Ralink RT73 USB WiFi Integration
Introduction
This white paper will show how to integrate a wifi dongle with a LeopardBoard DM365. Although the process is given for a specific board and wifi adapter, it is possible to translate it to others boards and wifi adapters.
The wifi dongle used was a BELKIN F5D7050A (shown in Figure 1). Usually no matter the wifi adapter you use, the main characteristic you must know is its chipset model, in the case of BELKIN's adapters discussed there are three chipsets used according with the part number of the dongle:
| Part number | Chipset used |
|---|---|
| F5D7050A | Ralink RT73 |
| F5D7050B | Ralink RT73 |
| F5D7050C | Zydas 1211B |
For our example it will be used a Belkin F5D7050A which uses a Ralink RT73 chipset.
Board's driver configuration
In order to get you board ready to run the driver for the wifi adapter you must install some elements from your SDK. You can follow the next steps:
1. Activate the Ralink rt2500 (USB) support option as a module in
-> Kernel configuration
-> Device Drivers
-> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
-> Wireless LAN (WLAN [=y])
-> Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11) (WLAN_80211 [=y])
-> Ralink driver support (RT2X00 [=y])
2. Activate Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211) in
-> Kernel configuration
-> Networking support (NET [=y])
-> Wireless (WIRELESS [=y])
3. Selects cfg80211 - wireless configuration API in
-> Kernel configuration
-> Networking support (NET [=y])
-> Wireless (WIRELESS [=y])
4. Activate Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11) in
-> Kernel configuration
-> Device Drivers
-> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
-> Wireless LAN (WLAN [=y])
5. Selects Minstrel in
-> Kernel configuration
-> Networking support (NET [=y])
-> Wireless (WIRELESS [=y])
6. Activate the openssl-0.9.8k option in
-> File System Configuration
-> Select target's file system software
7. Activate wpa_supplicant-0.6.9 in
-> File System Configuration
-> Select target's file system software
8. Activate CRC ITU-T V.41 functions as a module in
-> Kernel configuration
-> Library routines
9. Install the wireless_tools 29 from
-> File System Configuration
-> Select target's file system software
Now, your board have been configured in order to detect your wifi dongle, run the make command and install your images into the board. The next step will be to startup the wireless dongle.