help with RALINK usb device...

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

I picked up a USB WiFi stick that is nominally usable on Wiis.  When I
tried it on amd64-current, it knew it was a RALINK device:

        ugen1 at uhub5 port 4
        ugen1: Ralink 802.11 g WLAN, rev 2.00/1.01, addr 3

usbdevs said

          port 4 addr 3: high speed, power 450 mA, config 1, 802.11 g
          WLAN(0x2070), Ralink(0x148f), rev 1.01, serial 1.0

so I added it as an RALINK_2 (0x148f) with type 0x2070.

When I insert it, it says

        ral0 at uhub6 port 1
        ral0: Ralink 802.11 g WLAN, rev 2.00/1.01, addr 2
        ral0: MAC/BBP RT2570 (rev 0x2080), RF unknown
        ral0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
        ral0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 
24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps

If I ifconfig it up, I get

        ral0: timeout waiting for BBP/RF to wakeup
        ral0: cannot assign link-local address
        ral0: timeout waiting for BBP/RF to wakeup
        ral0: timeout waiting for BBP/RF to wakeup
        ral0: cannot assign link-local address

If I then ifconfig it down and remove it, I get

        ral0: at uhub6 port 1 (addr 2) disconnected
        ral0: could not write MAC register: IOERROR
        ral0: could not write MAC register: IOERROR
        ral0: could not write MAC register: IOERROR

In other words, it almost recognizes the device, but not quite.

On a borrowed Windows 7 beta machine, it just works; it was not
recognized by Ubuntu 9.04, though perhaps there were some incantations
I should have used but didn't know.

Any suggestions on what I can do to get this working?


                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb