Wireless network conectivity

I should add that I am using the latest Debian image.

If it does work, what are the commands to install this?

Fergus,

I would try here first:

http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#USB_WiFi_Adapters

There is also a guide for installing if yours is on the working list.

Steve

Digitech is not on the "working list" as of today.  I will play around with the RPi and see if I can get it working with the provided drivers.

As I am new to linux,

Can someone please help me through the installing process.  I don't know how to install a tar.bz2 file type.  I have extracted it to a folder and found the readme file but I don't understand what it is telling me to do.  I have attached it here.

Fergus, with a bit of luck, you may be able to ignore those build instructions altogether, and just do a network package install of the driver you need.  Take a look at this post by GizmoB73:

• http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3150&start=75#p63821

Although I don't know whether it resolved his own problem, he points out that the rt2870 chipset is handled by the regular "ralink" driver, which you can install directly on your Debian with nothing more than:

• apt-get install firmware-ralink

Unfortunately I don't have my Pi yet and I'm not running Debian here on any machine, but it's worth a try doing the above install command, then running "depmod -a", and finally running "modprobe" on the right kernel module that the apt-get installed.

To find the module name, run "uname -a" to discover your kernel version/build name (it should be the 3rd field of the single line of output, for example 3.2.0-xxx), and then use that name to look in the appropriate wireless modules directory:

• ls -l /lib/modules/3.2.0-xxx/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00

In that directory you should find a number of driver modules (.ko files), and with a bit of luck that will include a rt2870.ko --- if so then try "modprobe rt2870".  If it's not there then you could try one of the others, although that can lead to a crash sometimes.

It would be so much easier to give proper advice if I had a Pi, grrrr ... Good luck!

Morgaine.

Fergus,

  I'm not sure where you're getting stuck.  I also can't tell if this

driver has ever been built for arm, or for debian, so I'm not sure

what the probability of success is.

  If you still have a tar.bz2 file, you can extract it like:

        bzip2  -cd  file.bz2  |  tar xvf -

where file.bz2 is the name of the file you have, and be

careful with the spaces

The readme file appears to be in microsoft word format,

which you can read on a PC or using Openoffice on the RPi.

the results of unpacking the bz2 file should be a directory

with some files ending in .c and .h (these are the c source files),

and a file called Makefile.   You will be editing the Makefile,

according to step 2 of the readme file.  You can skip step 1,

which is just unpacking the files, which I think you've already done.

In step 3, you will be editing os/linux/config.mk

In step 4, you will type

   make

at the command prompt

which will use your modified Makefile to cause the .c and .h

files to be compiled using the c compiler.

In step 5, you will type

  cp ...

at the command prompt, to copy the .dat file where it goes.

Hope this is somewhat helpful. 

EDIT: just saw Morgaine's reply.  Try that first.

I took a gamble on a cheap Wireless Dongle, hoping they would be a fairly generic chipset and bought this one from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-Internet-Adaptor-150Mbps-Windows/dp/B003BKBGF4/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339940385&sr=8-1-spell

I'm pleased to say that the gamble worked for once, as my Pi is currently connected wirelessly - Keyboard and Dongle both plugged directly into the Pi.

apt-get install firmware-ralink first

Then followed the guide here: http://elinux.org/RPi_Peripherals#Wireless:_TP-Link_TL-WN722N_USB_wireless_adapter_.28Debian_6.29 from where it says: Add adapter definition to network config - eg: sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces - add the wlan0 section:

Personally, I used Nano to edit rather than Vi as I find it as lot easier.

Hope this helps someone to a cheap wireless Pi!

Steve Read wrote:

 

Personally, I used Nano to edit rather than Vi as I find it as lot easier.

It's Sunday.  That comment wasn't anywhere near strong enough to stir people out of bed and into a decent editors flame war.

Steve Read wrote:

 

Personally, I used Nano to edit rather than Vi as I find it as lot easier.

It's Sunday.  That comment wasn't anywhere near strong enough to stir people out of bed and into a decent editors flame war.

Oops, perhaps I should be careful of what I say :-)

It's just as a beginner in all this, Vi seems a little, er, can I say arcane ?

It just seems like trying to type a sentence using alt codes !

Steve