# rt2500 wifi ssid

## PoltheMol

i managed to get my wifi-card working almost flawlesly. The only problem that still remains is that it simply refuses to take an essid i give it. 

I now got it up and running using a workaround

first i do

iwconfig ra0 mode ad-hoc

iwconfig ra0 essid "essidnamethingie" 

iwconfig ra0 mode managed

suddenly it does take the essid. 

If I just do 

iwconfig ra0 essid "essidnamethingie" 

while it is in managed mode from bootup on, the essid just remains empty. 

The rt2500config tool also offers no solution whatsoever, so if anyone can give me a little help here  :Wink: 

Running the latest 2.6.12-kernel, using the rt2500 drivers from emerge, configging of networkcard i do by hand

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## Adrien

Same thing for me with a rt2500 card.

You'll have to perform a scan before assignin' an essid to your card otherwise, it won't let you.

```
# iwlist ra0 scan
```

then if you find any APs, you can do:

```
# iwconfig ra0 essid "your_essid"
```

and it should work.  :Smile: 

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## PoltheMol

well the aps here don't advert their essid and it's no option to change that either. 

With iwlist scanning it do so them just without their essid (doh  :Razz: )

So I really have to put an essid in it with iwconfig ra0 essid "stuff" 

But there is no config option that I need to adept to this situation somewhere ?

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## PoltheMol

-bump-

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## bigfunkymo

rt2500 wifi drivers don't support iwconfig, use RAConfig2500

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## l_bratch

Are you sure?  I use them with iwconfig as the machine I use it on stays in text mode.

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## frenkel

 *Adrien wrote:*   

> Same thing for me with a rt2500 card.
> 
> You'll have to perform a scan before assignin' an essid to your card otherwise, it won't let you.
> 
> ```
> ...

 

That's not needed at all

 *bigfunkymo wrote:*   

> rt2500 wifi drivers don't support iwconfig, use RAConfig2500

 

If you use the http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page drivers iwconfig _is_ supported and it works great. And with the official drivers you can always use iwpriv which is commandline also.

This is what I use, just give it some time, after about 1 minute my card works the way it should and it's rock stable.

My init script:

```

iwconfig ra0 key <mysecretkey> enc restricted

iwconfig ra0 essid "<myssid>"

ifconfig ra0 192.168.0.3

route add default gw 192.168.0.1

```

You don't need to set things like ad-hoc and managed, as those are defaults.

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## bigfunkymo

To be more accurate, I should say that I screwed around with my RT2500 card for a full day with unpredictible results.  Switching over to RAConfig2500 (and turning off the smaller stack size in the kernel config) made everythng work nicely.  It was my assumption that the iwconfig interface wasn't fully supported by this driver.

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## UberLord

 *bigfunkymo wrote:*   

> It was my assumption that the iwconfig interface wasn't fully supported by this driver.

 

And the chances of us supporting the RT2500 interface are zero.

So go bitch to them to support wireless-tools better!

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## PoltheMol

so if i understand everything right what is said here, the "script" i use should be correct somehow. Still a waste that i doens't work that well  :Sad: 

Thanks for the reply anyhow  :Wink: 

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## frenkel

 *PoltheMol wrote:*   

> so if i understand everything right what is said here, the "script" i use should be correct somehow. Still a waste that i doens't work that well 
> 
> Thanks for the reply anyhow 

 

No, don't set the other things, just the essid:

iwconfig ra0 essid "essidnamethingie" 

Then wait a few minutes and run a iwconfig ra0 to see if he's connected. And if that doesn't work, contact the guys at http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page or have a look at their forum.

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## petteyg359

rt2500 driver does work with iwconfig, as long as you emerged the latest version. Also, though the site claims it doesn't work with preempt kernel, it works fine on my system with preempt enabled. Sometimes you need to run 

```
ifconfig ra0 up
```

 before you can change settings. Why on earth would you be running 

```
iwconfig ra0 mode ad-hoc
```

 if you're on a managed mode [/code]network?!?

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## l_bratch

I also use it with preempting...

They basically work with everything, there's nothing unusual about em.

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## frenkel

That was what I was saying a few posts earlier.

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