[...] sourced here [...]

Wow! Great video on how to choose and set-up specific Wireless cards. :) If you read your comments Matt, I have a Creative Live! Cam Video IM Pro and how do I use it on Ubuntu (7.10) and what screen capturing software do you use?

Thanks.

Mushu: hi and I do read them. :) Will be coming back here later today with some thoughts on that. ;)

Okay, I’m on Windows now and might be switching ot Ubuntu again (which I’ve used various times) and I’ll keep updated on your videos also w/google reader and I’ll get some great tips from you. :)

Thanks.

Mushu: Ran short on time, but it looks like your cam ought to work. If not, I have a back-up plan. Assuming you are looking for either FTP or local image capturing, there are two programs that ought to work really well.

If however, you are looking to “stream” live video, I am going to be doing a tutorial on using a supported webcam and ustream.tv here very soon. :)

The two applications camstream and camorama. Both programs will work, but you may find that camstream does not show up in the application list after it is installed and will have to be run by typing camstream into the terminal.

Both support FTP and local capturing. Stay tuned for a video series that will cover all of this soon.

Matt, first of all, thanks for the info and video.

I am a total newbie to Linux and Ubuntu….trying to figure it all out as I go. I purchased the Edimax EW-7318USg because of its supposed native support of Linux. I have been trying to get this thing to work for a week now without success.

I followed your instructions for the Edimax EW-7318USg, installing and using the script, and for the Wicd installation. I am still not able to connect to my wireless network using WEP. I can see it, but I cannot connect to it.

The script closes the terminal window when it finishes, so I had to paste the script into a separate window in order to be able to copy and paste the script session into the text editor for saving. Here it is (sorry for the length):

mike@mike-D410:~$ #! /bin/sh -f
mike@mike-D410:~$ echo ‘blacklist rt2500usb’ | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
blacklist rt2500usb
mike@mike-D410:~$ sleep 2
mike@mike-D410:~$ gksudo modprobe rt73usb
mike@mike-D410:~$ sleep 3
mike@mike-D410:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:”Bay16St”
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.452 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

mike@mike-D410:~$ sleep 7
mike@mike-D410:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
* Reconfiguring network interfaces… There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid with pid 3935
removed stale PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.5
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:22:fd:b1:2e
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:14:22:fd:b1:2e
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on eth0 to 192.168.1.1 port 67
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid with pid 134519120
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.5
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:22:fd:b1:2e
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:14:22:fd:b1:2e
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.1
DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.1.1
bound to 192.168.1.105 — renewal in 40630 seconds.
[ OK ]
mike@mike-D410:~$ sleep 3

Do you have any ideas or suggestion? I really need to work wirelessly or else I am forced to go back to WinXP.

Thank you so much!

Mickey: Did you try something else before this card? Using Gusty, not Feisty, it should work fine. I am wondering if something if something else was attempted to be compiled previous to this?

Also bear in mind I never tested WEP, only WPA - big difference, one is obsolete and the other is not. ;)

So here is what I need. From a terminal run the following then paste the results back here:

uname -r

then

lsusb

Matt,

Yes, I am using Gutsy and this is the only adapter I have tried. Here are the results you requested.

Thanks!

mike@mike-D410:~$ uname -r
2.6.22-14-generic
mike@mike-D410:~$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 148f:2573 Ralink Technology, Corp.
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:0023 Microsoft Corp. Trackball Optical
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
mike@mike-D410:~$

Mickey: Great, looks just like it should. I am wondering if you are seeing a conflict with one of the other existing networking devices; either integrated wifi or otherwise.

Just for giggles, go ahead and open a terminal (you must hate me for asking this again). Type in the word:

route

then hit the enter key.

You might see something “like”, be it not exactly, this:

Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 wmaster0
default 192.168.0.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

If you are seeing eth0 or 1 or anything else, try this:

Back in a terminal, type this:

ifconfig eth0 down

hit enter, then paste in:

route add default gw 192.168.0.1

Now go ahead in a terminal again, paste in:

gksudo modprobe rt73usb

then enter your password, then try Wicd again without any encryption, for testing. Post back your results.

Mickey: After looking into this more, there is no question - the clues are here.

wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:22:fd:b1:2e
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:14:22:fd:b1:2e
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on eth0 to 192.168.1.1 port 67
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid with pid 134519120

So I’d try what I suggested above for a test. If it works, we need to look at disabling your eth0 when using wireless as this is your culprit.

Matt,

Still no luck. I can’t get a connection even without encryption. I assume that I must use sudo or gksudo before the commands you had me paste. Otherwise I got error messages:

mike@mike-D410:~$ route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
link-local * 255.255.0.0 U 1000 0 0 eth0
default 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 100 0 0 eth0
mike@mike-D410:~$ ifconfig eth0 down
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Permission denied
mike@mike-D410:~$ sudo ifconfig eth0 down
[sudo] password for mike:
mike@mike-D410:~$ route add default gw 192.168.0.1
SIOCADDRT: Operation not permitted
mike@mike-D410:~$
mike@mike-D410:~$ sudo route add default gw 192.168.0.1
SIOCADDRT: No such process
mike@mike-D410:~$
mike@mike-D410:~$ gksudo route add default gw 192.168.0.1
mike@mike-D410:~$ gksudo modprobe rt73usb
mike@mike-D410:~$

You probably already know this but the adapter comes with “Build” and “Configuration” instructions that are cryptic and confusing to a newbie like me. For example, I am instructed to “run ‘cp Makefile.6 Makefile’ ” where there is no file named Makefile.6 anywhere on the CD. I hope I didn’t mess anything up in trying to follow these bad instructions.

Thank you for your patience and persistence.

Mickey: Two things come to mind. It appears that your gateway is 192.168.1.1 instead of 192.168.0.1, so I would try all of that again using the other gateway IP. That was my bad, I still think it is your eth0 running that is causing the problem.

Running route on my notebook gives me the following:

matt@matt-laptop:~$ route
(Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan4
default 192.168.0.200 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan4

Note how there no mention of eth0 at all? So here is what we will try next, as I had to do this with some notebooks, especially when they have integrated wireless we are trying to avoid.

If this does not help, let’s make sure nothing else is trying to take over here in the wireless world. Again, whatever you do, don’t bother trying to compile the driver, it will just get you frustrated. trust me and frankly, the driver is already installed.

In a terminal:

gksudo gedit gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

At the bottom of the list, add:

blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist ipv6
blacklist rt2500usb

Now save and close, understanding that blacklist rt2500usb should have already been blacklisted via the script, just make sure there is not a # sign next to it.

Now do this in the same terminal:

gksudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

Copy contents into a new file, save it as interfaces.bak

Back in the sudo’d interfaces file, erase everything and /only/ have this in it:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

There should be nothing else in there after you make the change. Save, and then:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

In Wicd, go ahead and open it and then disconnect once - nothing happens and hit disconnect again - it may freeze for a second of two.

In a terminal, do another iwconfig, you should see iwlan0 or iwlan1 or something like that. Take which ever one it is, enter that into Wicd’s preferences, save it. Then use the refresh button in Wicd to scan for networks. If networks are showing up, yet nothing is connecting, try clicking the sideways triangle, to expand the network’s options. Toggle on the autoconnect function, close Wicd, then restart it. Then test Firefox again.

Also in the preferences, make sure the default driver is set to WEXT, even if you are not using WPA.

Mickey: Just had a sudden and sad for me, rather obvious thought - always scary…lol

Your notebook does not have the networking (Ethernet) cable plugged in, does it? Because this would certainly explain why router is showing eth0 as active I bet.

Matt,

Yes, I have kept the ethernet cable plugged in throughout the previous attempts. I will follow your instructions over the weekend and report back to you.

Thanks again and have a GREAT Thanksgiving holiday!

Mickey: You have a great holiday as well. :)
Unplug the cable, restart the notebook. Try again. If still no go, follow the previous instructions on editing your interfaces file.

Matt, still no luck. I don’t want to further clog up your page so please feel free to post any further troubleshooting as you feel is appropriate. I will email you my contact info so we can discuss further.

Thank you again for all of your help and support.

Mickey: That is about it. Short of starting over with a clean install, not trying to compile anything, it works, be it a little quirky as it may not clearly show you as connected. It’s been tested with and without WPA on three different notebooks from various vendors and of different times of release - old to new, it works.

I’d simply start with a clean, untouched installation. Use a USB thumbdrive to get Wicd onto the notebook (using Wicd 1.3.4) and follow this post to the letter, there is no reason why it should not work, unless you have some very strange hardware conflict somewhere along the line.

-No Ethernet should be plugged in at all.
-No compiling the serialmonkey code as this is the fast track to a problem, believe me.
- Understand that you may see a bunch of yellow bars rather than green ones indicating signal strength.

Oh, and make sure you are entering the right interface into the Wicd menu as this is critical.

Edimax EW-7318Ug :- Zydas zd1211 chipset (zd1211rw module)

Edimax EW-7318USg :- Ralink RT2570(?) chipset (rt73/rt2570 module)

I am curious to know the wireless PCMCIA cards that you have presented on the youtube link. I noticed one of them was Linksys WPC54G PCMCIA wifi card. If that was version 1 or version 3 it should work with linux natively. I have version 3 of that card and its Broadcom BCM4318 chipset which works with BCM43xx driver for the meantime until b43 is used which will appear in wireless-2.6 git or 2.6.24.

psycho_oreos: That is interesting about the module with the EW-7318Ug. I have one myself, it uses the same goodies as the USg. I have also spoken at length with Edimax, I was was told that as I had experienced, both are using rt73/rt2570.

lsusb results:
Bus 003 Device 006: ID 148f:2573 Ralink Technology, Corp.
And under the Device manager:
USB Specific Interface:
Advanced tab:
info.linux.driver - string - rt73USB

Is yours possibly something else?? Edimax as a policy, generally releases a new model as they do not use revisions of the same model.

As for the WPC54G, yes, it did work after inserting the CD and installing linux-wlan-ng. ;) Again though, I do not support companies that pull the revision number nonsense and that do not work with the community to support Linux. Linksys does not.

Matt,

I am new to Ubuntu and linux in general, but wanted to re-purpose my old iBook. But the only version of Ubuntu I could find was Dapper Drake 6.0.6.1.

Can I use these same steps to install on Dapper? I happen to have the EW-7318UG already, so I thought I should give it a try.

Thanks for any help! All the great info you post here has helped me learn a lot about my new OS!

Gary: It’s worth a shot, but Gutsy is using a new wireless stack that works a lot better than what was used back then. Frankly, be it not tested on a PPC architecture, you will be better off downloading the PPC ISO from here.
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/gutsy/release/

If creating the CD from OS X, here is a guide. Otherwise for Windows,
https://sourceforge.net/projects/isoburn/

Again, I would expect failure with Dapper myself. Truly, Gutsy for PPC is better.

Hi Matt,

The only Edimax product that I have purchased and soon will receive are wifi booster. Apart from that I have Alfa AWUS036S which has the same chipset as your Edimax EW-7318USg.

I like how Edimax’s approach, it is a lot better than Netgear these days. Netgear has made two woeful mistakes that has caused a bit of a stirrup in the linux community. First it was their WG511 with 3 different revisions sharing the same model number but different FCC ID. To add the confusion, they have WG511v2 which is completely incompatible with linux.

The other muckup that Netgear did was with WG111v2, two different chipsets sharing the same model number. The earlier model is not yet compatible with linux but the later model is compatible with linux.

Linksys is a bit poor with constant chipset changing, however I don’t think they are as worse as Netgear.

It is very annoying how they don’t have such information on their site, it costs maybe $2 for just a few words on their site to save potential consumer’s hassle. Even at that they still cannot do it.

As for wpc54g, I’m surprised you used linux-wlan-ng. IIRC, wlan-ng is for Intersil PrismII/2.5/III chipsets. I must admit that USB wireless cards are becoming popular contradicting to the idea of having cardbus cards or even express cards. However, I have not seen a `pccardctl’ equivalent for usb devices. pccardctl maybe outdated with many of its functions, however it is still useful if one wants to issue the command eject so the card will not be detected until the command insert has been issued. This removes the hassle of having to physically unplugging and plugging the card in by hand. Such use for that are mainly to update driver and/or firmware.

I personally do hope that chipset manufacturers will still maintain production of fullmac cards as they help relieving the burden on the CPU despite the costs to make such cards compared to softmac.

Once I’ve downloaded the script, is it possible for the script to run without an internet connection? I have no internet connection on my Ubuntu partition but I can download it to my Windows partition and copy it across.

My only concern then is that the script will call ‘apt-get’ or ‘wget’, in which case it will fail. I’m new to Ubuntu (and Linux), so sorry if this is a silly question!

I’m using Gutsy (7.10) with the Edimax EW-7318Ug, by the way. I’ve just upgraded from Feist Fawn (7.04) and lost the flaky internet connection I had previously.

Martin: Yeah, you will be fine. Because this is not a clean install however, I make no promises as to success however.

The script is going to blacklist a couple of wrong drivers, probe the right one and then tell you what your iwconfig is. This is a little like ipconfig on Windows, as you will want to look for something like iwlan0, so you can toss this into Wicd. It will hang a minute after each task here.

From there, the script will restart your networking settings. At no time will it attempt to connect, with the exception of trying to kick start your Edimax card.

Hi Matt, thanks for the reply. I’m going to start on a fresh installation of Gutsy - I made the CD image tonight. I’ve tried working through three other tutorials in the past month, and in doing so I’ve probably messed up my files. iwconfig gives no wireless devices and lshw says the Edimax usb is unclaimed, and that didn’t used to be the case! I’ll start again and let you know how I get on.

Hi Matt, I’ve had partial success. I’ve done a fresh install of Gutsy, and followed your post on setting up wicd as well as this post. I installed the stable version of wicd 1.3.4 because I didn’t see the testing version listed. I couldn’t get a connection - wicd hung on ‘Obtaining an IP address…’. The tray icon had a blue triangle on it, and it said ‘Initializing wicd…’ when you rolled over it.

I found the testing version of 1.3.4 and installed that (after uninstalling the stable version). Then I ran your script again, but no joy. Then I checked your post on ipv6 issues, but that didn’t seem to be the problem.

I switched encryption off and the connection worked fine. Once again, though, with WPA1 encryption enabled the connection hung on ‘Obtaining an IP address…’

I tried a static IP address, but that didn’t work. Then I installed the latest testing version of wicd (1.3.8 as I write) and tried again. I didn’t run the script again - I don’t know if that’s necessary. Anyway, it worked fine with no encryption, and with WPA2 the config panel said ‘Connected to [mySSID] at -1% ([IPaddress])’ and the tray icon didn’t appear, or appeared only briefly. I thought ‘Great!’ but when I opened Firefox there was no connection! Wicd insists there’s a connection.

I’ve triple checked the WPA passphrase, but it’s fine. Any ideas what might be wrong? It must have something to do with encryption, I guess. Thanks for any suggestions - I’m starting to run out of ideas here!

Martin: I believe I mentioned this someplace, but it was buried in the comments someplace.

In recent occasions, I have since found that NM can indeed, work with some RaLink products now.

At the time of the above article, Wicd was a sure bet. However the latest versions left me moving back to NM. Annoying, yes. But whatever. :)

I say this as I tried it again myself and am having the same issues as you. So now for using what I use with my PCMCIA card - NM and a EW-7318ug.

First attempt - success. You will have to connect every time, but it will work. It will show up as Unknown USB Vendor Specific Interface.

My /etc/network/interfaces file is as follows:

#Nothing else here
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

My router (a DLINK Gamer’s Lounge) is set up as follows:

DHCP: on

Enable Auto Channel Scan : checked on
(This means that I do not select the channel, the router does)

Super G: off

Transmission mode: 802.11g only

Transmission Rate : Auto

network visibility: visible

WPA settings-

Wireless security mode: WPA-Personal

WPA Mode: WPA 2 only

Group key interval: 3600

Preshared key: both letters and numbers, only eight characters

If you need the debs for NM again due to no Internet, tell me, I will give them to you on my own server and you can use a flash drive to transport them over to that notebook.

Matt, thanks for the response. I had a look at the Wicd forum, and a few people are having the ‘Getting IP address…’ problem as well as the problem I had where Wicd says you’re connected but you’re not. The only suggestion I saw for this latter problem was to reconfigure your browser, which I didn’t want to do.

Now I’ve reinstalled NM as you suggested but no luck with it. It does seem to work for some people but I can’t get it going. The network is recognised but I can’t connect to it when I put the network details in. The only place I can see my configuration differs from yours is that I have to choose a channel - my router doesn’t have the option for ‘Auto channel scan’. I had Roaming mode switched off in NM.

The ubuntu forums suggest uninstalling NM and using a serialmonkey driver for RT73 devices, which I’ve now tried (following this howto). Again, I get a wireless connection reported but no internet.
I used this method with Feisty and it worked (sporadically), that’s why I’ve dumped NM after just a few tests. Now I’m back to square one!

Three options: 1) Get Wicd to work on an encryted connection, 2) Get NM to work, 3) Get the serialmonkey connection to work, 4) Buy a wireless card that works out of the box, assuming there is one that reliably does that. Hmmm…

Martin: No reason why it should fail like that at all, just keep it DHCP and do not start compiling things.

You mentioned :

“The network is recognized but I can’t connect to it when I put the network details in. ”

Can you elaborate more? With NM and DHCP, there is nothing to put in at all whatsoever, really. Pull it down and select the network - that is it. So I need to have that clarified for me as I have a feeling there are extra unneeded steps happening here.

Martin: Also, did you double check those files mentioned previously as well? Especially the /etc/network/interfaces file? If not - bingo.

Matt, thanks for your suggestions. I really appreciate them. I think you’re right about those extra steps!

I couldn’t give you more details about the NM failure because I was (and am) writing from work rather than home. I’m pretty sure I checked that /etc/network/interfaces file, but now I’m wondering. I’ll start again with NM and get some details. Thanks again.

And finally, once the compiling starts, the likelihood of success goes away really fast. So if this has already happened, nothing below is likely to help much. Still, should you want to try one last time…

Unless there is a very strange router in the mix (not having auto-scan should not matter), there is no reason why it should not work at all.

However, forgetting to check the interfaces file and not triple checking the blacklist file combined with driver complied attempts will 98% for sure lead to zip, nothing. The users in the Ubuntu forums are great, until they start having you playing with your kernel… Then you are on your own as you have just hosed it.

So if you have made yet another module compile attempt, you might as well used that technique as nothing I say here can help you now.

All that was needed is to:

1) Setup the /etc/network/interfaces file as I had decribed a few comments back.

2) Verify /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist has rt2500usb blacklisted

3) No ethernet is connected

4) /Nothing/ at all has been compiled

Deviate from any of these, it will fail. 99% 0f the time when helping people, at least one of these things is overlooked.

When connecting to NM, you will see the first green bubble appear, then the final last one. Obviously, making sure you did not manually configure the network and left it in Roaming mode from manual configuration is a /must/. This means no DHCP there, just on the router. Your manual network settings must be set at “Roaming mode enabled”. Let’s get connected to an open network first, then we will tackle WPA after that.

As a last ditched effort here, I will be doing this same thing on my Desktop PC, not even a notebook. I will do so off of the Live CD, even the tweaks and if that works - I will report back.

Martin: Sorry, missed a comment I had not moderated yet, you already replied. :)

To take a PC repair route here, I am downloading a brand spanky new copy of Gutsy. It is standard, not alternate CD edition or server edition and I will be testing this LiveCD on my actual desktop once it is done downloading.

I will be making the needed tweaks to the live CD running and just restart the network over the PC itself. If this fails, then there maybe a hardware issue. If it works, then something else is going on.

When you get home, and hoping you have not compiled anything yet as your USB device will show up unclaimed, run the lshw again and paste back the output.

sudo lshw -C network

I want to verify that your machine is seeing the right module and that it is loaded. Again, hoping that the compiling was not done yet.

No, I don’t really want to try one last time with the hand compiling! I’m out of my depth with it, really. I’m new to Ubuntu, so it’s unnerving doing that kind of thing. I’d rather just do a fresh install and see how NM goes. I’d held off downloading programs, customizing the look of the OS etc until I had the network going, so I won’t lost anything on a reinstall.

I think my mistake was that I unchecked roaming mode because I didn’t see how else NM would find my network passwords etc other than me typing them in. Shows you how much I know about it!

Martin: I hear ya, compiling is like herding cats with a stirring whisk. ;P

(Once you get home, let’s do this a little different this time, so read very carefully as the things have switched a bit - ignore everything else up till now)

You are doing great, because you are really trying and I admire that. Most people (myself included at one time), would have given up.

1) Just get that router open, no WPA, WEP or MAC filtering for testing purposes.

2) Install fresh Ubuntu, non-alternate CD - just leave the radio box unchecked when downloading it.

3) With ethernet unplugged and USB device inserted, download rt73usb-wifi.sh, right-click to properties and make it executable.

4) Choose to run in terminal

5) Let it do its thing.

6) Goto NM, left click on it and select a network. Remember, no encryption just yet.

7) One green bubble, then after a moment, the last green bubble and connected. If it gets this far - awesome. If Firefox fails however, this is an easy fix that is covered here:
http://www.lockergnome.com/linux/2007/10/24/ubuntu-gutsy-internet-help/

Fails?

-Get really close to the router - as dumb as this sounds, in network heavy areas, it helps for testing.

-Try another router channel.

-If it fails on the clean install, then go ahead and do this interfaces hack:

gksudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

#Nothing else here
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Then in the same terminal window after saving and closing the file:

gksudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

-Connect to the neighbors, just for a minute and if it is open. This allows you to see if they have a router that works where yours may not for some really unlikely reason, is just not compatible with the card.

Still sucking air? Do a:

gksudo lshw -C network

and if you have access to a USB key or can simply ethernet into the notebook for a minute, paste the entire results back here for me. I need to check that the right module is working. I have been working closely with my contact at Edimax, they swear that the chipsets have remained unchanged.

And if you get it working - stop, wait for me to catch up and we will then re-tackle WPA, which should be easy, really. ;)

Just confirmed, was able to get the device working fine without even installing the distro.

1) Downloaded the brand new copy of Gutsy

2) With my Ethernet cable unplugged, I grabbed my thumb drive and used the rt73usb-wifi.sh off of it by moving it to the desktop.

3) Set the script to run and ran in terminal.

4) Plugged in the EW-7318Ug to an empty slot.

5) Went to Nm, left clicked on it and selected the appropriate network.

6) Because I am using WPA2/Personal, I was prompted for my network password. I entered it, then was prompted to **create** a keychain password - I did.

7) Wireless network connected flawlessly.

—-

After connecting, my lshw output was:

-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: wlan0
serial: 00:0e:2e:c4:cb:3c
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes ip=192.168.0.105 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE

iwconfig is

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:”XXXXXXXXXXX”
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B
Link Signal level=-44 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Matt, that’s great. Thanks so much for these instructions. I didn’t get a chance to go on the computer last night (family commitments!), but I’ll make a new Live CD today and use your instructions tonight (it’s 10.25am in London).

Martin: Cool, sounds like a plan. I figure if there is still no success there, I can only attribute it to the router as the device does work with three routers tested here - all had auto channel scanning, though. It’s a fairly basic feature these days.

This is the router I am using and it is the best I have ever owned.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-DGL-4300-Wireless-Gaming-Router/dp/B0006TIA02

Hey Matt, it’s working! I followed your last set of instructions (Jan 10th, 4.38) and it worked straightaway! I was bowled over. I thought I’d test it more thoroughly and came up with something interesting. I rebooted 8 times:

1) Reboot from Ubuntu back into Ubunto (x4) - wireless worked every time. No need to do anything. NM automatically connected and Firefox found the internet.

2) Reboot from Windows to Ubuntu (x4) - NM connects but Firefox times out. I tried turning off wireless (by right-clicking NM icon) then turning it on again, but no luck. Only thing that worked was unplugging and re-plugging the dongle, then NM detected it automatically and Firefox worked fine.

Really, I can live with this, but I think it’s an interesting problem! I haven’t seen anyone mention this in the forums. I wonder if Windows or the Windows driver is affecting the dongle or the router. I’m using XP (SP2). When the connection is *not* working lshw gives me:
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
logical name: wlan0
serial: 00:0e:2e:8c:ec:73
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes ip=192.168.1.100 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g

and iwconfig:
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:”XXXXXXXXXX”
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.432 GHz Access Point: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B
Link Signal level=-52 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

I wonder if this is why there’s sometimes frustration on forums - people with only Ubuntu installed don’t see a problem, whilst people with Windows partitions get sporadic errors!

Anyway, thanks again for all your time and you help. Even if the Windows problem is insurmountable this is a huge advance. I’m really pleased!

Martin: Awesome news. This makes me feel good about the end result as well. That is odd with the dual-boot, but explains why I never had an issue myself - running Vista and XP in Parallels from an Ubuntu host machine.

As odd as this will seem, try redoing step #5 with every boot - even if it shows as connected. One other thought is how your notebook will basically treat your router as your DNS server. Doing a terminal command of

cat /etc/resolv.conf

will show you what I mean.

If you are willing to back things up, you could follow some exploration here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/StaticDnsWithDhcp

Before doing any of that though, see if you are able to login to your router, as to see if you are connected at all.

I tried doing #5 and the NM searches again and connects, but no internet. The cat /etc/resolv.conf says:
dns server: [my router IP]

I can’t log on to the router or ping it. I wonder if there’s a residual state left somewhere in the wireless devices. When I *shut down* from Windows and restart in Ubuntu, I get the ‘No network connection’ triangle in the NM icon, and have to click my network to connect. This isn’t a problem, it’s just curious.

When I *restart* from Windows there’s a reported connection with NM showing the bar graph, but no internet access. The only cure I’ve found is unplugging and replugging the wireless usb.

Restarting or shutting down and booting up from Ubuntu to Ubuntu causes no problems. NM connects to the internet fine, and it’s automatic.

My etc/network/interfaces/ file is blank. There’s nothing at all in it, so it doesn’t seem to match the etc/network/interfaces/ file on the tutorial you linked to. I must admit, I haven’t had the courage to try the tutorial yet!

I’ve had a look around some Linux forums but can’t find anyone with exactly the same problem. Still, it’s no big deal. I might post a thread on the ubuntu forum and see if anyone says anything, but for now I’m happy to be on the internet! Thanks so much again.

Martin: That is wild, but helpful to know. Could be a residual thing for sure, as you pointed out.

Might even be possible to use Robotask for Windows to automate a solution. Have it set to login to your router and reboot it after logging out. Just thinking out loud here as others have not really expressed anything about this problem that I know of.

http://www.robotask.com/

Matt, thanks for the tip. I hadn’t heard of that software before. My wireless has been working fine, though, so I reckon I’ll live with that little reboot bug for now!

Hi,

Many thanks for the sh script. I have the Edimax EW-7318USG and Ubuntu 7.10. I ran he script, It installs fine and works. However, every time I reboot I have to re-run the script in order to get NM to see it and hence connect to the net. Any ideas?

Here is some output for you

lsusb
Bus 005 Device 003: ID 148f:2573 Ralink Technology, Corp.
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04fc:0003 Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd CM1092 Optical Scroller Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

And from lshw - c network command (after re-running your sh script):
lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: VT6102 [Rhine-II]
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 12
bus info:  pci at 0000:00:12.0
logical name: eth0
version: 78
serial: 00:13:8f:3d:af:48
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=via-rhine driverversion=1.4.3 latency=32 maxlatency=8 mingnt=3 module=via_rhine multicast=yes
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
logical name: wlan0
serial: 00:0e:2e:f1:18:93
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes ip=192.168.0.6 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g

From iwconfig:
iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:”MYSSID”
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:0F:B5:14:C7:18
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B
Link Signal level=-60 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Any pointers would be appreciated, I have looked in Ubuntuforums and posted up but nothing really seems obvious. I am a Linux newbie. Apologies for any obvious errors.

Barny: I seem to remember this being an issue for some users who dual-boot with Windows on the same notebook. Short of that, it has me stumped.

Take a peek at your /etc/network/interfaces and make sure it looks like this:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Then post back. Also, check your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and verify you have the following blacklisted:

blacklist rt2500usb
blacklist rt2561

(I added rt2561 manually myself)

If all of that works out, then it may be time to add a script into your startup sequence as described here:
http://www.linuxhelp.net/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t2708.html

Basically modprobing rt73usb and restarting the network settings. That might smooth things over. Never had this problem myself, just been hearing of it with select dual-booters.

Thanks for your response:

Since posting up I have installed Wicd which uninstalled NM. This is also working in the same manner i.e. requiring your sh script to be run each reboot/shutdown. Once done, all works fine for the session.

It’s funny you mention dual boot, this used to be an xp box then it was a server 2003 box and I defo formatted it (not a full zero disk though) but it still gives XP as boot up option although i’ve never selected it.

Ok, etc/network/interfaces shows:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-psk 71045a0134df7f342aa3b0f91f02ef8c028d2c5512677d4323f4e97cca755b2c
wpa-driver wext
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-proto WPA
wpa-ssid MYSSID

auto wlan0

(Yeah auto wlan0 is way down the page)

Blacklist shows:
# This file lists those modules which we don’t want to be loaded by
# alias expansion, usually so some other driver will be loaded for the
# device instead.

# evbug is a debug tool that should be loaded explicitly
blacklist evbug

# these drivers are very simple, the HID drivers are usually preferred
blacklist usbmouse
blacklist usbkbd

# replaced by e100
blacklist eepro100

# replaced by tulip
blacklist de4×5

# causes no end of confusion by creating unexpected network interfaces
blacklist eth1394

# snd_intel8×0m can interfere with snd_intel8×0, doesn’t seem to support much
# hardware on its own (Ubuntu bug #2011, #6810)
blacklist snd_intel8×0m

# causes failure to suspend on HP compaq nc6000 (Ubuntu: #10306)
blacklist i2c_i801

#Blacklist rt73usb, non-functional beta module
blacklist rt73usb

#Blacklist rt2570 as it causes conflicts with rt73
blacklist rt2570

#Other mods that break rt73
blacklist rt2500usb
blacklist rt2×00lib

blacklist rt2500usb
blacklist rt2500usb
blacklist rt2500usb
blacklist rt2500usb
blacklist rt2500usb
blacklist rt2500usb
blacklist rt2500usb
blacklist rt2500usb
blacklist rt2500usb

Yes, rt2500usb really has that many entries.

Any ideas or shall we move onto the scripting?

Okay, make a backup of your interface file. Then in the original, only the following should be there.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

I would also remove all of the extra entries of rt73usb and make sure only one is left. Not a huge deal here, but it might be a good idea as each time the script is run you will be adding another blacklist entry.

The only two reasons left for this to be a continued problem stem from:

1) Another module was installed or other changes were made not listed in this post. (not counting Wicd, which is not going to provide much success these days and will now over-complicate this greatly…)

2) The extra entries listed in your interfaces file.

Based on my experience, the biggest problem is that people end up here after tweaking things so heavily that a fresh installation is almost easier. :)

On a fresh install, nothing tweaked or changed, just using the script - it works just fine. The key is to stay away from the “experts” in the Ubuntu forums. ;)

Oh and of course make absolutely positive that your Ethernet cable is not plugged in or the network settings may need to be restarted. This is another common mistake - leaving the cable connected.

uh-oh. etc/network/interfaces is now empty! I left the pc on overnight, decided to add a usb hub, this wouldn’t connect my wireless so i moved it back to it’s orig port, got errors connecting, couldn’t get dhcp now i check etc and the file is empty and will not allow me to add entries as above, just says could not find the file. doh.

Im going out for a few hrs, will shut the box down, maybe when i come back it will have self-healed….!

Whoop! Whoop! Well, things went a bit crazier with the dongle not receiving dhcp offers and saying no access point oh and of course, etc/network/interfaces being blank! So I did like you said and went for a fresh install…well all I can say is I must have had a screwy install cos NM did not give the icons like this one! I ran your sh script, did not install Wicd and all is fine. Rebooted…and NM connected! Whoop!

Thanks Matt, appreciate the tips.

Barny: Awesome, I am genuinely happy to hear about the success. It is frustrating as I myself have been there in the past, which lead me to taking this bull by the horns whereas the Linux community instead largely borrows reliance on Windows drivers with NDISWrapper. Congrats on sticking with it and showing others that will come here that Linux wireless, with compatible devices, works. :)

Good work, man. ;)

Matt,

Have you had issues with the wireless 7318USG dropping the connection? I noticed the last couple days, when i boot up sometimes the driver fails to load and I get the network-manager failure in the startup script, this is usually resolved by another reboot or two but then I find that although NM will initially auto-connect after a few mins it disconnects and in order to resolve I have to either reboot or sometimes can get away with unplugging and replugging the dongle.

IWCONFIG will show in these instances that there is no access point associated and NM will show that I am connected to my network but at 0%.

Barny: Never had a problem with it. Short of it overheating, it should not be dropping anything. The adapter does run a little hot, but you should never see network-manager failure or the need to reboot - ever.

What kind of notebook are you running? I am curious as this just does not happen with the rt73usb chipsets. rt61pci, sure, but not this one.

Once again, let’s back up (gksudo nautilus) your /etc/network/interfaces (you should always have a backup of this anyway) and then paste what you have here again.

Unless more tweaks were made, there is just no reason for it to give you issues with the module loading - I have used Gutsy on more machines than I can count using the adapter, never seen a problem like that unless tweaks were made someplace.

Barney: Also, what is the error you are getting - word for word. Guess it could be faulty hardware if nothing else has been changed or tweaked?

Barney: Oh, and of course no network cables are plugged - that can create issues.

Unless something on the system changes, as with any OS, there is no reason for it to work then stop. Changes can consist of anything I suppose, but generally settings related to the network. :)

-Changes to DHCP
-ethernet plugged in
-new drivers compiled
-running the script linked above over and over

-Understanding that you should *expect* to have to connect using NM with your mouse to make the network selection with each boot. It’s part of the network roaming.

Matt,

Thanks for getting back to me. Ok here we go: Strange symptoms mate.

There’s no ethernet cable plugged in that’s a defo.
No new drivers have been compiled (I wouldn’t know how to)
No tweaks other than security system updates being downloaded and installed, vlc, twonkyvision, flashplugin and deluge installed
Install script run once only.

Details of issue are as below:

When booting up with usb dongle, it sometimes fully boots but then the following happens

freezes when opening sites

I do a restart

Ubuntu orange progress bar goes to just before end then shows page full of script instead of login (is there a way to capture this as I cannot type quick enough!)

‘Starting bluetooth services…

[84.883573] usb 5-4 device descriptor read/64 error 110 this appears two times (with a diff number at the beginning of each line but i’m not quick enough to get them)
usb 5-4 device descriptor read/8 appears 4 times
then
Starting Gnome etc ok, and login page loads

NM will not show wireless as an option.

Terminal takes long time to display lsusb then shows output that does not include a ralink adaptor whereas usually there is. Just shows my usb mouse

iwconfig shows lo no wireless extensions and eth0 no wireless extensions

Interfaces file is blank

If I do restart again

Same script page shows

starting bluetooth services
[84.883573] usb 5-4 device descriptor read/64 error 110 shows twice
read/8 error-110 etc
Then same as above

However, if I just unplug the dongle and replug it links up with the net and shows correct output with lsusb and iwconfig.

If I boot up without the dongle plugged in and then plug in after login it reconnects fine.

I never have to select my network with my mouse, it auto connects. I checked in Admin-Network-Wireless Properties and roaming mode is checked.

Curioser and curioser….

BTW, I’m using Ubuntu 7.10 on a desktop it’s an old machine I had, P4 2.4GHz, 512MB RAM and couple of HD’s 20 and 40 gig.

Barny: Ah, this could be part of it - you are using a Desktop. :)

I am using a notebook. I will try the device on my desktop once it is upgraded to Gutsy - mine is still using Feisty with a LAN connection.

In the meantime, you might consider the following:

-Leave the device unplugged before a boot, you can make this massively easier by using a cheap USB extension cord from any computer store. Because I used it on a notebook, never had a need to have it plugged in during boot as it is rather “extended” on a notebook in my case.

-With or without using an extension cord, try another USB port, using a different USB board if possible. I have seen this happen with USB Flash drivers in Windows before, switching ports helped in my case.

-”However, if I just unplug the dongle and replug it links up with the net and shows correct output with lsusb and iwconfig.

If I boot up without the dongle plugged in and then plug in after login it reconnects fine.”

This is the magic formula, get a cord, leave it unplugged and enjoy. :)

Hey Matt,

Not had a chance to get on to the site for a while been v busy.

Anyway, I was actually using the extension usb lead that came with the dongle but have since been plugging it into a usb hub. This has been fine 9/10 whilst in use but now and again I do the old unplug/re-plug as it drops the connection (this is no diff to me than I have experienced with Windows PC’s and USB wireless dongles). On Boot up it has been fine.

Thanks for all your advice. nice to see you’re still willing to help given the age of this article!

And since last time, I have managed to get my external hard disk seen by Ubuntu, as well as the extra hd and my printer too (which my Wife did on her OWN, she’s a medic and has no clue about anything but the human body!!!).

UBUNTU ROCKS! HOOO RAAAA!!!!

I’m thinking of installing it on my other PC too which has more RAM and a better graphics card. Then I’ll look at networking the two and working out how to share with the Windows box I have. Ubuntu Forums will be visited again I think. Any other links you may have would be v appreciated.

Barny: Ah, a hub, been there - cross platform headaches I tell ya! ;)

Yeah, I have never had much luck with any sort of dongle on a hub. Extension cord, sure. Hub, it’s a complete crapshoot. I assume it must be a powered hub as otherwise it would not have likely worked at all I suspect.

If at all possible, I would try freeing up a dedicated USB port if possible, as I suspect this will provide more consistent results. Here is a good link for help with Samba networking.
http://howtoforge.com/ubuntu-gutsy-samba-standalone-server-with-tdbsam-backend

That said, Ubuntu is not very user friendly in the networking (filesharing) dept. The UI is there, but the back-end must be setup and this is a real turn off in my opinion. Heron however, is supposed to address this however.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EasyFileSharing

Oh and finally, the Ubuntu videos are coming back:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ctsdownloads

Need to clean the office, but I plan on doing one showing users how to setup a HP all-in-one printer using HPLIP.
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html