Wifi Setup on a HP Laptop running TinyCore 11.1 (64 bit)

[RYTCL]

I booted into UBUNTU and here is the network related information

lshw -C network


/root # lshw -C network

  *-network                 
       description: Wireless interface
       product: RT3290 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe
       vendor: Ralink corp.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlp2s0f0
       version: 00
       serial: 74:29:af:24:3b:87
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2800pci driverversion=5.4.0-53-generic firmware=0.37 ip=192.168.1.44 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: irq:17 memory:90710000-9071ffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
       logical name: enp4s0
       version: 07
       serial: 38:63:bb:e6:a7:e0
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 100Mbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 duplex=full firmware=rtl8106e-1_0.0.1 06/29/12 ip=192.168.1.43 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:19 ioport:1000(size=256) memory:90500000-90500fff memory:90400000-90403fff


It clearly shows rt2800pci is the correct driver  and not hp_wireless.

[Rich]

Hi RYTCL

... 2 ERROR lines related to rtl_nic persists. ...

You can ignore them. It just means it didn't find the firmware in the first place it looked.

... 'unable to load firmware' error has disappeared. ...

That means it found the firmware.

... May be some other driver(s) are conflicting with my WiFi card "Ralink RT3290 - rt2800pci " ...

No.

... It clearly shows rt2800pci is the correct driver ...

That only tells half of the story. Here's part of the config file for our kernel:

Code: [Select]

CONFIG_RT2800PCI=m
CONFIG_RT2800PCI_RT33XX=y
# CONFIG_RT2800PCI_RT35XX is not set
# CONFIG_RT2800PCI_RT53XX is not set
# CONFIG_RT2800PCI_RT3290 is not setIt shows:
1. The rt2800pci was compiled as a loadable module.
2. The rt2800pci has  rt33xx  chipset support compiled in.
3. The rt2800pci does not have  rt35xx  chipset support compiled in.
4. The rt2800pci does not have  rt53xx  chipset support compiled in.
5. The rt2800pci does not have  rt3290  chipset support compiled in.

The only way to fix that is to reconfigure and recompile the kernel and recompile the driver.

[Juanito]

That's unfortunate - it means that you would need to replace the rt2800pci driver in the wireless-KERNEL extension rather than creating an additional extension.

[RYTCL]

Thank you Rich, Juanito, Curaga and everyone trying to help.

Does this mean,  WiFi support for my laptop hardware may be in a future release.

I do have development experience in my past life (10+ years ago).  I will be available, if I  could be of any help.

[Juanito]

You would need to do something like this:

Code: [Select]

$ tce-load -i compiletc ncursesw-dev elfutils-dev bc perl5
$ wget http://tinycorelinux.net/11.x/x86_64/release/src/kernel/linux-5.4.3-patched.txz
$ wget http://tinycorelinux.net/11.x/x86_64/release/src/kernel/config-5.4.3-tinycore64
$ tar xf linux-5.4.3-patched.txz
$ cd linux-5.4.3
$ make mrproper
$ cp ../config-5.4.3-tinycore64 ./.config
$ make oldconfig
$ make menuconfig

Device Drivers -->
   Network device support -->
      Wireless LAN -->
         Ralink driver support -->
[*] rt2800pci - Include support for rt3290 devices (EXPERIMENTAL)

$ make modules
..and then over-write the rt2800pci.ko driver in wireless-5.4.3-tinycore64.tcz with the one compiled above.

[Juanito]

btw - the rt3290 support is still experimental in the 5.10.x kernel, which is likely to be our next one.

[RYTCL]

I will work on compiling the driver.  Should I start a new thread for this driver build.

[Rich]

Hi RYTCL
No, just continue it here so the problem and solution are in one place.

[RYTCL]

Driver build - I am at the last step.  " $ make modules "

Questions
1.  Is there a Command to rebuild / update wireless-5.4.3-tinycore64.tcz.   Will the current build process result in .tcz file ?
..and then over-write the rt2800pci.ko driver in wireless-5.4.3-tinycore64.tcz with the one compiled
2.  Is there a command to list all the files in the new TCZ package to confirm RT3290 files are present ?

[RYTCL]

APPS Gui has the ability to display all the files contained in a package. 

Apps -> Cloud (Remote) -> Browse :: Choose Package : Files TAB on the right lists all the files

In my case, kernel.tcz will be a local file.  I am not sure, how to get  APPS Gui to browse local folders.   Is there a Command line equivalent  for TCZ Package File listing.

[Rich]

Hi RYTCL

... 1.  Is there a Command to rebuild / update wireless-5.4.3-tinycore64.tcz.   Will the current build process result in .tcz file ?
..and then over-write the rt2800pci.ko driver in wireless-5.4.3-tinycore64.tcz with the one compiled ...

There's a script that is used to sort and package all of the kernel modules. I'll get you a list of instructions.

... 2.  Is there a command to list all the files in the new TCZ package to confirm RT3290 files are present ?

Code: [Select]

unsquashfs -ll ExtensionName.tcz

[Rich]

Hi RYTCL
OK, here you go:

Code: [Select]

# Place the modules somewhere for packaging.
mkdir -p ~/tmp/package/modules/usr/local
make INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/home/tc/tmp/package/modules/usr/local modules_install
cd ~/tmp/package/
# I like to keep the mod.alias, mod.builtin, mod.dep, mod.order, and mod.symbols files.
mv modules/usr/local/lib/modules/4.19.10-tinycore64/modules.* .
# Remove the 2 links in modules/usr/local/lib/modules/4.19.10-tinycore64/
rm modules/usr/local/lib/modules/4.19.10-tinycore64/build
rm modules/usr/local/lib/modules/4.19.10-tinycore64/source

# Set up sorter.sh to package all the modules.
cd ..
mkdir sorter
cd sorter
tce-load -i bash squashfs-tools zsync
wget https://github.com/tinycorelinux/sorter/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
cd sorter-master/
# This creates all of the Tinycore module packages and leaves them in the current directory.
./sorter.sh 4.19.10-tinycore64 /home/tc/tmp/package/modules
Copy the  wireless-KERNEL.tcz  file to your  tce/optional  directory. Delete the  wireless-KERNEL.tcz.md5.txt  file in your
tce/optional  directory so that any future extension updates don't overwrite it with the version in the repo.

[RYTCL]

My DRIVER build directory :   /home/tc/work/linux-5.4.3

ZERO errors uptil 'make modules'.
Did a reboot and ran the above command again to ensure all files were still there.

/work/linux-5.4.3> make INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/home/tc/tmp/package/modules/usr/local modules_install

cp: can't stat './modules.builtin.modinfo': No such file or directory
make: *** [Makefile:1319: _modinst_] Error 1


I ran a search  'find /home/tc -print  | grep modules.builtin.modinfo'  & could not locate one.

[Rich]

Hi RYTCL
If you go to  /home/tc/tmp/package/modules/usr/local  is it populated with subdirectories and  .ko  files?

[RYTCL]

~/tmp> find . -print | grep ko

no output.

> find /home/tc/tmp -print > /tmp/home.tc.tmp.dir

Attachment: home.tc.tmp.dir