Ketil Froyn
Ketil Froyn's blog

ASUS A8V Deluxe Wireless Edition on Debian GNU/Linux

Here are instructions on how to set up wireless network on Debian 3.1 GNU/Linux if you have the ASUS A8V Deluxe Wireless Edition with the ASUS WIFI-g card. This card has the Ralink RT2500 chipset, so we need to install the driver. These instructions should also work if you have another device with the RT2500 chipset.

I have made these instructions for Debian with the 2.6 kernel. If you have a 2.4 kernel you should only need to modify the version string in the appropriate places. You can check your kernel version by running the command:

uname -r

IMPORTANT:This driver does not work with SMP kernels, even on single CPU systems. The driver is bundled with KNOPPIX, but causes a system freeze for me even with the "nosmp" boot parameter to the kernel. The developers are working on a new driver that should work on SMP systems, but as far as I know it is not functional as of 2005/10/23.

Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Install and set up the Linux kernel source:
    apt-get install kernel-source-2.6.8
    cd /usr/src/
    tar xvfj kernel-source-2.6.8.tar.bz2
    cd kernel-source-2.6.8
    cp /boot/config-2.6.8-2-386 .config
    make oldconfig
    make
    cd /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386
    ln -sf /usr/src/linux build
    ln -sf /usr/src/linux source
  2. Unpack and compile the driver:
    cd /usr/src
    tar xvfz rt2500-1.1.0-b3.tar.gz
    cd rt2500-1.1.0-b3/Module
    make
    make install
    cp /lib/modules/2.6.8/extra/rt2500.ko /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/net/
    depmod -a
  3. Set up the module:
    echo alias ra0 rt2500 > /etc/modutils/rt2500
    update-modules
  4. Configure the driver. Add something like this to /etc/network/interfaces. Read the documentation to get it right:
    auto ra0
    iface ra0 inet dhcp
    	wireless-essid HOMENET
    	wireless_key1 ABCDEF1234
    	wireless_key2 12345ABCDE
    	wireless_key3 1A2B3C4D5E
    	wireless_key4 FFEEDDCCBB
    	wireless_defaultkey 1
  5. Start the network:
    invoke-rc.d networking start

(C) Ketil Froyn, 2005