Ubuntu – Ralink RT2790 (or maybe a RT2860), detected as two different chipsets, can’t connect

12.04ralinkwireless

Today,
I have installed 12.04 & my wifi stopped working. Wireless gets detected as RT2790 & show available network but doesn't not connect to any wireless network(tried secured & unsecured) for some strange reason.

here are my debug logs:

$ lspci -vv
01:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT2790 Wireless 802.11n 1T/2R PCIe
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 130f
    Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
    Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
    Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 4 bytes
    Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
    Region 0: Memory at fd9f0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: rt2800pci
    Kernel modules: rt2800pci

$ dmesg

[   10.376745] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   10.377050] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   10.382818] r8169 0000:02:00.0: eth0: link down
[   10.382999] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   10.383320] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   10.399893] type=1400 audit(1335469914.161:10): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm/lightdm-guest-session-wrapper" pid=770 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   10.466654] type=1400 audit(1335469914.229:11): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/mission-control-5" pid=777 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   10.467258] type=1400 audit(1335469914.229:12): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/telepathy-*" pid=777 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   10.471790] type=1400 audit(1335469914.233:13): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" name="/usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf" pid=778 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   10.472486] type=1400 audit(1335469914.237:14): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" name="/usr/sbin/cupsd" pid=778 comm="apparmor_parser"
[   10.813041] init: alsa-restore main process (814) terminated with status 99
[   36.626240] audit_printk_skb: 27 callbacks suppressed
[   36.626245] type=1400 audit(1335469940.389:24): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" parent=1 profile="/usr/lib/telepathy/mission-control-5" name="/usr/share/gvfs/remote-volume-monitors/" pid=1594 comm="mission-control" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
[   68.040170] wlan0: authenticate with 00:14:78:19:8f:da (try 1)
[   68.041544] wlan0: authenticated
[   68.056069] wlan0: associate with 00:14:78:19:8f:da (try 1)
[   68.057737] wlan0: deauthenticated from 00:14:78:19:8f:da (Reason: 6)
[  197.784490] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[  207.812147] wlan0: authenticate with 00:14:78:19:8f:da (try 1)
[  207.813561] wlan0: authenticated
[  207.828142] wlan0: associate with 00:14:78:19:8f:da (try 1)
[  207.829666] wlan0: deauthenticated from 00:14:78:19:8f:da (Reason: 6)
[  271.148245] wlan0: authenticate with 00:14:78:19:8f:da (try 1)
[  271.149599] wlan0: authenticated
[  271.149779] wlan0: failed to insert Dummy STA entry for the AP (error -17)
[  334.140512] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:14:78:19:8f:da by local choice (reason=2)
[  334.148263] wlan0: authenticate with 00:14:78:19:8f:da (try 1)
[  334.149624] wlan0: authenticated
[  334.149843] wlan0: failed to insert Dummy STA entry for the AP (error -17)
[  397.136541] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:14:78:19:8f:da by local choice (reason=2)
[  399.272147] wlan0: authenticate with 00:14:78:19:8f:da (try 1)
[  399.472028] wlan0: authenticate with 00:14:78:19:8f:da (try 2)
[  399.473423] wlan0: authenticated
[  399.473654] wlan0: failed to insert Dummy STA entry for the AP (error -17)

$ iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off

Now, I am also running Ubuntu 10.10 on this same machine, in that my wireless gets detected as RaLink RT2860 chipset & works perfectly). I can connect to internet. here is the lspci output from Ubuntu 10.10

01:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2860
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 130f
    Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
    Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
    Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 4 bytes
    Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
    Region 0: Memory at fd9f0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: rt2800pci
    Kernel modules: rt2860sta, rt2800pci

Interesting thing to notice here is:
the same card gets detected as two different chipsets(RT2790 vs RT2860)

the Wireless card in question here is:
Asus PCE-N10 Wireless PCI Express Adapter. And I think chipset in this card is RT2860(not RT2790), correct me if I am wrong. I further suspect this wrong detection in Ubuntu 12.04 is the reason that it doesn't connect/work.

So,
Please let me know if my suspicion is correct? If yes, then what I need to do to fix this mess & get my wireless card working in Ubuntu 12.04?

Best Answer

Maybe the fault is not in Ubuntu 12.04 itself, but instead on the kernel, where (amongst others) wifi drivers are included. Upgrading to an even newer kernel (or an older one=ยก?) could make things work.

Another solution could be to use ndiswrapper with the RT2860 Windows drivers. I know it's not ideal, but could work.

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