Can't enable Ralink RT2561/RT61 wireless card

I have been reading various other posts on the matter but none of the solutions are working so I thought I might as well ask.

Just installed Ubuntu Server 11.04 on my old Dell Optiplex 330. It has a wireless PCI card installed that I bought for it's compatibility with Ubuntu 10. It was working on Ubuntu 10 prior to the new install.

After the install there were no lights on the card and I can not use it.

When running; sudo lshw -C network

the device is listed but labelled Disabled.

The card is a Ralink corp, RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI

This is a headless install so command line help only please.

Thanks in advance!

sudo lshw -C network

 *-network description: Ethernet interface product: NetLink BCM5787 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express vendor: Broadcom Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 logical name: eth0 version: 02 serial: 00:1d:09:1e:89:5f size: 100Mbit/s capacity: 1Gbit/s width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.119 duplex=full firmware=5787-v3.23 ip=192.168.0.9 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s resources: irq:44 memory:dcff0000-dcffffff *-network DISABLED description: Wireless interface product: RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI vendor: Ralink corp. physical id: 2 bus info: pci@0000:03:02.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 00 serial: 00:1f:1f:8f:eb:e6 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt61pci driverversion=3.0.0-12-generic-pae firmware=N/A latency=64 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg resources: irq:18 memory:dcef8000-dcefffff

iwconfig

lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:off

1 Answer

The Ralink Technology cards, and specifically RT2561/RT61, have compatibility issues with later drivers (developed for later cards).

see:

Your best bet is to try blacklisting the later drivers, which will stop them trying to control the card (and failing). The only other alternative is to compile your own driver.

see:

Otherwise: (not good news)

etc.

SUPPORT PAGE:

(Ralink, Linux drivers)