I installed antiX 8.5 on an old laptop (sony vaio fx215) 2 weeks ago and so far it seems promising. But I went and got a wifi usb device, Azio AWU101N, maybe over-optimistically about its compatibility.

Short answer, no networks detected. I need to come up with a longer answer so I know what's gone wrong. I've searched about on various message boards looking for answers. I have not gone so far as to compile the ralink driver, mostly because I'm just not sure that's where the problem is.

AFAIK the device is being recognized:

root@Yenisey:~# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 148f:3070 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2870/RT3070 Wireless Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

root@Yenisey:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on


How should I diagnose the problem? I'm very out-of-practice with linux administration, so let's just assume I'm a complete noob.

Quick answer as I have to go.

Use ceni (just type in a console) and set it to use wlan or alternatively do the same with wicd.

but ceni scan turns up nothing at all. ceni roam suggests that I use a wpa_supplicant configuration, which is not trivial the way I'd like it __{{emoticon}}__ I've tried various settings on the network (no security, WEP, WPA2-personal) and each works with a Window7 laptop, but the antiX machine sees nothing. What diagnostic info should I try to get?

you might try turning off the power management. this has helped on my rt61 based pc card in the past.

#iwconfig wlan0 power off

good luck.

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://wiki.debian.org/rt2870sta"
linktext was:"http://wiki.debian.org/rt2870sta"
====================================


If running testing repostories or AntiX 8.5 use the debian squeeze instructions.

The module should be in the 2..6.32 kernel but I ran into this situation with a
I had to update my Kernel to get my wireless picked up when Mepis kernel would not pick it up. But first I ran the debian top link instructions to troubleshoot. For below commands. Make sure Wireless USB is plugged in before booting AntiX.

Post your readout so we can look at kernel.
will either show nothing or will show what module (driver) your usb is using.

If no joy there. Try
and see what it spits out.

I ended up installing a Liqourix Kernel to sort myself out.

I'd followed most of those instruction, installing firmware-ralink etc, but it seems rt2870sta is not being used:

root@Yenisey:~# lsmod | grep rt2
rt2870sta 301360 0
rt2800usb 24863 0
rt2x00usb 5549 1 rt2800usb
rt2x00lib 19017 2 rt2800usb,rt2x00usb
led_class 1721 1 rt2x00lib
mac80211 126204 2 rt2x00usb,rt2x00lib
cfg80211 85977 2 rt2x00lib,mac80211
crc_ccitt 1007 1 rt2800usb



nfranzen@Yenisey:~$ inxi -F
System: Host Yenisey Kernel 2.6.32-1-mepis i686 (32 bit) Distro antiX-M8.5-486 Marek Edelman 11 April 2010
CPU: Single core AMD Duron (UP) cache 64 KB flags (-) bmips 1600.63 clocked at 799.984 MHz
Graphics: Card ATI Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x X.Org 1.7.7 Res: 1024x768@71.0hz
GLX Renderer Software Rasterizer GLX Version 2.1 Mesa 7.7.1 Direct Rendering Yes
Audio: Card VIA VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller driver VIA 82xx Audio at ports 1000 1c54 1c50 BusID: 00:07.5
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.21
Network: Card Realtek RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ driver 8139too v: 0.9.28 at port 1800 BusID: 00:10.0
Disks: HDD Total Size: 10.1GB (33.9% used) 1: /dev/sda FUJITSU_MHM2100A 10.1GB
Partition: ID:/ size: 8.3G used: 3.2G (41%) fs: ext3 ID:swap-1 size: 1.10GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 24.0C mobo: 23.9C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0 fan-2: 0
Info: Processes 102 Uptime 17 min Memory 102.0/248.4MB Runlevel 5 Client Shell inxi 1.4.9


dmesg suggests rt2800 is being used?

Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::radio
Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::assoc
Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::quality
usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2800usb
rt2870sta: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
rtusb init --->
usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2870


I'll go look into blacklisting now.

Well that worked marvelously after creating the blacklist file rt2800.conf

'update-initramfs -u' I wasn't sure about, saying"update-initramfs: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-1-mepis has been altered." I'll figure that out in the due course of time.

Thanks very much all of you
Nate