No wireless (Ralink 5390)

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silvius_discipulus

No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by silvius_discipulus »

Hey all,

I know there have been postings about this before, but the solutions have all been way over my head as a Linux newbie, or else include broken links that make the directions impossible to follow. Linux Mint 11 does not recognize the Ralink 5390 wireless adapter, so I am without wireless when I use it. Ralink has released a Linux driver, but it requires a lot of complicated steps to put it to any use. I've tried following various guides, but I either get lost or stuck partway through. Does anyone have some plain English steps to follow to get this issue resolved? Thanks!
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remoulder
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Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by remoulder »

The latest kernel apparently has native support for this chipset, this is the simplest way to get your adapter to work. You can install this by

downloading the following deb files from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/ma ... 1-oneiric/

linux-headers-3.0.1-030001_3.0.1-030001.201108060905_all.deb,
linux-headers-3.0.1-030001-generic_3.0.1-030001.201108060905_i386.deb and
linux-image-3.0.1-030001-generic_3.0.1-030001.201108060905_i386.deb

NOTE: these are for the 32bit version, if running the 64 bit version download the equivalent files ending _amd64.deb

Then open a terminal and enter

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.0.1-030001_3.0.1-030001.201108060905_all.deb linux-headers-3.0.1-030001-generic_3.0.1-030001.201108060905_i386.deb linux-image-3.0.1-030001-generic_3.0.1-030001.201108060905_i386.deb
The order is VERY important, copy and paste the above substituting i386 for amd64 if needed.

After rebooting, your wifi should hopefully be working.
[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.
silvius_discipulus

Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by silvius_discipulus »

Thank you, remoulder, for your reply! I will try your suggestion this evening.
silvius_discipulus

Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by silvius_discipulus »

I tried this method, but after pasting the code into the terminal, I get this message:

sudo: can't stat /etc/sudoers: Input/output error
sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting

Where do I need to put the files after I download them so that the commands will work?
remoulder
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Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by remoulder »

silvius_discipulus wrote:sudo: can't stat /etc/sudoers: Input/output error
This may indicate a more serious problem and at this point given your level of experience and not knowing what else has been done to the system, a complete re-install may be your best way forward.
[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.
silvius_discipulus

Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by silvius_discipulus »

Does it matter that I'm running Mint 11 from a USB drive at the moment? Persistent file = 4 GB. Also, I left the .deb files just kind of hanging out in the Downloads folder. Would they need to be somewhere else for the commands to work?
AlbertP
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Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by AlbertP »

Yes. On a live USB you can't update the kernel.

You can replace your driver by Ralink's official driver from here: http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=2

And to blacklist rt2800usb, if needed:

Code: Select all

gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
In that text file you can add: blacklist rt2800usb
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silvius_discipulus

Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by silvius_discipulus »

What's the upshot of blacklisting rt2800usb? Also, I've downloaded the driver from the Ralink website before, but have no idea what to do with the files once I get them. I remember that it's not a simple download-and-execute operation; does anyone have some (hopefully uncomplicated) instructions for me to follow?
AlbertP
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Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by AlbertP »

Blacklisting rt2800usb is needed, if you want to run Ralink's official driver properly. Else you often get two drivers on one card. What also may happen is that the first driver in alphabet (and that is... rt2800usb) is chosen by Linux.

You have to unpack the driver, and then open a terminal from the folder where you unpacked it (right-click in the empty space > Open in Terminal). In that terminal, you have to run:

Code: Select all

make
sudo make install
Then you need to blacklist rt2800usb as described above, and add rt5390sta:

Code: Select all

gksudo gedit /etc/modules
In this file, you can add rt5390sta on a blank line.
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silvius_discipulus

Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by silvius_discipulus »

The "make" function appears to work as expected, but on "sudo make install" I get the same error as previous:

sudo: can't stat /etc/sudoers: Input/output error
sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting

Is this still because of the Live USB?
AlbertP
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Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by AlbertP »

Perhaps. Can you go into root mode with su, and then run make install?
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silvius_discipulus

Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by silvius_discipulus »

That depends what "root mode" and "su" are. I speak newbie. :wink:
What is root mode and how do I access it? Is "su" a command in itself, or is it short for "sudo"?
AlbertP
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Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by AlbertP »

You can execute su, and then the $ changes into #. The # sign means that you have got 'root' access - so everything's allowed. No need for sudo anymore.
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silvius_discipulus

Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by silvius_discipulus »

So now I have a completely different problem. I gave up on the Live USB and decided to do a HDD install, then followed remoulder's first post and updated the kernel. This time everything installed without a hitch, but when I rebooted, there was no video output at all. Just a black screen. The system is running because I hear the startup sound but I can't see. I can also tell the wireless is now working because the light is blinking, but that doesn't help much if I can't see a thing.

hp dv6 / AMD A-series processor / AMD (ATI?) A6 Vision graphics
AlbertP
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Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by AlbertP »

Do you mean Fusion A6 graphics? That requires a work-around to get Linux 3.0 working.

You can hold Shift during early boot to see the Grub boot menu. Please press E and add radeon.modeset=0 to the kernel command-line. Then you can boot with F10 or Ctrl-X. After that, please install the fglrx graphics driver using the Additional Drivers program.
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silvius_discipulus

Re: No wireless (Ralink 5390)

Post by silvius_discipulus »

I edited the kernel command-line as above, and on my first boot I saw a flash of text that said something like "x conflicts with Video ROM ..." Then it went straight on back to the black screen. I've tried booting again since, and there's no more text, just the black screen. Also, I no longer hear the login ping, but the wireless is still flashing away.
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