RPi TC5.2 Firmware load failed- rt2870

[DanW]

I've been following gerrelt's excellent tutorial on setting up a piCore squeeze player but am having trouble attaching to the router (Netgear WNDR 3700v2).

Per the tutorial, I've tce-loaded wifi, usbutils and firmware.ralinkwifi. I'm using the /usr/local/bin/wifi.sh script to set up the wlan.  In dmesg I get the following:

[   23.801118] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[   25.458238] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00_set_rt: Info - RT chipset 5390, rev 0502 detected
[   25.517825] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00_set_rf: Info - RF chipset 5370 detected
[   25.555210] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2800usb
[  227.310116] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt2870.bin'
[  227.310268] rt2800usb 1-1.2:1.0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[  227.310287] rt2800usb 1-1.2:1.0: Falling back to user helper
[  227.334002] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Firmware detected - version: 0.29

what follows is a couple of cycles of trying to authenticate/associate followed by deauthenticating reason =1 and ultimately a TX timeout and no connection.

When I use  a Raspbian build (following gerrelt's other excellent tutorial!) and using the wlan config tool provided on the x-desktop, I get a successful connection and the following in dmesg:

[11.433718] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[12.520440] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00_set_rt: Info - RT chipset 5390, rev 0502 detected
[12.667689] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00_set_rf: Info - RF chipset 5370 detected
[12.847927] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2800usb
[25.826334] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt2870.bin'
[25.829726] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Firmware detected - version: 0.29

I presume the issue is in not finding the rt2870.bin driver (in the right place?) but I'm not able to figure it out any further.

Any suggestions to fix or debug further would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance-

[bmarkus]

Would be good to compare the Raspbian and piCore firmware and if they differ, try Raspbian fw on piCore

[DanW]

As near as I can figure out they are different- the Raspbian/Wheezy is version 29, the PiCore is version 22. More than that I can't tell.

I am not able to figure out how to get the Raspbian firmware onto the PiCore SD from my Win7 machine. Do I need to make a .tcz out of it or is there another way to get it on the the card?

[bmarkus]

I've been following gerrelt's excellent tutorial on setting up a piCore squeeze player but am having trouble attaching to the router (Netgear WNDR 3700v2).

Per the tutorial, I've tce-loaded wifi, usbutils and firmware.ralinkwifi. I'm using the /usr/local/bin/wifi.sh script to set up the wlan.  In dmesg I get the following:

[   23.801118] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[   25.458238] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00_set_rt: Info - RT chipset 5390, rev 0502 detected
[   25.517825] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00_set_rf: Info - RF chipset 5370 detected
[   25.555210] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2800usb
[  227.310116] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt2870.bin'
[  227.310268] rt2800usb 1-1.2:1.0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[  227.310287] rt2800usb 1-1.2:1.0: Falling back to user helper
[  227.334002] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Firmware detected - version: 0.29

It looks 0.29 in piCore too... Firmware in Debian (Raspbian) Wheezy and TC (piCore) is the same. Strange enough that now I have firmware installation error with my adapter, will check system.

[bmarkus]

Updated firmware in the repo, please try the refreshed extension.

[DanW]

The firmware now loads with no complaints but wifi still won't connect. dmesg says the firmware is loaded, and/but the wifi.log file has a bunch ( 5-50) "Sending discover..." messages. 

If I run wifi.sh manually I get the same result as reported before-  authenticate/associate followed by deauthenticating reason=1.

Any suggestions for continued debugging?

[Gerrelt]

Hi Dan,

First, thanks for the kind words!

I don't have a direct solution for you, but you might want to try rebooting your WiFi router.
When I am messing about with WiFi with the raspberries, after a while my router gets confused and I have to reboot it.

Disclaimer: ...I have a TP-link router, not a netgear...

Greetings,
   Gerrelt.

[DanW]

Thanks for the good suggestion- I have been rebooting the router frequently. Even after the firmware was loading properly (thanks bmarkus!) I was still getting the authenticate/associate/deauthenticate errors.

I have just tried the piCore 5.2.1rc1 release and the wifi issues I've been seeing have disappeared (!).