Having worked nearly full time with multiple RT73USB in USB dongles with multiple users asking for help, here is the reality of the situation. Again, I am speaking of USB dongles – so long as the chipset set reported by lshw -C network is indeed, rt73usb. Not saying that some devices do not work as advertised, but IF that command reports the device correctly (not what the specs claim), there is no reason to use compiled stuff at all.
1) rt73usb works out of the box on Ubuntu Gutsy, Heron and Intrepid. This being said, the ONLY time there is are issues here is when people follow bad advice in the forums, trying to compile stuff they do not understand. Or those who have some embedded wifi chipsets such as Intel, must first blacklist that device driver – then the rt73usb chipset does indeed work out of box.
2) Most people that end up with “it does not work” out of the box are those who have hacked and crapped their installations to death, leaving themselves no alternative but to NDISWrapper or “attempt” to compile a driver from SerialMonkey.
3) Yes, the SerialMonkey drivers are newer and if you are the one in five people that can actually get them compiled, will find they work better…until the latest kernel updates puts you back to square one. The most visible advantage is stronger signal strength. I have tested over 8 devices and have found the reports of a lack of signal strength to be GREATLY exaggerated. It is fine, I am using it right now – no compiled nonsense.
4) Desktop Ubuntu is compatible out of the box with Edimax ew-7318usg – again, the only time it will not is with embedded Intel wifi chips. I have worked with Edimax directly and they too, are confused as to why people make something so simple so complicated.
All of the above being said, if you are using an Ubuntu installed screwed up due to following poor advice already, then yes, the software above is great for what it is designed to do. The app is fine, it is the message of needing to take unneeded steps that ticks me off.
Matt Hartley: what you have to say makes sense and has SOME validity, but there is a known issue with the current rt73usb driver in Ubuntu. I have a clean install of Intrepid and from day 1, it has dropped the connection repeatedly. Sometimes I’m up for 2 minutes, sometimes up for 2 days…there is no rhyme or reason to this. I have posted repeatedly at ubuntuforums.org and had zero response. I do notice that I’m not the only person seeing this problem.
I appreciate your viewpoint, but it is possible that others are experiencing issues that you may not have seen.
And THAT said, if anyone has any insight, please feel free to enlighten me. I don’t want to use the script mentioned in this article as there is, as noted, going to be issues when the kernel is updated, etc., etc. This is a fairly common problem that should have already been dealt with by the developers.
Rick: Fair points to be sure. But to being totally realistic, Intrepid is a bleeding edge release with NetworkManager. I have other dongles that like with 8.04, work, but demonstrate unusual visual behavior with regard to displayed signal strength, etc. Dropping however, if experienced, was fixed by me via a cooling pad for my notebook back with Gutsy. See, no matter which RaLink driver you end up with, those native drivers make the device run hot as can be. This has been one of the reasons behind so many jumping onto that NDISWrapper nonsense.
Best solution for dropping connection is to consider the most common cause – heat:
1) Get a cooling pad for the notebook. Despite this only appearing to cool the notebook itself, I have seen evidence of it cooling my attached dongles as well by proxy.
2) By default, ubuntu is set to use your router for DNS instead of what it should be using for DNS settings. To this day, I still shake my head at this. Changing your DNS settings over to OpenDNS will keep things from stalling on ya (which can lead to eventual drop off as it contributes to the heat problem). Why? It seems like the dongle is not needing to work as hard with this kind of configuration.
$ sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.auto
$ gksudo gedit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf
# append the following line to the document
prepend domain-name-servers 208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220;
# save and exit
Restarted networking or the PC, which ever.
Speaking for myself, I use 8.04 for daily use and 8.10 as a beta test box. 8.10 clearly needed more time in the oven with regard to its kernel issues on a number of levels, in my honest opinion.
Rick, you have a point with regard to user experiences. A failed connection is a failed connection – no arguments there. And should using the SerialMonkey solution be the last resort, great. But if I had a dollar for every hosed attempt that came from people going down this path, I would be a rich man. This said, if the installer can work in a duplicable manner, than fantastic. I tend to doubt this, but coolness with the idea and hard work nonetheless.
Almost forgot – regarding the stability issue with connection dropping. This can be dongle model specific, too. For instance, the Edimax EW-7318Ug drops out fairly quickly while the EW-7318USg works just fine out when kept cool. Both use the same chipset and driver. So it seems like it is the way the heat is being dispensed.
I guess the problem still exists.
I have V9 32bit running on a Sempron and it is all over the place.
I have just installed 10.0? on an old 1MHz Athlon.
I have 2 EW7318Ug.
They both get hot and they both appear not to work.
Neither appears on the desktop.
I read from Matt Hartley that an OpenDNS appears to sort this out but where would I find the DNS settings in order to change them to OpenDNS?
I would really appreciate some help on this. I’ve had these dongles 3 weeks already.
Cheers
TVM
So… is this really for Linux?
Any Software in Ubuntu , can install driver Wi-FI under *.inf
coz in Linux Mint can do it ?
Missing something here – rt73usb at least (not sure about rt73 proper) has worked out of the box for a few releases now – why doe we need this?
Based on the thread linked above, it looks as flaky as ever with regard to trying to compile driver modules.
Guys believe me not all the rt73 chips work out of the box…
So this installer had helped a lot of people, it use the serialmonkey rt73 driver:
http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com
It works a lot better…
Having worked nearly full time with multiple RT73USB in USB dongles with multiple users asking for help, here is the reality of the situation. Again, I am speaking of USB dongles – so long as the chipset set reported by lshw -C network is indeed, rt73usb. Not saying that some devices do not work as advertised, but IF that command reports the device correctly (not what the specs claim), there is no reason to use compiled stuff at all.
1) rt73usb works out of the box on Ubuntu Gutsy, Heron and Intrepid. This being said, the ONLY time there is are issues here is when people follow bad advice in the forums, trying to compile stuff they do not understand. Or those who have some embedded wifi chipsets such as Intel, must first blacklist that device driver – then the rt73usb chipset does indeed work out of box.
2) Most people that end up with “it does not work” out of the box are those who have hacked and crapped their installations to death, leaving themselves no alternative but to NDISWrapper or “attempt” to compile a driver from SerialMonkey.
3) Yes, the SerialMonkey drivers are newer and if you are the one in five people that can actually get them compiled, will find they work better…until the latest kernel updates puts you back to square one. The most visible advantage is stronger signal strength. I have tested over 8 devices and have found the reports of a lack of signal strength to be GREATLY exaggerated. It is fine, I am using it right now – no compiled nonsense.
4) Desktop Ubuntu is compatible out of the box with Edimax ew-7318usg – again, the only time it will not is with embedded Intel wifi chips. I have worked with Edimax directly and they too, are confused as to why people make something so simple so complicated.
All of the above being said, if you are using an Ubuntu installed screwed up due to following poor advice already, then yes, the software above is great for what it is designed to do. The app is fine, it is the message of needing to take unneeded steps that ticks me off.
Matt Hartley: what you have to say makes sense and has SOME validity, but there is a known issue with the current rt73usb driver in Ubuntu. I have a clean install of Intrepid and from day 1, it has dropped the connection repeatedly. Sometimes I’m up for 2 minutes, sometimes up for 2 days…there is no rhyme or reason to this. I have posted repeatedly at ubuntuforums.org and had zero response. I do notice that I’m not the only person seeing this problem.
I appreciate your viewpoint, but it is possible that others are experiencing issues that you may not have seen.
And THAT said, if anyone has any insight, please feel free to enlighten me. I don’t want to use the script mentioned in this article as there is, as noted, going to be issues when the kernel is updated, etc., etc. This is a fairly common problem that should have already been dealt with by the developers.
Rick: Fair points to be sure. But to being totally realistic, Intrepid is a bleeding edge release with NetworkManager. I have other dongles that like with 8.04, work, but demonstrate unusual visual behavior with regard to displayed signal strength, etc. Dropping however, if experienced, was fixed by me via a cooling pad for my notebook back with Gutsy. See, no matter which RaLink driver you end up with, those native drivers make the device run hot as can be. This has been one of the reasons behind so many jumping onto that NDISWrapper nonsense.
Best solution for dropping connection is to consider the most common cause – heat:
1) Get a cooling pad for the notebook. Despite this only appearing to cool the notebook itself, I have seen evidence of it cooling my attached dongles as well by proxy.
2) By default, ubuntu is set to use your router for DNS instead of what it should be using for DNS settings. To this day, I still shake my head at this. Changing your DNS settings over to OpenDNS will keep things from stalling on ya (which can lead to eventual drop off as it contributes to the heat problem). Why? It seems like the dongle is not needing to work as hard with this kind of configuration.
$ sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.auto
$ gksudo gedit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf
# append the following line to the document
prepend domain-name-servers 208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220;
# save and exit
Restarted networking or the PC, which ever.
Speaking for myself, I use 8.04 for daily use and 8.10 as a beta test box. 8.10 clearly needed more time in the oven with regard to its kernel issues on a number of levels, in my honest opinion.
Rick, you have a point with regard to user experiences. A failed connection is a failed connection – no arguments there. And should using the SerialMonkey solution be the last resort, great. But if I had a dollar for every hosed attempt that came from people going down this path, I would be a rich man. This said, if the installer can work in a duplicable manner, than fantastic. I tend to doubt this, but coolness with the idea and hard work nonetheless.
Almost forgot – regarding the stability issue with connection dropping. This can be dongle model specific, too. For instance, the Edimax EW-7318Ug drops out fairly quickly while the EW-7318USg works just fine out when kept cool. Both use the same chipset and driver. So it seems like it is the way the heat is being dispensed.
Trying to connect a WPA2PSK AES doesn’t succed.
I guess the problem still exists.
I have V9 32bit running on a Sempron and it is all over the place.
I have just installed 10.0? on an old 1MHz Athlon.
I have 2 EW7318Ug.
They both get hot and they both appear not to work.
Neither appears on the desktop.
I read from Matt Hartley that an OpenDNS appears to sort this out but where would I find the DNS settings in order to change them to OpenDNS?
I would really appreciate some help on this. I’ve had these dongles 3 weeks already.
Cheers
TVM