EW-7128G

It has been suggested that this article be Merged into one article with Rt61.    (Discuss)

About

This guide was written to help the reader, who wishes to install & run RT61-based wireless card, such as EDIMAX EW-7128G.

Kernel Configuration

First, Make sure that these following lines are present inside the kernel's .config, which is located at /usr/src/linux/. This guide would utilize the driver that is included in the kernel, so there is no need to install ralink-rt61 driver from the portage.

CONFIG_MAC80211=y 
CONFIG_RT2X00=m 
CONFIG_RT2X00_LIB=m 
CONFIG_RT2X00_LIB_PCI=m 
CONFIG_RT2X00_LIB_FIRMWARE=y 
CONFIG_RT61PCI=m

Compile the kernel after the new configuration has been saved.

Second, enter this command to enable the module to load automatically during the boot-up.

echo "rt61pci" >> /etc/init.d/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

If the reader prefers to load the modules manually, perform the following command.

modprobe rt61pci
update-modules

Third, download the latest firmware from ralink's website. Put all three .bin files inside /lib/firmware. Restart the PC, and don't forget to boot into the new kernel.

WPA Supplicant

Emerge wpa_supplicant (it is required if one is trying to access WPA2 network).

Insert these following lines into /etc/conf.d/net. (It is assumed that the reader is attempting to connect to WPA2 Personal network with TKIP encryption.)

modules="wpa_supplicant" 

wpa_supplicant_wlan0="Dwext" 

config_YourSSID=( "dhcp" ) 

wpa_timeout_wlan0=15

Add these row of codes into /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant 

ctrl_interface_group=0 

network={ 
        ssid="YourSSID" 
        proto=RSN 
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK 
        pairwise=TKIP 
        group=TKIP 
        psk="YourPassword" 
        priority=5 
}

Final Configuration

Create a soft link between net.lo and net.wlan0.

ln -s /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.wlan0

Next, input the following command to activate the card.

ifconfig wlan0 up

If one is connected to wired network, do this, otherwise skip to the next step.

/etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop

Finally, finish the hard work.

/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 start

In order to scan the area for wireless access point, one can use iwlist from wireless-tools package or wpa_supplicant scanner. If the reader happens to have wireless-tools installed, run this command.

iwlist wlan0 scan

Otherwise, one may use wpa_cli to scan for the wireless network(s).

$ wpa_cli
$ > scan
$ > scan_results
$ > quit

For those who are more comfortable with GUI, compile wpa_supplicant with qt3 or qt4 flag enabled, then run wpa_gui.

See also

• Rt61
• Wireless/Configuration
• Source