Using Wi-Fi USB dongles
This article explains how to use a commercial USB WiFi dongle on the FOX Board G20 with Debian. If you are using Gentoo please read this.
Get the non-free firmware
To use a WiFi dongle it's required to install the hardware specific firmware. These firmware are not free so you have to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list repository list to have access at this files.
debarm:/etc/apt# cat sources.list deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian lenny main deb-src http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian lenny main deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main
Change the first line
deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian lenny main
in
deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian lenny main non-free
Then type:
debarm:~# apt-get update
Then install the firmware package typing:
debarm:~# apt-get install <firmware_debian_package_name>
The get the right firmware Debian package name see the list below:
- Hardware Version : C1
- Chip: Ralink RT2571WF
- Debian package name to install: firmware-ralink
- Model: Digicom USB WAVE 54 (www)
- Chip: ZyDAS zd1211rw
- Debian package name to install: zd1211-firmware
Insert the USB dongle
Insert the Wi-Fi dongle on a FOX Board USB Hosts port. The following messages will appear at the debug port or typing dmesg from a remote console session:
usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using at91_ohci and address 3 usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=07d1, idProduct=3c03 usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 usb 1-2: Product: 802.11 bg WLAN usb 1-2: Manufacturer: Ralink usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel' Registered led device: rt73usb-phy1::radio Registered led device: rt73usb-phy1::assoc Registered led device: rt73usb-phy1::quality usbcore: registered new interface driver rt73usb
If you don't obtain this messages probably you have to update your kernel image and kernel module library.
To configure the WiFi you need to install the Wireless tools for Linux typing:
debarm:~# apt-get update debarm:~# apt-get install wireless-tools
This set of tools allowing to manipulate the wireless interface using the command line (read more info on the WT web site) for example:
debarm:~# iwconfig
provides information about the wireless extensions of each network adapter:
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on
If you have a Wi-Fi access point active in your area you can try to have access to it manually typing:
debarm:~# iwconfig wlan0 essid "ESSID"
where ESSID is the name of your access point. For example the access point ESSID in my office “Alice-96281003”.
debarm:~# iwconfig wlan0 essid "Alice-96281003" debarm:~# iwconfig wlan0 wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"Alice-96281003" Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:on
Now set that Wi-Fi channel used from your access point (8 in this example).
debarm:~# iwconfig wlan0 channel 8
If you have WEP or WPA enable configure your key phrase:
debarm:~# iwconfig wlan0 key MY_WIFI_KEYPASS open
Now activate your WiFi link typing:
debarm:/# dhclient wlan0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.1 Copyright 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium. All rights reserved. For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/ Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:17:9a:d0:12:ee Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:17:9a:d0:12:ee Sending on Socket/fallback DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5 DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.1 DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 DHCPACK from 192.168.1.1 bound to 192.168.1.75 -- renewal in 8779 seconds.
The WiFi is now on with IP 192.168.1.75
debarm:/# ifconfig wlan0 wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:17:9a:d0:12:ee inet addr:192.168.1.75 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::217:9aff:fed0:12ee/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:229 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:75 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:14814 (14.4 KiB) TX bytes:5316 (5.1 KiB)
Automatic startup
Working on the file /etc/network/interfaces it is possible to start-up automatically the WiFi at boot up.
The default content of /etc/network/interfaces is something like this:
auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp
This configuration says to link-up just the network interfaces: lo (loopback) and eth0 (ethernet). eth0 in this case gets the IP address dinamically from a DHCP server.
To link-up your new wlan0 adapter add to this file:
auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp
if you want to get a dynamic IP address or
iface wlan0 inet static address 192.168.1.90 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.1.1 broadcast 192.168.1.255 pre-up /sbin/iwconfig $IFACE essid "Alice-96281003" pre-up /sbin/iwconfig $IFACE channel 8
if you want to assign a static interface to wlan0, in this case 192.168.1.90.
If you plan to disconnect the eth0 interface remark the lines:
auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp
To avoid to lost time at startup.
 | Wireless USB Adapter (802.11g) Up to 54Mbps, 802.11g, 802.11b, fully compatible with the FOX Board G20.
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