Can't connect to wireless networks: Ralink 3290, Maya (13)

[jmccool]

Hi, everyone,

So, I'm in a bit of a pickle here... I've just bought a new laptop, and am having a tough time trying to get the wireless to work... I'm just awful at network stuff. Could someone here please help me out?

I have an HP envy m6, with an AMD-A10 processor. However, I've been installing to an external HDD for now, so that I can test my hardware with Mint without wiping the original HDD contents. My wireless card is a Ralink 3290 (RT3290). I believe it combines bluetooth and wireless into one card.

When I first logged in, network manager did not have any options to connect wirelessly, to anything. After much searching, I found a possible solution here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=91259. I followed the instructions, which I will summarize below.

1. Downloaded and extracted driver source from:
http://www.ralinktech.com/en/04_support/support.php?sn=501
and then cd'ed into the relevant directory

2. Fixed two lines in the os/linux/config.mk file, as reccommended at:
http://steveswinsburg.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/how-to-install-a-d-link-dwa-525-wireless-network-card-in-ubuntu-10-04/

3. Successfully ran the following commands to install the driver:

Code: Select all

sudo su
make
make install
exit
echo "blacklist rt2800pci" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
exit


4. Rebooted

Now, network manager correctly shows the wireless networks in my area. However, when I try to connect, the connection is never established. That cute little swirly-connection-icon just keeps on spinning. FWIW, ethernet connections work just fine, and always have.

Here my current output from running 'sudo mintWifi':

Code: Select all

kagami@hitachi ~ $ sudo mintWifi
-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
  -- Ralink corp. Device 3290
      ==> PCI ID = 1814:3290
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
lo        no wireless extensions.

ra0       Ralink STA 
         
eth0      no wireless extensions.

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 84:34:97:13:52:df 
          inet6 addr: fe80::8634:97ff:fe13:52df/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2272 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2093 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:2671272 (2.6 MB)  TX bytes:257651 (257.6 KB)
          Interrupt:51 Base address:0x2000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback 
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:204 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:204 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:19334 (19.3 KB)  TX bytes:19334 (19.3 KB)

-------------------------
* V. querying DHCP...
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached


And from 'lspci':

Code: Select all

kagami@hitachi ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Root Complex
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Device 9900
00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Device 9902
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Root Port
00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Root Port
00:10.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson USB XHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:10.1 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson USB XHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson USB OHCI Controller (rev 11)
00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson USB EHCI Controller (rev 11)
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson USB OHCI Controller (rev 11)
00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson USB EHCI Controller (rev 11)
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson SMBus Controller (rev 14)
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson Azalia Controller (rev 01)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson LPC Bridge (rev 11)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Hudson PCI Bridge (rev 40)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 5
01:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 5289 (rev 01)
01:00.2 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 0a)
02:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. Device 3290
02:00.1 Bluetooth: Ralink corp. Device 3298


And from 'lsusb':

Code: Select all

kagami@hitachi ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 064e:c336 Suyin Corp.
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 138a:0018 Validity Sensors, Inc.
Bus 007 Device 002: ID 4971:1010 SimpleTech


And from 'sudo rfkill list':

Code: Select all

kagami@hitachi ~ $ sudo rfkill list
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
   Soft blocked: no
   Hard blocked: no
1: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
   Soft blocked: no
   Hard blocked: no


I really hope someone out there can help me out... I really need wireless for school, work, etc. Thanks in advance!

[Z-Xylon]

I have also got this problem in Mint 14. I have got the same output from mintWifi.

On some other forums, they say it's a dns lookup problem?

EDIT: Oh, it's recovered, possibly due to a script I found, which I can't actually remember the source of:
Double Edit: The source is here

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

clear

# Test for UID=0
if [ "$(echo $UID)" != "0" ]
then
echo “You must be superuser to run this program. Try ‘sudo ./fixmint13.sh’”
exit
fi

sed -i -e 's/dns=dnsmasq/#dns=dnsmasq/g' /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

ln -s /run/resolvconf/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf
resolvconf --create-runtime-directories
resolvconf --enable-updates

reboot


[jmccool]

Not sure what your script is supposed to do, but it has problems...

This is wrong:

Code: Select all

sed -i -e 's/dns=dnsmasq/#dns=dnsmasq/g' /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.c

There is no file named 'NetworkManager.c'. The file you are looking for is called 'NetworkManager.conf'.

On my system (Maya, LM13, 64-bit Cinnamon), the file '/etc/resolv.conf' already exists, so this line will fail to make a link:

Code: Select all

ln -s /run/resolvconf/reslov.conf /etc/resolv.conf

There is also a typo there: 'reslov.conf' does not exist; 'resolv.conf' does.

Since '/etc/resolv.conf' is not a symbolic link, this line will also fail:

Code: Select all

resolvconf --create-runtime-directories

What were those commands supposed to do, anyway? I rewrote the script to fix the above issues. It moves '/etc/resolv.conf' to '/run/resolvconf/resolv.conf' so that the link can be made. It didn't seem to do anything; Network Manager still stalls making the connection, and eventually prompts for the network key again.

[Z-Xylon]

What were those commands supposed to do, anyway?

At the risk of looking stupid, I have really no idea.
And the typos are because I copied the script from my phone, which didn't actually show the right edge of the script. In the original source (here) it is correct.

EDIT: I have corrected the script.

[jmccool]

Unfortunately, running that script didn't have any effect on my situation. Wireless is still messed up.

In the end, I took the easy way out and exchanged the computer for a shiny new Toshiba Satellite with similar specs. There were other, unrelated issues I had with the HP, anyways...

Wireless was again a problem with the new laptop running Maya (connecting to a network froze the system on first DHCP request), but a quick test of Mint 14 Nadia shows that everything is working nicely. So, I guess sometimes waiting for the newest version of Mint is the way to go!

Anyways, thanks for trying to help, Z-Xylon. And thanks to the Mint developers for all their hard work, especially on Nadia. Mint has always been my favourite OS, and it looks like it'll stay that way!

[Z-Xylon]

Glad it worked out, but I'm still having problems on Nadia.

Strangely enough, it resolves itself if I reboot into Windows 7, then reboot into Mint.

[jmccool]

That's really weird... maybe Win7 is initializing the hardware in some way? Has the problem ever cropped up again in Mint?

[Z-Xylon]

Yeah, it keeps happening every two or three boots.
I can actually connect to an open network but not to my home network (which requires a password). It might not be processing the password correctly...

I'm going to try and install a different network manager and see if that helps.
If it doesn't I might reinstall Nadia.

EDIT: I uninstalled Network-manager and installed Wicp and it looks like it's working - I have been able to connect for the past 6 or 7 boots.