The Riotboard already has support for RT5370RT5370 WiFi dongle on Android and Yocto Platforms.
A quick check to confirm the dongle product, vendor and model info .
This post will guide you on setting USB RT5370 on Ubuntu Platform.
1. Setting up development platform
2. Configure Kernel
3. Update firmware
4. Edit network Interface
5. Start WiFi
Setting Up Development Platform
Refer User manual Pg48 to setup a development Environment.
(reply comments if unable to setup the platform)
Configure kernel : Enable mac80211 linux stack for Wireless Lan
The Ralink driver directly depends on mac80211 so this needs to be enabled for RT5370 USB drivers to be available in menuconfig.
In linux source directory:
make menuconfig
Enable mac80211
Networking support >>
Wireless >>
Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)
Next Enable the Ralink USB drivers .
Device Drivers >>
Network device support >>
Wireless Lan >>
Ralink driver support >>
rt2800usb - Include support for rt53xx devices (EXPERIMENTAL) <<- ENABLE THIS
Once configuration done.
build the kernel and copy the kernel to sdcard.
refer this document to setup ubuntu sdcard for RIotboard.
Once sdcard setup done, connect the dongle and boot the board.
Update firmware
Once the WiFi hardware is plugged in the rt2800USB drivers will detect and load the firmware.
This firmware is programmed into the RT5370 device to make hardware available for use.
apt-get install usbutils wireless-tools
apt-get install linux-firmware
apt-get install firmware-ralink
You can copy the attached rt2870.bin to the /lib/firmware in Riot.
Configure Network Interfaces
The /etc/network/interface needs to be updated with SSID & PASSWORD to get WiFi connected to AP .
bring up the interface and scan for access points
ifup wlan1
iwlist wlan1 scan | grep SSID
The above is list of available access points.
use "iwlist wlan1 scan" to get details regarding the encryption used.
I am using E14-4GLTE which is wpa2-psk secured WiFI.
so added below to the /etc/network/interface file .
auto wlan1
iface wlan1 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid SSID_NAME
wpa-psk PASSWORD
replace SSID_NAME with your WiFi ssid
replace PASSWORD with access password
With this WiFi gets connected automatically once the board starts and AP available.
Start WiFi
- Plugin the WiFi Dongle
- restart the networking interface
/etc/init.d/networking restart
- Enabling the wlan interface and verifying the working status.
ifup wlan1
The WiFi led must glow.
In my case it looks like below, the interface wlan1.
There is a good chance to get some wpa_supplicant related info as bvelow:
wpa_supplicant: /sbin/wpa_supplicant daemon failed to start
run-parts: /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant exited with return code 1
we are setting up WiFi without wpa_supplicant, kill the wpa_supplicant.
killall wpa_supplicant
rm -rf /var/run/wpa_supplicant/*
restart the wireless interfaces.
/etc/init.d/networking restart
If you can see an ip address as below , try to ping an external website to confirm the working.
