too, F10 and
F9's latest available update kernels are reasonably well in sync right
now. I think I've only tried mine on an i686 box, not sure if that's
relevant or not. Throughput over 802.11n is excellent, actually tends to
be consistently better than either the iwl4965 in my ThinkPad T61 or the
iwl5350 in my Acer Aspire One.

--jarod