New user install report (Eee PC): looks like only wifi is not working
Hello!
I suppose this is the correct mailing list for this email. If it's not,
then I'm sorry to disturb. It is mostly an installatoin report, and
a little request for help.
I just installed Debian GNU/kFreeBSD from the daily snapshots (2015-05-13)
on Asus Eee PC (1015PEM model). I do this to help reporting bugs, I know
it is not a stable variant of Debian yet.
Most things are working ok, but:
- The installer complained saying that it could not find "unstable".
Did Alt-F4 and saw the logs: there was a missing link in the
debootstrap package:
/usr/share/debootstrap/scripts/unstable -> sid
I added the link myself and resumed installation without problem.
- Xorg works ok. It could maybe be easier to find the information, though:
it took me a while to find that I had to load kernel modules before
issuing startx:
https://wiki.debian.org/Debian_GNU/kFreeBSD_Hardware
- (This is actually wishlist for Debian installer in general): when
configuring ZFS, if I make a mistake, then I need to delete each volume
then delete the pool. An option to "delete the pool including everything
inside it" would be great. (The same is true about Debian GNU/Linux
installer and LVM)
- Ethernet connection works, but wireless doesn't
This second problem I could not yet solve.
This notebook uses Ralink RT3090 chipset:
02:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe
I tried installing the package firmware-ralink, and it does contain
the firmware:
$ dpkg -L firmware-ralink
...
/lib/firmware/rt2561.bin
/lib/firmware/rt2870.bin
/lib/firmware/rt73.bin
/lib/firmware/rt2561s.bin
/lib/firmware/rt3071.bin
/lib/firmware/rt2661.bin
/lib/firmware/rt2860.bin
/lib/firmware/rt3290.bin
/lib/firmware/rt3070.bin
/lib/firmware/rt3090.bin
$ ls -l /lib/firmware/
...
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8192 May 11 19:35 rt2860.bin
...
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 10 May 11 19:35 rt3090.bin -> rt2860.bin
But firmware is not loaded by kernel:
$ sudo ifconfig ral0 up
dmesg shows:
rt2860fw: could not load firmware image, error 2
ral0: unable to receive rt2860fw firmware image
ral0: could not load 8051 microcode
rt2860fw: could not load firmware image, error 2
ral0: unable to receive rt2860fw firmware image
ral0: could not load 8051 microcode
ral0: discard raw packet
ral0: discard raw packet
The interface is detected but not active:
$ sudo ifconfig ral0
ral0: flags=8803<UP,BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 2290
ether 74:f0:6d:5:42:da
inet6 fe80::76f0:6dff:fe05:42da%ral0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (autoselect)
status: no carrier
nd6 options=23<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
I have tried this:
Maybe kldload/kernel is not looking in the right place, or does not accept
format? I installed kfreebsd-image-11-amd64, since I saw someone mentioning
that it can load firmware directly from /lib/firmware:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=690591
("latest kfreebsd-11 supports loading blobs from /lib/firmware")
But kldload /lib/firmware/rt2860.bin does not work (I don't even see an
error message -- /var/log/syslog shows nothing)
I also tried changing the blob name so it ends in ".ko", and it did not
work also. (It really shouldn't, since the blob is microcode for the
wifi card, and it is not code that the notebook's CPU can execute).
Is there a way to get this card to work with Debian GNU/kFreeBSD
currently?
If not, where can I find a list of chipsets that will work
out-of-the-box (no need of binary blob)? I suppose Atheros chipset
has good support in FreeBSD kernel, right?
In that case I can get a USB wifi adapeter with a good chipset, and
wait until support for Ralink is good.
Also, what program I use for WPA along with wpa-supplicant? I see that
wicd and network-manager are not available. (If one takes the notebook
to different places, it becomes uncomfortable to edit wpa-supplicant
configuration files every time to connect to new wifi network).
Thank you! And sorry for my poor English skill, and I hope that I will
be able to help in some way.
-- Luciano
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