topic Re: Can't Load Wireless USB NIC in Operating System - Linux

Can't Load Wireless USB NIC

Michael Steele_2 — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:47:50 GMT

What Up?

/lib/modules/2...../kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2870sta.ko

/lib/modules/2...../kernel/drivers/usb/net/rt2870sta.ko

/lib/modules/2...../kernel/drivers/wireless/rt2870sta.ko

Eenee Meanee Minee Mo, where does this driver go?

From console during bootup error message = 'ra0' does not seem to be present delaying..."

/etc/modules.conf
alias ral rt2870sta.ko

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ra0

Note that I can manually insmod rt2870sta.ko and see it afterwards in lsmod, but it will not survive a reboot.

Re: Can't Load Wireless USB NIC

Michael Steele_2 — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:51:49 GMT

oops, typo

alias ral rt2870sta.ko
-should be-
alias ra0 ...

Re: Can't Load Wireless USB NIC

Ivan Ferreira — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:11:45 GMT

Suddenly your kernel version is not shown on the post.

If you are using 2.6 kernel, you should add a line to /etc/modprobe.conf instead of /etc/modules.conf

Also, when you add a line to the file, you don't need to specify the .ko part of the filename.

Re: Can't Load Wireless USB NIC

Michael Steele_2 — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:52:20 GMT

Hi Ivan:

a)
2.6.18-53.15 is the version under /lib/modules/2.6.18-53.15/kernel/drivers/

b)
I don't think the sub directory makes a difference as long as its under /lib/modules/2.6.18-53.15/kernel/drivers - (Y/N?)

c)
I deleted /etc/modules.conf and added the same line into /etc/modules.conf, as requested, but no change.

d)
I'm just no surviving a reboot. When I insmod from the command line the rt2870sta.ko module loads and can be seen with lsmod.

e)
Driver does not work with the .o version. Only works with the .ko version.

Re: Can't Load Wireless USB NIC

J. Maestre — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:31:37 GMT

Is the device actually called ra0 when discovered? (Check /etc/sysconfig/hwconf).

Re: Can't Load Wireless USB NIC

Matti_Kurkela — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:36:58 GMT

Ivan> Also, when you add a line to the file, you don't need to specify the .ko part of the filename.

I would go a bit further, and say that you *must not* specify the .ko suffix. If you add the suffix, the alias does not work.

i.e. the correct alias line would be:

alias ra0 rt2870

MK

Re: Can't Load Wireless USB NIC

Michael Steele_2 — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:52:20 GMT

Matt:

Changed to
alais ra0 rt2870sta

..so I took off the .ko extention but not the 'sta'. Relevent? How?

No progress

Re: Can't Load Wireless USB NIC

Matti_Kurkela — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:02:55 GMT

Oops, you're correct. It should have been "alias ra0 rt2870sta", as you guessed. My typo.

> I deleted /etc/modules.conf and added the same line into /etc/modules.conf,

I assume this is a typo too, and you are now configuring /etc/modprobe.conf. Right?

When the system has been freshly rebooted and the module has failed to load, run "modprobe -v ra0" (i.e. attempt to load the module using the alias, like the NIC configuration mechanism would do it). Does the "-v" option (extra verbosity) produce any enlightening messages?

The modprobe command should automatically translate your request into an insmod command + a full pathname of the module file, if all goes well.

Does the kernel message buffer (use the "dmesg" command to see it) contain anything relevant-looking?

Have you run "depmod" after editing /etc/modprobe.conf? If you haven't, try it and see if it makes a difference. Modern distributions will generally run "depmod" automatically in some phase of system boot-up, and modern kernel-module-tools should detect if the pre-generated dependency file is out of date, so it *should* not be a factor. But try it anyway - at least it won't hurt, and just might help.

You could also review the configuration used by the modprobe command, with "modprobe -c". If "modprobe -c | grep ra0" produces nothing, the modprobe command is not reading the configuration file you're writing the alias into.

MK

Re: Can't Load Wireless USB NIC

Michael Steele_2 — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:31:54 GMT

Matti:

Hi

a) modprobe -v ra0
Fatal rt2870sta not found
b) depmod
c) modprobe -v ra0
# insmod /lib/modules/2.6.28-53.el5/kernel/drivers/usb/net/rt2870sta.ko

Note: Looks like 'depmod' is what was needed, for now the module is found properly and loaded.

Thank you very much.