Re: USB WiFi adapter doesn't work with Wheezy (but does work with Ubuntu)

[dclinton <dclinton@hcn-inc.com>]

On 14-02-27 05:33 AM, Klaus wrote:

On 26/02/14 22:09, dclinton wrote:

TP-Link N900 TL-WDN4200. Using it successfully on Ubuntu 13.10,
lsusb identifies the chipset as

    RT3573 Wireless Adapter (Ralink)

and iwconfig assigns it:

    ra0 Ralink STA

lsmod reports that the adapter is using the rt5572sta driver.

On the Ubuntu system, where the USB adapter is working, can you get information about the loaded firmware?  For example (sorry, I don't know Ubuntu, so you might have to adapt the following) on Debian, with my rather old USB wifi dongle attached, I see

$ grep -i firmware /var/log/syslog
Feb 27 10:16:58 chili kernel: [ 2969.061573] ieee80211 phy1: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt73.bin'
Feb 27 10:16:58 chili kernel: [ 2969.073917] rt73usb 8-3:1.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware rt73.bin
Feb 27 10:16:58 chili kernel: [ 2969.073929] ieee80211 phy1: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Firmware detected - version: 1.7
k

Also, modinfo shows which firmwares it'd load:

# modinfo --field firmware rt73usb
rt73.bin

$ locate rt73.bin
/lib/firmware/rt73.bin

Now, in your non-working system, do you have the matching firmware files, and do they get loaded?
Have you searched for "linux firmware ralink rt3573"? Have you seen for example this forum report which looks like Ralink doesn't know all devices that use their chips, so their driver doesn't load the firmware reliably? Maybe Ubuntu have updated the driver for the TP-Link device, whereas Debian has not yet? (I leave the searching to you ;-)

Thanks, you've given me lots of great paths to pursue.

modinfo rt5572sta

on my Ubuntu machine told me:
===
filename:       /lib/modules/3.11.0-17-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt5572sta.ko
version:        2.6.1.3
license:        GPL
description:    RT2870 Wireless Lan Linux Driver
author:         Paul Lin <paul_lin@ralinktech.com>
srcversion:     0437D721DA31F3109C8F9D3
[...]
depends:       
vermagic:       3.11.0-17-generic SMP mod_unload modversions
parm:           mac:rt28xx: wireless mac addr (charp)
===
I copied that file over to my Debian machine into both

/lib/modules/3.8.7-yocto-standard/kernel/net/wireless

and

/lib/modules/3.8.7-yocto-standard/kernel/drivers/net/wireless

but

modprobe /route/to/rt5572sta.ko

returned:

FATAL: Module rt5572sta.ko not found

and insmod gave me:

Error: could not insert module rt5572sta.ko: Invalid module format

The trouble might be in vermagic (the Debian Galileo is running only 3.8.7). I could theoretically recompile from the original package, but we need a system that will survive system updates and upgrades (these devices will be operating remotely and we can't afford to lose them if something breaks). By the way, there is a small possibility that I had generated my Ubuntu driver from the original source package, but I'm almost sure it just loaded on its own. Either way, that route won't help for our Debian system. And that's the problem with the

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1164228#p1164228

page you showed me. I really appreciate your help!