Sony Vaio, Mint XFCE 13 and the "weak" wireless signal

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ichiSiD

Sony Vaio, Mint XFCE 13 and the "weak" wireless signal

Post by ichiSiD »

Hello to everybody… I'm new on this forum, thus I would greet all the people around here!! :)
I'm typing from Italy and I'm a Minty user by a lot of time and… I loved this distro at the first sight.
I used it without any problem over a bunch of PC but now, unfortunately, I'm having some problem with my "new" netbook and his wireless card. The laptop is a Sony Vaio VPCM13M1E to which I have given a new soul putting the Mint 13 XFCE (32bit) on. Everything works properly, but the wireless card (Ralink RT3090) seems to have "low power". I mean: if I place the netbook close to the router (50 cm) it reach easily the signal and it connect to the wireless with no problem and I can navigate on internet without any disconnection, but if I move the laptop -for example- 1,5 meters far, it lose the signal and it seem that it can't (and don't want) connect again.
So I have tried to use a wifi-usb dongle (model: Atlantis A02-UP3WN v1.0 which it seem to have a Realtek chip). Mint recognize it, but also that seem don't work. Previously, when M$ Windows 7 Starter was installed (I used that for about 15 minutes just for trying it), the integrated card gave me the impression of be "not so strong" and for by-passing that problem (I was thinking would be driver related), I used this dongle and it worked with no problem.
Oh.. I've tried also another dongle that a my friend lent me but, unfortunately, seems that this second dongle isn't very friendly to install on Mint. In fact is a Netgear WNA3100 and looking around this forum I have found that many others Mint user have had problem to make it work.
Thus… since I'm going crazy trying to make the wireless work just a little better, I come here (in pace!!) with the hope to find somebody (that I don't use to know) who could help me.
Giant thanks!!!
(And I apologize for my bad english, but I'm a bit (?) rusty with it… if I have make some biblical/nasty/yaowww error, please correct me!!)

Ciao!!!! :)

sudo /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWifi/mintWifi.py wrote:
lipo@VAIO-LiPo ~ $ sudo /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWifi/mintWifi.py
[sudo] password for lipo:
-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-- Ralink corp. RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe
==> PCI ID = 1814:3090
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
bcmn43xx32 : driver installed
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan1 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"Wi-SiD"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:1F:33:8E:DE:74
Bit Rate=135 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=63/70 Signal level=-47 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"Wi-SiD"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:1F:33:8E:DE:74
Bit Rate=13 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=70/70 Signal level=-19 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:10 Invalid misc:81 Missed beacon:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 54:42:49:ec:9c:c5
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:42

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:62 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:62 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:4528 (4.5 KB) TX bytes:4528 (4.5 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 90:fb:a6:fe:76:10
inet addr:192.168.0.7 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::92fb:a6ff:fefe:7610/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:110 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:5329 (5.3 KB) TX bytes:18844 (18.8 KB)

wlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 78:44:76:83:b4:bc
inet addr:192.168.0.5 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::7a44:76ff:fe83:b4bc/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:35 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:61 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:4825 (4.8 KB) TX bytes:11900 (11.9 KB)

-------------------------
* V. querying DHCP...
Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8)
utility, e.g. service smbd reload

Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an
Upstart job, you may also use the reload(8) utility, e.g. reload smbd
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
Server: 192.168.0.1
Address: 192.168.0.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.100
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.101
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.102
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.103
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.104
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.105
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.110
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.96
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.97
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.98
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.232.99

lipo@VAIO-LiPo ~ $
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
remoulder
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Posts: 7621
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 1:14 pm

Re: Sony Vaio, Mint XFCE 13 and the "weak" wireless signal

Post by remoulder »

[Edit] your original post and add [SOLVED] once your question is resolved.

“The people are my God” stressing the factor determining man’s destiny lies within man not in anything outside man, and thereby defining man as the dominator and remoulder of the world.
ichiSiD

Re: Sony Vaio, Mint XFCE 13 and the "weak" wireless signal

Post by ichiSiD »

First of all: thanks for the answer!
Then... I followed this part of the guide you linked me:
Guide from bug 896582 wrote:
WORKAROUND: In release prior to Precise, I installed this driver: https://launchpad.net/~markus-tisoft...0~ppa1_all.deb
It did not work with newer driver.

Blacklisted "acer_wmi" in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Added "rt3090sta" to /etc/modules

Original source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p= ... stcount=20

WORKAROUND: In Precise, once the Ralink driver is downloaded, unpack and edit the file ../common/cmm_wpa.c :

Code:

UCHAR PrimaryRsnie;
BOOLEAN bMixCipher = FALSE; // indicate the pairwise and group cipher are different
UCHAR p_offset;
- WPA_MIX_PAIR_CIPHER FlexibleCipher = MIX_CIPHER_NOTUSE; // it provide the more flexible cipher combination in WPA-WPA2 and TKIPAES mode
+ WPA_MIX_PAIR_CIPHER FlexibleCipher = WPA_TKIPAES_WPA2_TKIPAES; // it provide the more flexible cipher combination in WPA-WPA2 and TKIPAES mode

then lastly in the file ../os/linux/config.mk :
Code:

HAS_GREENAP_SUPPORT=n
#Support MAC80211 LINUX-only function
-HAS_CFG80211_SUPPORT=y
+HAS_CFG80211_SUPPORT=n

#Support RFKILL hardware block/unblock LINUX-only function
HAS_RFKILL_HW_SUPPORT=y

Run "sudo make ; sudo make install", blacklist "acer_wmi" in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf , and you should have a working built module/driver.

It's helpful to blacklist rt2800pci so the system doesn't use this - it will use the new rt3090sta/rt2860 instead after a reboot...
The only thing I changed is that I hadn't blacklisted of the "rt2800pci" in the last line of the guide because by blacklisting that the wifi don't work at all.

Unfortunately the problem remains: if the laptop is more than a 1.5 meters far from the hotspot it lose the signal.... :cry:
ichiSiD

Re: Sony Vaio, Mint XFCE 13 and the "weak" wireless signal

Post by ichiSiD »

Any other suggestions?? :?:
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