Salix Forums

I've only recently switched to Linux from Windows, and I must say, I really love Salix! It is fast and very convenient to use. Unfortunately, I do have just one problem to an otherwise perfect OS. I don't understand how to install a driver for a Ralink USB Wireless adapter. I have the driver on the disc, which contains both a Windows and Linux version, conveniently enough. The driver version is RT5370, and I don't know how a driver is installed in Linux. I know the Windows driver is installed simply by launching the .exe file which will install the driver for you, but with Linux, I think I'm going to have to get my hands dirty. This is fine - I don't mind doing a little legwork to get a device working, I'm just not sure how to install it, as I've never installed a driver in Linux before. The device is not automatically detected unfortunately, so I'm unsure of where to go from here. I think I will have to edit some text files and so forth, but the Readme file just doesn't make sense to me. Any help for this Linux noob would be most appreciated!

Please open a root terminal and post the output of lsusb and iwconfig.

EDIT: You are right. According to this mail http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-wire ... 68993.html (Date: Wed, 4 May 2011) there is no support for your chipset in the Linux kernel, yet. Ralink offers a GPLed driver (version 2.5.0.1).

Usually the kernel sources are required to compile thir party drivers. So first install them:
slapt-get -u
slapt-get --install kernel-sources

After that unpack the driver sources to some directory:
tar xf 2011_0225_RT5370_RT5372_Linux_STA_V2.5.0.1_DPO.tar.bz2
cd 2011_0225_RT5370_RT5372_Linux_STA_V2.5.0.1_DPO

There is a README file included with detailed instructions, but you can try the usual method first:
make
make install

I have a HP G62 laptop which has a ralink rt3090 wireless chipset.
So i have made slackbuilds of ralink (GPLed) drivers (rt3090 pci and rt5370 usb) for salix-13.1.2 (2.6.33.4-smp kernel)
For salix-13.37 just download all the files and run the corresponding Slackbuild

rt5370 package (http://people.salixos.org/djemos/salix-13.1/rt5370/)
rt3090 package (http://people.salixos.org/djemos/salix-13.1/rt3090/)

For anyone might find these useful.

Note: rt3090 exists in the kernel as rt2860sta but conflicts with rt2800pci so to work have to
edit the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and add the below lines to it…
blacklist rt2800pci
blacklist rt2800lib
blacklist rt2x00pci
blacklist rt2x00lib

Thank you both djemos and thenktor for your helpful replies! It really saved the day! I was just about to say, you are correct thenktor - I also found a thread on the Ubuntu forums covering the same driver issue: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1717623&page=4

Thanks for your package djemos! It worked like a charm, and I now have internet with this adapter! I'm going to mark this thread as solved.