Ralink RT3090 driver problem

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ar3700
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Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:19 am

Ralink RT3090 driver problem

Post by ar3700 »

I have an Acer Aspire Revo AR3700 which has a Ralink RT3090 wireless card. I I erased Windows 7 and now I am trying Linux Mint 14 Mate 64-bit and the wireless works horribly. I can only connect intermittently to my home wifi network and when I do connect, it is really really slow (~100-200kbps). It might work for a while but then it will disconnect and keep trying to reconnect and occasionally at random times it will reconnect or I might get so frustrated I just turn off wireless and plug in a cable.
I'm guessing this is a driver issue since my Win 7 laptop can be sitting right next to the AR3700 and it gets 15-20Mbps on my wifi. So does my Android phone. I have spent hours reading forums and found other people having RT3090 problems but the solutions are for older or different versions of Linux.

I downloaded the driver on the Ralink website. Not that I could ever figure out how to install the driver, but the readme file said it was for Linux kernel 2.4 & 2.6 (14 is kernel 3.0 correct?)

Can anybody give me any advice on what things I can try to fix this? This is going to be a deal killer for Mint if I can't get the wifi working...

Note: I see something on here called NDIS wrapper driver installation tool, should I try that? Is that something that a non-expert should be able to figure out?

Below are the results from mintWifi.py:


-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-- Ralink corp. RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe
==> PCI ID = 1814:3090
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
eth0 no wireless extensions.

lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"Firefly4"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: F4:6D:04:B2:D7:50
Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off 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:33 Invalid misc:23 Missed beacon:0

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr d0:27:88:6e:5d:ed
UP BROADCAST 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)

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:398 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:398 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:53838 (53.8 KB) TX bytes:53838 (53.8 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 68:a3:c4:b3:20:c1
inet addr:192.168.1.2 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::6aa3:c4ff:feb3:20c1/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:4657 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4632 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:3709668 (3.7 MB) TX bytes:1090479 (1.0 MB)

-------------------------
* 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: 127.0.1.1
Address: 127.0.1.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.200
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.201
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.206
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.192
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.193
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.194
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.195
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.196
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.197
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.198
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.224.199
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.
ar3700
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:19 am

Re: Ralink RT3090 driver problem

Post by ar3700 »

I tried NDISWrapper and it didn't work. First I found the .inf and .sys driver files for my wireless card. Then I ran NDISWrapper and when I selected the .inf file I got the error:
"Module could not be loaded. Error was: FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found. Is the ndiswrapper module installed?"

I'm not sure what this error means.
bigj231

Re: Ralink RT3090 driver problem

Post by bigj231 »

Did you install ndiswrapper? Generally, when that message comes up for me, either I forgot to install something or the kernel wasn't built with support for that module. I think it's in synaptic.

Try installing the ndiswrapper-dkms package.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-dkms
ar3700
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:19 am

Re: Ralink RT3090 driver problem

Post by ar3700 »

NDISWrapper is already included with Mint 14. I ran the program, it asked me for the .inf driver file, then it says "Module ndiswrapper not found. Doesn't make any sense to me. I looked it up in Mint Software Center and it says its already installed.
bigj231

Re: Ralink RT3090 driver problem

Post by bigj231 »

Look in synaptic for the kernel module. A.K.A. ndiswrapper-dkms as I said in my previous post. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Ke ... le_Support.
Also see: http://askubuntu.com/questions/132894/h ... -not-found. Literally the first result found on Google for "ndiswrapper not found".

A tutorial on installing the windows drivers is here as well: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... diswrapper

Remember, most of the fixes for Ubuntu will work for Mint. And if I come off a bit harsh, I don't mean to, but please search then post. Not the other way around.
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