Installing

This page only deals with the ieee80211 version of the RT73 driver. For the mac80211 rt73usb version see the mac80211
page. To understand the differences, see mac80211 versus ieee80211 stacks write-up.

IMPORTANT
If you have a new kernel that supports mac80211 and includes the new rt73usb driver then you MUST blacklist it
otherwise the ieee80211 version of the module below will not work. See blacklisting mac80211 driver version below.

Open up a shell and type:

wget http://homepages.tu-darmstadt.de/~p_larbig/wlan/rt73-k2wrlz-3.0.2.tar.bz2
tar -xjf rt73-k2wrlz-3.0.2.tar.bz2
cd rt73-k2wrlz-3.0.2/Module
make

then, as root, type

make install
modprobe rt73

A mirror for the above driver can be found here

[http://aspj.aircrack-ng.org/rt73-k2wrlz-3.0.2.tar.bz2]

and a home page mirror

can be found here

[http://aspj.aircrack-ng.org/]

.

Using driver with aircrack-ng

as root:

iwconfig rausb0 mode monitor
airodump-ng rausb0 ...

if you want to use aireplay-ng:

iwpriv rausb0 rfmontx 1
aireplay-ng rausb0 ...

The newer versions of the driver should properly setup the attributes, so simply:

ifconfig rausb0 up
airmon-ng start rausb0
... use the aircrack-ng suite tools you want

Basic injection with rt73 and BackTrack v2 for beginners

See this thread

[http://tinyshell.be/aircrackng/forum/index.php?topic=1819.0]

.

When to use this driver?

See this message

[http://tinyshell.be/aircrackng/forum/index.php?topic=2306.msg12907#msg12907]

.

If you have a Ralink chip in an USB device and that chip is a RT2570 or RT73 (RT73 is also as RT2571 and RT2573), you
need the “rt2570” or “rt73” driver. “rt2500” driver is only for PCI/PCMCIA devices.

Using legacy drivers (or ASPj mods) interface name is ra0 for PCI/PCMCIA and rausb0 for USB devices, if you have wlan0
and wmaster0 interfaces you are using new rt2x00-mac80211 driver (rt2x00 has various modules, for USB devices they
are “rt2x00lib”, “rt2x00usb” and “rt73usb”, unload them and load “rt2570” or “rt73”).

Troubleshooting Tips

Moving modules which are not required

See the next troubleshooting tip as an alternative to moving the modules.

Sometimes the original distribution modules can interfere with the new one you are creating. The following script will
move all related modules out of the module tree. This eliminates the need to blacklist modules. Please be aware that it
may move more then want out of the way if your have other ralink devices. As such, you may need to edit the script for
your particular circumstances. Additionally, different distributions and even releases within a distribution put the modules
in different path locations. So you will have to edit the script to reflect the locations on your particular release and
distribution.

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#!/bin/bash

DIRECTORY="/root/rt73module"

if [ ! -d $DIRECTORY ]
then
echo "$DIRECTORY directory created"
mkdir $DIRECTORY
else
echo "$DIRECTORY directory exists"
fi

if [ -d /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00 ]
then
echo "Moving modules from /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00 directory"
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2400pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2500pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2500usb.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00lib.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00usb.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt61pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt73usb.ko $DIRECTORY
depmod -ae
echo "Please reboot your system."
else
if [ -d /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless ]
then
echo "Moving modules from /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless directory"
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2400pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2500pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2500usb.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00lib.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00usb.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt61pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt73usb.ko $DIRECTORY
depmod -ae
echo "Please reboot your system."
else
echo "No valid kernel directories were found. Please investigate."
fi
fi

Blacklisting mac80211 driver version

If you have the file rt73usb.ko in the /lib/modules directory tree then you have two options to blacklist it. Failure to do
this will mean that the ieee80211 rt73 module described on this page will fail to work properly. Here are the options:

Move the file to another area on your system as follows then do “depmod -ae”. Move

/lib/modules/k#/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt73usb.ko to a safe place. The “k#” and/or other parts of the path
will be different for your distribution/system. Use “locate 73usb.ko” or “find /lib/modules -name *73usb*” to find the full
path. After moving it, do “depmod -ae”.

Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add “blacklist rt73usb” as a new line.

In both cases, reboot your system afterwards.

Scripts to switch between ieee80211 and mac80211

Yet another option is to use scripts to switch back and forth between the ieee80211 and mac80211 drivers. To do this,
create two files in /usr/sbin called “rt73-mac” and “rt73-ieee”. Enter this into “rt73-mac”:

#!/bin/sh
rmmod rt73
modprobe rt73usb

and into rt73-ieee:

#!/bin/sh
rmmod rt73usb
modprobe rt73

After this, you can easily load the rt73 driver (ieee80211) using the command “rt73-ieee”. To revert back to rt73usb
(mac80211), use “rt73-mac”.

Try a lower data rate

Try lowering your card rate to 1MB:

iwconfig rausb0 rate 1M

airmon-ng shows RT2500 instead of RT73

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Move everything ralink related out of my modules prior to install the new driver with something similar to the following.
Change the $KERNELVER to your kernel (uname -r provides the current kernel). Change $DIRECTORY to an existing
directory where you want to save the module. Also your path may be slightly different from the one below. Use find or
located to determine the exact path to the modules.

mv /lib/modules/$KERNELVER/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2400pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$KERNELVER/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2500pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$KERNELVER/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2500usb.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$KERNELVER/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00lib.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$KERNELVER/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$KERNELVER/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00usb.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$KERNELVER/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt61pci.ko $DIRECTORY
mv /lib/modules/$KERNELVER/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt73usb.ko $DIRECTORY
depmod -ae

Perhaps locate these same modules and move them out. Just be aware that you will only have support for rt73 by doing
this. But this is really the objective. Be sure to run “depmod -ae”.

aireplay-ng freezes after injecting 700 to 1000 packets

If aireplay-ng freezes after injecting 700 to 1000 packets, try using the ”-x” option which limits the packet injection rate.
Try various values from ”-x 100” to ”-x 250”.

"Network is down" error message

If you get messages similar to this:

wconfig rausb0 mode monitor -> Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06): SET failed on device rausb0. Network ist down.

airodump-ng rausb0 -> ERROR: ioctl (SI0CSIFFLAGS) Failed Invalid Argument.

airmon-ng start rausb0 -> raus0 RaLink USB rt73SI0CSIFFLAGS Argument not allowed (Monitor mode enabled)
Interface doesnt accept ioctl...
rfmontx (8BEC) Network is down.

If you get a “Network down” message then you must first issue:

ifconfig rausb0 up

Then put the card into monitor mode with:

airmon-ng start rausb0 <optionally specify the channel here>

Instead of airmon-ng, you can set the card manually with:

iwpriv rausb0 forceprism 1
iwpriv rausb0 rfmontx 1
iwconfig rausb0 mode monitor channel <x>

Ubuntu specific

If you are using Ubuntu (Gutsy, Feisty or Edgy) please follow this guide: Ralink rt73

[http://ubuntuforums.org

/showthread.php?t=502526]

(Some modules must be blacklisted) Even when following the guide above, be sure to use the

latest driver version available.

"iwe_stream_add_event" compile error message

NOTE: This applies only to driver version 3.0.1 and earlier. Version 3.0.2 should work out of the box with
2.6.27 kernels.

If you get a series of compile messages similar to “error: passing argument 1 of 'iwe_stream_add_event' from
incompatible pointer type” then do the following:

Open up a shell and type:

wget http://homepages.tu-darmstadt.de/~p_larbig/wlan/rt73-k2wrlz-3.0.1.tar.bz2
tar -xjf rt73-k2wrlz-3.0.1.tar.bz2
cd rt73-k2wrlz-3.0.1/Module
wget http://patches.aircrack-ng.org/rt73_2.6.27.patch
patch -Np2 -i rt73_2.6.27.patch
make

then, as root, type

make install
modprobe rt73

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"error: implicit declaration of function ‘kill_proc’" compile error message

See this thread

[http://tinyshell.be/aircrackng/forum/index.php?topic=1824.msg23612#msg23612]

for a patch. Version 3.0.2 of

the driver shouldn't have this bug anymore.

2.6.27 kernel support

Version 3.0.2 does support 2.6.27 out of the box without any modifications needed.

If you want to use an earlier version with 2.6.27, here are the patching instructions:

http://www.ab9il.net/linuxwireless/

[http://www.ab9il.net/linuxwireless/]

http://www.ab9il.net/linuxwireless/rt73.html

[http://www.ab9il.net/linuxwireless/rt73.html]

rt73.txt — Last modified: 2008/11/19 14:28 by aspj

Except where otherwise noted, content on this wiki is licensed under the following license:CC Attribution-
Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/]

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