wifi dongle (RAlink 5370) not working!

[raheel]

Hello Guys,

I came to this forum after almost 2 weeks of head banging with my crappy wifi dongle which is not working with my rpi!! It is the one which came from farnell budget pack for RPi. Its model is RAlink 5370 and I search far and wide on almost all forums including rpi forums to find a remedy but no luck!

Finally, I redo my card and burn noobs to have latest rpi image and update/upgrade it as well. But again, there is no life to my dongle. The strange thing is that its LED is also not blinking (hardware fried!). I tried to plug-in this dongle in my windows notebook but to no avail.

Can anyone please shed some light? I am very close to throw this dongle away and get a new one but want some insight first to save some time.

thanks.

[jdb]

I have a RT5370 that was an eBay special that worked for a while until its radio frontend went bad from getting too hot.

Try the troubleshooting steps here:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/viewto ... 28&t=53832

[raheel]

I have a RT5370 that was an eBay special that worked for a while until its radio frontend went bad from getting too hot.

Try the troubleshooting steps here:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/viewto ... 28&t=53832

Thanks but these are very generic instructions and I have tried all of them already. I am ready to post the details of what I have done but below is a list high level of what I have tried with no success!

1. I tried lsusb and it lists down the model as "RALink 5370 usb wireless device".
2. I tried to bring down and up my wlan adapter (ifdown wlan0 and ifup wlan0) and dhcp didn't assign the IP to my adapter.
3. Tried to get the wlan0 status and it always came as "scanning ..." (i.e. sudo wpa_cli status).
4. I update the rpi with latest image and upgrade as well but no avail.
5. Lastly, I re-flashed my sd card with latest NOOBS version (3.10.25/28+) just two days ago and installed raspbian distro and follow the detail instructions to setup my wireless dongle step by step as give in various posts on RPi forums but no success!

At this point, I give up and came to this forum for help.

One thing which is worthwhile to note is that I did not see any life in the blinking LED on my dongle yet!

[jdb]

The instructions say to post the entire output of each of the commands, not just execute them. And of course they're generic, they apply to all USB devices.

[Richard-TX]

I have a /etc/network interfaces file that works for me every time no matter what wifi adapter I use. It works with XBMC and wheezy.

I suggest you put this in place, edit what needs to be edited, (do not add any new declarations like supplicant, etc) and reboot.

Code: Select all

    auto lo

    iface lo inet loopback
    iface eth0 inet static
    address 10.232.1.81
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 10.232.1.1


    auto wlan0
    allow-hotplug wlan0
    iface wlan0 inet static
    address 10.232.1.99
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 10.232.1.1
    wpa-passphrase password
    wpa-ssid myssid

If you try it and it does not work, let me know so I can create an exceptions list.

[raheel]

I have a /etc/network interfaces file that works for me every time no matter what wifi adapter I use. It works with XBMC and wheezy.

I suggest you put this in place, edit what needs to be edited, (do not add any new declarations like supplicant, etc) and reboot.

Code: Select all

    auto lo

    iface lo inet loopback
    iface eth0 inet static
    address 10.232.1.81
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 10.232.1.1


    auto wlan0
    allow-hotplug wlan0
    iface wlan0 inet static
    address 10.232.1.99
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 10.232.1.1
    wpa-passphrase password
    wpa-ssid myssid

If you try it and it does not work, let me know so I can create an exceptions list.

Hi Richard-TX,

Thanks for help. Few things before I copy/pasted this in my interfaces file. Do I need to generate the wpa passkey thru wpa cmd tool (to get long hexadecimal key)?. Secondly, do i need to put inverted commas around passphrase and ssid?

I will only put wlan0 section as my ethernet is working fine with dhcp.

cheers!

[DougieLawson]

Mr Google is your friend. There's a shed load of items on Ralink 5370 with Raspberry Pi.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Ralink+ ... spberry+pi

[Richard-TX]

Thanks for help. Few things before I copy/pasted this in my interfaces file. Do I need to generate the wpa passkey thru wpa cmd tool (to get long hexadecimal key)?. Secondly, do i need to put inverted commas around passphrase and ssid?
cheers!

NO and NO.

Quotes, single quotes or any punctuation seems to confuse things.

I would try the file with fixed IP for both interfaces first. Once you have determined that it works or not, then change eth0 or wlan0 to dhcp.

[Richard-TX]

BTW that interfaces file is what I am using with my RA 5370 adapter.

[Richard-TX]

Here is a interfaces file for dhcp

Code: Select all

    auto lo

    iface lo inet loopback
    iface eth0 inet dhcp

    auto wlan0
    allow-hotplug wlan0
    iface wlan0 inet dhcp
    wpa-passphrase mypassword
    wpa-ssid myssid

If this does not work and you have an external antenna on your wifi adapter, make sure the antenna is screwed on tight. Don't ask how I know this.

[Richard-TX]

There is one more thing that I forgot.

add
wireless-power off
to the interfaces file for the 5370

[raheel]

Hi Richard,

I follow your instruction, below is my updated interfaces file:

Code: Select all

   auto lo

    iface lo inet loopback
    iface eth0 inet dhcp

    auto wlan0
    allow-hotplug wlan0
    iface wlan0 inet dhcp
    wireless-power off
    wpa-passphrase NLQ*******
    wpa-ssid AhmedRaza

I did reboot after that (sudo reboot) but still ifconfig is showing below output:

Code: Select all

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr b8:27:eb:c3:bf:e8
          inet addr:192.168.1.8  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:75 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:61 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:8700 (8.4 KiB)  TX bytes:9644 (9.4 KiB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0f:54:10:63:fe
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

What to do? I did all above while my wifi adapter was plugged-in and I was connected thru etho (dhcp).

[raheel]

Folks, it seems I have "more than wanted" latest version of raspbian installed! Though it sounds idiotic but this is what a genie script is reported. I found this script from official raspberry pi youtube channel (though it is designed by some other person who participates on rpi forums quite actively). Script can be found on location: goo.gl/Ea1SC. This script download anther script when found that i am running an older version of the script itself. And finally that script reported below:

Code: Select all

An RTL8188CUS driver module is installed but is not loaded.

You have 0 wifi adapters configured.

grep: /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules: No such file or directory
./install-rtl8188cus.sh: line 253: [: !=: unary operator expected
The Pi has an internet connection.

Any files needed for the installation/upgrade will be downloaded from the
Internet unless they have already been copied to the SD card /boot directory.


Unrecognised software version: Linux raspberrypi 3.10.28+ #632 PREEMPT Tue Jan 28 18:42:43 GMT 2014 armv6l GNU/Linux

Downloading the latest script.

The script you're using is the latest version.

Aborting the rtl8188cus installation script.

A further updated version of this script can be found here (http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8025 ... -latest.sh). This one also gives me same result as pasted above!

Any further ideas?
(its time to change my wifi adapter!!)

[Richard-TX]

I think you have a bad adapter. Get one that has an external antenna.

[raheel]

I think you have a bad adapter. Get one that has an external antenna.

Any advice which one should I get... looking for the one which works like a charm with Pi latest OS versions?

[SuperDave156]

Hi Raheel,

In my quest for a reliable connection I have 4 wifi dongles that don't work (TP-Link and unbranded). I think it is because they need more current than the Pi can provide. I find that the £7.99 ones from the PiHut work ok and also Edimax but see my post on unreliability...

Hope this helps.
David

[Richard-TX]

what does the following produce?

iwlist scan

[raheel]

I bought a new wifi dongle (TPLink TL-WN823N) and tried with my pi but nothing happened. On top of it, something very strange happened after I insert it into the rpi, that now I am not able to connect to thru my ethernet interface also!! I am not getting the dhcp IP on my eth0 interface anymore.

HELP!

[raheel]

Folks,

Finally I am succeded, it was my bad as my interface file was not showing antying for wlan0! (after last experiments). Once I correct it, my dongle lives up (the new one) and I am happy. Thanks a ton to all.