Over the last week or so I've been working on a compat-wireless package for Debian. Currently it only includes a collection of ralink drivers (which includes the one built into the Efika MX)

This might be of interest if you have been having problems with the stock wireless driver.

If you had tried one of my old experimental packages I would run apt-get purge compat-wireless before installing this version.

to get the sources and binary packages for squeeze (armel only) go to http://steubentech.com/~talon/Efika-MX/ ... ss/squeeze.

for unstable (armhf only) http://steubentech.com/~talon/Efika-MX/ ... s/unstable

I also have the package in github at http://github.com/wschaub/compat-wireless

you will want to read debian/README.source and use git-buildpackage instead of dpkg-buildpackage if building from git. (I still have a few things to add to README.source to make it more complete)

I hope to eventually get this package (and any updates) into the apt repository soon.

wlan working WAY better now.
Many thanks

I just updated from 3.5-rc5 to 3.5-1spnc. the github is updated as well as the compiled binary packages. It seems to work a lot better than the 3.5-rc5 version on my smartbook.

In this version aside from adding a patch to allow it to link into the kernel (due to a symbol exposed that wasn't supposed to be there) I also disabled hardware encryption in the /etc/modprobe.d/compat-wireless-2.6.31.14.27-efikamx.conf file. I did that because it seemed to work much better with my access point that way. You can simply comment out the options line in that file if you want to turn it back on.

here's the changelog: (the last entry refers to the README.Debian file included with the package)

compat-wireless (3.5-1spnc~genesi2) unstable; urgency=low
.
* Imported Upstream version 3.5-1spnc
* Add patch to get rid of exposed irq_to_desc symbol
* disable hardware encryption.
* Add info about where to get up to date firmware and a caution to
backup

Hi

I am trying to get this working but seem to be loosing wifi compeltely. Here is what I have tried so far:

1. Downlad latest rt2870.bin firmware from git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git and place it in /lib/firmware/2.6.31.14.27-efikamx/

2. Download compat-wireless-2.6.31.14.27-efikamx_3.5-1spnc~genesi2_armel.deb from http://steubentech.com/~talon/Efika-MX/ ... 3.5-1spnc/

3. install compat-wireless-2.6.31.14.27-efikamx_3.5-1spnc~genesi2_armel.deb

4. reboot

After reboot my wlan0 device is gone and lsmod does not show any rt2870 driver loaded at all.

Maybe someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks

AR

do you get any sort of error message when you install the package?
a dmesg might be helpful as well. the new driver should be rt2800usb.

what Image are you using? If I knew which one it would help me do some testing.

Also what kernel are you running? (run uname -a to find out) this package requires 2.6.31.14.27-efikamx

if you want the old driver back just purge the package using dpkg -P compat-wireless-2.6.31.14.27-efikamx and reboot. that should get you back online again.

Hey

Thanks for the reply

- no error - deb package installs fine

- nothing in dmesg about rt2800usb


- using kernel 2.6.31.14.27-efikamx

- using our own Debian squeeze armel based build

Thanks for your help

AR

Do you have your image someplace where I could download it and test my package to see what's going on?
if you don't want to link it on the forums you can just email me at wschaub@genesi-tech.com

No worries and thanks

Our latest image is here

http://www.arxcorp.com/arxbox/files/arX ... 12.img.bz2

Thanks

AR

I just got the time to get your image running. I'm not 100% sure why yet but as far as I can tell the postinstall script doesn't call depmod -a when installed on your system. but it works on my old squeeze headless image which never had my compat-wireless installed on it without a hitch.

If you run depmod -a it should just start working if you do modprobe rt2800usb or reboot.

I will try and find out why this doesn't work and possibly roll it into the next version of the package. If you ever want to built it yourself just take a look at http://library.powerdeveloper.net/index ... atWireless

*UPDATE*
I figured out why depmod -a isn't being run on your system:

The debhelper generated postinstall script bits that call depmod checks for the existence of /boot/System.map-2.6.31.14.27-efikamx

Since that file is not in the /boot of the image you gave me depmod is never run after the package is installed. I hope this is helpful.

doh - that was it... Thanks for all your help

Thanks so much for the prompt attention

AR

hi -

just back at this. Although the driver loads - when I try to connect to a wifi network I get this error:

Any ideas?

Thanks

AR

Ok, I am a bit further

For some reason the rt2870.bin firmware does not get loaded when it is in /lib/firmware/2.6.31.14.27-efikamx/. When I move the rt2870.bin into /lib/firmware/ then it is being found and loaded...

Thanks

AR

I'm pretty sure the compat-wireless stuff always looks for it in /lib/firmware and not someplace else under /lib/firmware. I'm pretty sure we put the rt* firmware directly under /lib firmware as well on all of our images. the debian firmware packages for the rt2x00 stuff also puts them there.

There are a few files that are used by compat-wireless to load the firmware, a udev rule and a udev script, if memory serves, it looks in /lib/firmware instead of lib/firmware/$kver.