Sweex RT2571WF

Intro

A Wi-Fi USB stick for 20eur with a Ralink chipset, I couldn't resist...

Now trying to get it working...

Links

• http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Windows.html
• http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com

Installation

I tried to compile the sources from the official website on my Debian headers, some compilation errors (couldn't find modversions.h), I didn't insist as there are already several packages in Debian, among others:

• rt2x00-source

So I first upgraded my kernel as rt2x00 needs at least a 2.6.22
Getting, compiling & installing the driver:

m-a a-i rt2x00

When plugging the stick now I have a wmaster0 and wlan0 interfaces but ifconfig wlan0 up fails with kernel errors.

Nov 27 15:54:06 mercure kernel: phy3 -> rt2500usb_validate_eeprom: EEPROM recovery - Antenna: 0x0002
Nov 27 15:54:06 mercure kernel: phy3 -> rt2500usb_validate_eeprom: EEPROM recovery - NIC: 0xfff0
Nov 27 15:54:06 mercure kernel: phy3 -> rt2500usb_validate_eeprom: EEPROM recovery - BBPtune: 0xff2d
Nov 27 15:54:06 mercure kernel: phy3 -> rt2500usb_validate_eeprom: EEPROM recovery - BBPtune vgc: 0xff40
Nov 27 15:54:06 mercure kernel: phy3 -> rt2500usb_validate_eeprom: EEPROM recovery - BBPtune r24: 0x8040
Nov 27 15:54:06 mercure kernel: phy3 -> rt2500usb_validate_eeprom: EEPROM recovery - BBPtune r25: 0x5040
Nov 27 15:54:06 mercure kernel: phy3 -> rt2500usb_validate_eeprom: EEPROM recovery - BBPtune r61: 0x6d60
Nov 27 15:54:06 mercure kernel: phy3 -> rt2x00_set_chip: Info - Chipset detected - rt: 1201, rf: 0000, rev: 00000000.
Nov 27 15:54:06 mercure kernel: wmaster0: Selected rate control algorithm 'simple'

ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Input/output error
Nov 27 15:54:56 mercure kernel: phy3 -> rt2500usb_set_state: Notice - Device failed to enter state 3, current device state: bbp 0 and rf 0.
Nov 27 15:54:56 mercure kernel: phy3 -> rt2500usb_enable_radio: Error - Register initialization failed.

I saw there was a rt73-common package featuring update-rt73-firmware so I tried and ran the util, it fetched a firmware and installed it but it seems that when the stick is inserted there is no firmware loaded anyway.
There is also a package rutilt