RT73 Wireless Usb with WPA, my experience

[RazzBear]

After much playing around i finally got my wireless Usb stick working with puppyand my router using WPA-PSK encryption.
I am using a CWD-854 which uses the RT73 chipset
on a puppy option 2 hard disk install
What i did was as follows

modprobe RT73

I then edited the file /etc/Wireless/RT73STA/rt73sta.dat
and changed the settings in there to reflect my routers ESSID,etc
(strangely enough this file didnt exist until after i did modprobe rt73)
eg
SSID=YourOwnEssid
AuthMode=WPAPSK
EncrypType=TKIP
WPAPSK=YourOwnEncryptionKey

After it was edited and saved do the following

ifconfig rausb0 up

I then run the Network Wizard and clicked on AutoDhcp
it took about 60 secs and came back and asked if i wanted to save
my settings, clicked Yes

Checked with RutilT and everything looked fine

And that was it, it was working.
Started a browser got on to this forum and thought i would pass on this info for others who may be having trouble.

Now all i need to do is work out how to automate the steps
so that i dont have to type in the modprobe and ifconfig and AutoDhcp every time.
Can anybody help me in that area?

[Shagbag]

Thanks for the advice. Once I get ndiswrapper to stop complaining, I'm going to need to know how to configure Puppy for WPA-PSK. Your post seems a good start. Cheers

[marksouth2000]

Now all i need to do is work out how to automate the steps
so that i dont have to type in the modprobe and ifconfig and AutoDhcp every time.
Can anybody help me in that area?

Coincidentally, I also have an rt73 based stick, a D-Link DWL-G122. Because I use my wireless portable in different locations, I have a script for each location. Here's an example:

Code: Select all

modprobe rt73
sleep 5
ifconfig rausb0 up
iwconfig rausb0 essid THE_RIGHT_SSID 
if [ -e /etc/dhcpc/*.pid ]; then
   rm /etc/dhcpc/*.pid
fi
dhcpcd -t 20 rausb0

I have an icon for this script on the desktop so I just click it and wait for the link light to come on. This beats putting the commands in rc.local and having the machine fail to connect when at a different location, or when it's booted without the stick inserted.

Cheers,
Mark

[RazzBear]

Thanks Mark giving that script a try now.

[tempestuous]

Shagbag (and anyone else wanting WPA), RazzBear's information is UNIQUE to the Ralink drivers.
Ralink is the only Linux wifi driver which natively supports WPA encryption. And of these, only the rt61 and rt73 drivers will accommodate the configuration file which RazzBear used.
The rt2500 and rt2570 drivers require a series of iwpriv commands to set up WPA, explained here http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Wifi/drivers- ... README.txt

All other wifi drivers (including ndiswrapper) require the "helper" application wpa_supplicant. Get it here http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Wifi/wireless-utilities/

And read the separate README first.

[rarsa]

Now all i need to do is work out how to automate the steps
so that i dont have to type in the modprobe and ifconfig and AutoDhcp every time.
Can anybody help me in that area?

The solution is to load the module using the network wizard. After that you will have a "save module" button that you can use to save the module to be loaded at next boot up.

[packwood]

I am trying to get an RT73 dongle to work. This post seems to be going in the right direction. Can anyone clarify what needs to be in the folder /etc/Wireless/RT73STA and the steps required to get it there.

Thanks.

[masinick]

Shagbag (and anyone else wanting WPA), RazzBear's information is UNIQUE to the Ralink drivers.
Ralink is the only Linux wifi driver which natively supports WPA encryption. And of these, only the rt61 and rt73 drivers will accommodate the configuration file which RazzBear used.
The rt2500 and rt2570 drivers require a series of iwpriv commands to set up WPA, explained here http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Wifi/drivers- ... README.txt

All other wifi drivers (including ndiswrapper) require the "helper" application wpa_supplicant. Get it here http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Wifi/wireless-utilities/

And read the separate README first.

I am using Puppy 3.01 and it recognizes my wireless card (ipw2200) and it can see all of the wireless access points that my router can pick up. The one remaining issue for me is the technique for feeding the wireless config setup program a key that contains letters, numbers and a symbol. Most wireless setup programs prompt for a key and if it is mixed text, it figures out correctly what to do. With the 3.01 version of the program, it is assuming a Hex string. If I do not put in S: in front of my key it complains that it is not Hex. But if I put in S: I still do not get the right result. I assume it is because I have a symbol in my key. Given that, how do I appropriately escape the key so it does the right thing? Also, will the utility eventually be improved so it can tell whether the WPA2 key is Hex, text, numbers, or symbols and just do the right thing?

[tempestuous]

That forum post of mine you just quoted is 15 months old.
Recent versions of Puppy now include wpa_supplicant as standard, and Puppy's Network Wizard automatically uses this utility whenever the user chooses the "WPA" or "WPA2" buttons.
I think the Network Wizard is confused by your passphrase. wpa_supplicant should automatically detect a WPA passphrase, and then convert it to hex key using the "wpa_passphrase" utility.
But if there are problems you can pre-convert your passphrase to hex key with this command -

Code: Select all

wpa_passphrase <ssid> <passphrase>

... and the resultant hex key entered into the Wizard instead of the passphrase. It's always more reliable to use the true hex key, anyway.
And don't ever use the "s" parameter with wpa_supplicant. The "s" parameter is only valid with WEP configuratons using iwconfig.

Better still, run all wifi configuration commands manually, following these instructions -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 336#159336
Then you will know what's going on behind the Network Wizard.