How to install RT2870/RT3070 Wireless Driver?

Question

I have an alfa awus036h, but I don't know how to install the driver on ubuntu 14.04. When the device is plugged and wireless switch is off. This is is the output of lsusb.

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 007: ID 0cf3:3004 Atheros Communications, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 174f:14b2 Syntek 
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:0129 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5129 Card Reader Controller
Bus 002 Device 015: ID 148f:3070 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2870/RT3070 Wireless Adapter
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 12d1:14dc Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

and this what I get from dmesg command

[ 3083.881796] usb 2-3: new high-speed USB device number 16 using xhci_hcd
[ 3084.093055] usb 2-3: New USB device found, idVendor=148f, idProduct=3070
[ 3084.093059] usb 2-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 3084.093061] usb 2-3: Product: 802.11 n WLAN
[ 3084.093063] usb 2-3: Manufacturer: Ralink
[ 3084.270316] usb 2-3: reset high-speed USB device number 16 using xhci_hcd
[ 3084.463232] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88009a783e48
[ 3084.463239] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88009a783e00
[ 3084.463243] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88009a783e90
[ 3084.463247] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88009a783ed8
[ 3084.463250] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88009a783f20
[ 3084.463253] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88009a783f68
[ 3084.463256] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88009a783fb0
[ 3084.463626] ieee80211 phy3: rt2x00_set_rt: Info - RT chipset 3070, rev 0201 detected
[ 3084.473953] ieee80211 phy3: rt2x00_set_rf: Info - RF chipset 0005 detected
[ 3084.474414] ieee80211 phy3: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'

but when I switch the wireless to on, the lsusb command just hangs and not getting any output untill I remove the device. and this is the output of dmesg

[ 3276.484226] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 3276.484621] ieee80211 phy3: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt2870.bin'
[ 3276.484648] ieee80211 phy3: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Firmware detected - version: 0.22
[ 3276.651111] usb 2-3: USB disconnect, device number 16
[ 3277.148218] ieee80211 phy3: rt2x00usb_vendor_request: Error - Vendor Request 0x07 failed for offset 0x1114 with error -19
[ 3277.148283] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[ 3278.749131] ieee80211 phy3: rt2800_wait_wpdma_ready: Error - WPDMA TX/RX busy [0xffffffff]
[ 3279.053427] usb 2-3: new high-speed USB device number 17 using xhci_hcd

Solution 1

I have a device that uses the same driver, just labelled ralink USB Wifi Dongle. This is what I did to get mine to work:

UPDATE: You may have to download kernel headers, if you don't have them already:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Plug the dongle in, and run the following lines in a terminal:

git clone https://github.com/porjo/mt7601.git 
cd mt7601/src
make
sudo make install
sudo mkdir -p /etc/Wireless/RT2870STA/
sudo cp RT2870STA.dat /etc/Wireless/RT2870STA/
sudo modprobe mt7601Usta

Afterwards, it picks up in the GUI network tool. A reboot may be required.

Hope that helps.

Solution 2

There's a ppa repo for this - MT7601 STA driver. I have tested it for RT2870 driver and it worked for me.

Plug your USB adapter in and run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thopiekar/mt7601
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mt7601-sta-dkms

When the installation completes, click on the wi-fi network icon and you should see the USB adapter network interface.

Solution 3

Before proceeding onto @Hitsugaya198 solution you have to diable built-in wifi adapters as below.

Add the following line to /etc/network/interfaces:

iface wlan0 inet manual

NetworManager don't manage interfaces configured in the interfaces file. Replace wlan0 with the interface you want to disable, if it's not the name of the built-in interface.

Then restart network manager

sudo service network-manager restart

After the above steps, proceed with @Hitsugaya198 solution and that works perfectly.

Comments

[chili555]

You'd probably have better luck if you ran one device or the other, not both. The wireless driver for your device, rt2800usb is already installed.

[Ahmed Hegazy]

The other one is built-in. I can do anything to make the external one work.

[Ahmed Hegazy]

I followed this answer askubuntu.com/a/168046/40082 to disable my built-in one and now it's disabled but this doesn't help at all.

[Bilal]

You can download it from here, and follow the Read Me instructions.

[Ahmed Hegazy]

@Serphiroth This driver is for the linux kernel 2.4 and 2.6 series.

[Alfonso Fernández]

It worked great, thanks! Running Kernel 4.3 lowlatency

[Ahmed Hegazy]

I'm sorry that this did not work at all

[Louis Parkin]

No harm no foul. It worked for me, still does. I have to rerun it everytime i get a new kernel version. Sorry I couldn't help.

[Mohammad ZeinEddin]

It worked just fine on Ubuntu 14.04, thanks.

[Ahmed Hegazy]

I doesn't work for me too :(

[Louis Parkin]

I'll look for my old dongle and try this solution. Usually had to rebuild and patch kernel after every kernel update from canonical.

[Vicky Chijwani]

On Debian testing, I also needed to run sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys D51DB14E9FFECCF3 after adding the PPA, otherwise it would fail with "GPG error: ... The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY D51DB14E9FFECCF3"

[Vicky Chijwani]

... but ultimately it didn't work. This is not worth the effort for me. I'm returning this and getting a new dongle, like the TP-LINK TL-WN722N listed in this article, as the drivers for it are built into Linux.

[GuiRitter]

That repository no longer exists.