Diagnosis
The following commands will identify which driver ubuntu uses for your wifi card:
nm-tool
...
- Device: wlan0 ----------------------------------------------------------------
Type: 802.11 WiFi
Driver: rt2800pci
State: disconnected
Default: no
HW Address: 00:22:43:13:7F:7B
Capabilities:
Wireless Properties
WEP Encryption: yes
WPA Encryption: yes
WPA2 Encryption: yes ...
rt2800pci 18159 0
rt2800lib 43824 1 rt2800pci
rt2x00pci 13986 1 rt2800pci
rt2x00lib 39075 3 rt2800pci,rt2800lib,rt2x00pci
eeprom_93cx6 12653 1 rt2800pci
Conclusion: ubuntu uses the rt2800pci driver for accessing the RT2860 wifi chipset. This driver causes the instability.
sudo lshw -C network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 02
serial: 00:21:85:4c:75:cc
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full ip=192.168.1.60 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:42 ioport:d000(size=256) memory:ffd10000-ffd10fff memory:ffd00000-ffd0ffff memory:dfd00000-dfd0ffff
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: RT2860
vendor: Ralink corp.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: wlan0SolutionCurrently the only solution is to download the driver directly from Ralink and manually compiling and installing it. Although the command line steps are quite tedious, I did get a stable wifi back. The following steps are copied and slightly updated from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1592731.
- Download latest RT2860 driver source code from Ralink at http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=2. The driver is tagged RT2860PCI/mPCI/CB/PCIe(RT2760/RT2790/RT2860/RT2890). Put the tar into your home directory.
- Extract the tar file and go to the expanded directory (ignore the bz2 extensions, bunzip2 won't work):
cd ~/2010*- Edit the config.mk file:
Find the following lines (by default set to "n") and set them to be "y":gedit ./os/linux/config.mkSave and close the file.HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y
HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y- Back in the terminal window perform the following command
For the warning message choose "Western" then "Retry".gedit ./common/cmm_wpa.c
Use the find command to locate "MIX_CIPHER_NOTUSE". Replace the entire line with this code:Save and close the file.WPA_MIX_PAIR_CIPHER FlexibleCipher = WPA_TKIPAES_WPA2_TKIPAES;- Make sure gcc is installed (usually is by default but if not install it via synaptic) then from the terminal window perform the following commands:
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo ifconfig wlan0 down (on some hardware it is ra0)
sudo rmmod rt2860sta
sudo mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/staging/rt2860/rt2860sta.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/staging/rt2860/rt2860sta.ko.dist- Still in the terminal window perform the following commands:
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe rt2860sta
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up (on some hardware it is ra0)- Check that network manager can now select networks and connect to them.
- Back in the terminal window perform the following command:
sudo cp ./os/linux/rt2860sta.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/staging/rt2860/- In the terminal window perform the following command:
Add "rt2860sta" on a line at the end of the file then save and close it.gksudo gedit /etc/modules- Reboot and check that wifi still works
