Yet another crap blog

Debian Etch

I have been messing with this linux distro, debian etch to get my wireless interface work. The latest drivers listed on the ralink site is not working or atleast i dont know how to get them work. I tried installing various versions and found this ralink RT61_Linux_STA_Drv1.1.0.0 working fine. At this time, when i was writing this article (my first linux article lol) i m not any linux novice but just a 6 month old debian bug :D, so give a try at your own risk.

Actually i found this guide for ubuntu and tried it on debian and yeah it worked great.

First confirm you were using the RT61 chipset, for that

open the terminal and give lspci

if you got the output as follows then you do proceed.

Network controller: RaLink RT2561/RT61 rev B 802.11g

Either log in as root user or use the su command and provide the root password in the terminal and then install the kernel headers and essential files to compile the modules.

apt-get install build-essential
apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
apt-get install wireless-tools

Download the rt61 driver from the link below.

http://host.hackerbox.org/download.php?file=cc375eba143c70be19718247fa8c18ba

Later open the terminal and move to the location where you have saved the rt61 driver and give the following commands.

$> tar xvfz RT61_Linux_STA_Drv1.1.0.0.tar.gz
$> cd RT61_Linux_STA_Drv1.1.0.0/Module/
$> cp -f Makefile.6 Makefile
$> make all
#> cp rt61.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/
#> depmod
#> nano /etc/Wireless/RT61STA/rt61sta.dat

In that, edit the following fields shown below,

SSID=<SSID of your access point>
NetworkType=Infra
AuthMode=WPAPSK
EncrypType=TKIP
WPAPSK=<your WPA key/password>

For example, these fields should be like this,

SSID=aaaa
NetworkType=Infra
AuthMode=WPAPSK
EncrypType=TKIP
WPAPSK=password

then press ctrl+o to save the file and ctrl+x to exit.

#> modprobe –remove rt61pci
#> modprobe rt61
#> iwconfig

After giving the above command, check whether a device ra0 is loaded from the output that pops for the above command.

Proceed with the following command to check whether everything went right or not. you should get response from the router once you ping it.

#> ifconfig ra0 <Your computer IpAddress> netmask 255.255.255.0 up
#> ping <Ipaddress of Access Point/router>

For example,
#> ifconfig ra0 192.168.1.50 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
#> ping 192.168.1.1

Once you got a response from the router, give the following commands

#> echo ‘rt61′ >> /etc/modules
#> echo ‘alias ra0 rt61′ >> /etc/modprobe.d/aliases
#> nano /etc/network/interfaces

In that file, delete the preconfigured wlan0 lines, only the below things should be left

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

and then add the following lines, if you have a static ip address,

iface ra0 inet static
address <your ip address>
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway <ip address of your access point>
auto ra0

else, if you have a dynamic ip address then configure the dhcp on the router and add the below lines into the file,

iface ra0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid YOURESSID
auto ra0

Press ctrl+o and ctrl+x to save and exit.

Reboot the computer and configure the dns ip address as follows,

Go to Applications menu and then debian–>apps–>system–> network admin.

In that window, select the dns tab, press add and give your internet service provider’s dns ip address or your routers ip address, if you have configured the dns there.

i m sure, you would be connected to the internet by now.

post your comments. thanks for reading this.