Ralink RT5370 USB Wifi: slow and dropping out

Issues related to hardware problems
colinabrett
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Re: Ralink RT5370 USB Wifi: slow and dropping out

Post by colinabrett » 2021/04/11 06:07:57

@KernelOops

Thanks for the advice. I've bookmarked the link you posted for future reference. I'll post the results here if I make any further progress.

EDIT: Which USB dongle and/or chipset did you go for?

Regards,
Colin

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KernelOops
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Re: Ralink RT5370 USB Wifi: slow and dropping out

Post by KernelOops » 2021/04/11 09:31:23

Sorry I can't remember what it was... its been a several years since then. It was a short period of time when I was redoing the wired network, so a few desktops needed wifi capability, thus the need for those dongles. Never used them again.

Interestingly, I still have the Ralink dongle that had bad drivers, it's this one (branded ASUS):

ASUSTek Computer, Inc. USB-N53 802.11abgn Network Adapter [Ralink RT3572]

Even more interesting, I just tested it under Fedora and it works better than before, I guess they fixed the drivers for this particular chipset (RT3572).
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R.I.P. CentOS :cry:
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colinabrett
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Re: Ralink RT5370 USB Wifi: slow and dropping out

Post by colinabrett » 2021/04/30 17:25:54

Thanks to those who have replied to this post.

I've decided to try using CentOS 8 (8.4 at the mo) and see if that fixes the problem. I understand this is not a strictly CentOS 7 'fix' but I'd like to give it a try. (CentOS 8 / CentOS Stream change is discussed elsewhere and I've no desire to join in.)

In the meantime, could the admins please not close this thread or mark it solved? I'd like to describe the results of CentOS 8 experimentation before closing this task.

Regards,
Colin

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TrevorH
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Re: Ralink RT5370 USB Wifi: slow and dropping out

Post by TrevorH » 2021/04/30 18:36:34

You'll have a job using CentOS 8.4, it doesn't exist yet. Current is 8.3. :-)
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

colinabrett
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Re: Ralink RT5370 USB Wifi: slow and dropping out

Post by colinabrett » 2021/05/01 05:41:40

TrevorH wrote:
2021/04/30 18:36:34
You'll have a job using CentOS 8.4, it doesn't exist yet. Current is 8.3. :-)
D'oh! :lol:

Anyway, I have made a little bit of progress.

I installed CentOS 8.3 (got it right that time) with the basic "Server with GUI" option. The installer picked up the Ralink RT5370, I configured a wifi connection to my hub and the installation ran without issues.

After installation, the problem seemed to get worse! I listen to a radio station over the internet (via an app on an Android phone). As soon as the Ralink came up, the radio cut out every few seconds, then came back, then cut out and so on.

Checking /var/log/messages I see logs like this:

Code: Select all

May  1 06:19:50 stream wpa_supplicant[1120]: wlp0s20u2: CTRL-EVENT-BEACON-LOSS
Searching for this message led me here:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... ermanently

As described in this article, I looked for the /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf file. There wasn't such a file, so I created one containing just:

Code: Select all

[connection]
wifi.powersave = 2
After a reboot, the network dropouts seem to have stopped (so at least I have the radio to listen to). However, the problems with the RT5370 remain:
  • dnf check-update times out with "Couldn't resolve host name" for the all the mirror sites
    The CTRL-EVENT-BEACON-LOSS errors are still appearing in /var/log/messages
    nslookup times out
    ping drops 27% of packets
    Using a web browser (default Firefox) has "site not found" errors
I can at least ssh into the machine so might be able to debug further.

Should this thread be moved to the CentOS 8 boards or should I start a new thread there now that the machine is a new install of CentOS 8?

As ever, thanks for any help or suggestions you can give.

Colin

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