Getting the network drivers working on the 901

From EasyPeasy Wiki

[edit] Wired

1) Install Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) with build-essential package (Can download here: http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/i386/build-essential/download).

2) Download Linux driver from ASUS (card is Atheros(R) AR8121/AR8113 PCI-E): http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?product=1&SLanguage=us-en&type=map&model=P5KPL-CM (note: click on "Drivers" and find "Support Linux Drivers", which is zip file).

3) Unrar them and transfer to USB drive and place in your EEE.

4) Cd to the src directory (<usb drive mount>/LinuxDrivers/L1e_Lan/l1e-l2e-linux-v1.0.0.4/src)

5) sudo KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1 make

6) sudo KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1 make install

7) A file called atl1e.ko is made, that’s your driver. Move to: /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/kernel/drivers/net/atl1e/at1le.ko (If for some reason the atl1e directory isn’t made, just sudo mkdir atl1e, your kernel name may be different)

8 ) Move into the directory from step 7 and: sudo insmod ./atl1e.ko That’s it, you should have working wired internet now! If it does work, you'll see the Network Icon immediately start to change to two circles, indicating that it is retrieving an IP address from DHCP.

If you want to have the module load automatically (and you surely do), run

9 ) sudo depmod

That creates an entry for the module in /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/modules.dep so that the kernel 'knows' about the module. You should then find that modprobe atl1e works, and that the module gets inserted automatically on boot.

[edit] Wireless

Two solutions: the first (and simpler) way involves using NDISWrapper, while the second involves a native linux driver.

NDISWrapper

1) Download and install NDISWrapper main program, utilities, and GUI. (You can download them and move them via USB flash drive)

     http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/i386/misc/ndiswrapper-common/download
     http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/i386/misc/ndiswrapper-utils-1.9/download
     http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/i386/net/ndisgtk/download

2) Install the wireless driver onto a windows XP computer (Easiest way is to open the :\Drivers\WLAN folder, run setup.exe.

3) Copy the C:\Program Files\RALINK\Driver folder to a flash drive.

4) System -> Administration -> Windows Wireless Drivers. Locate the rt2860.inf file in the Driver folder you copied. Done!

Native Driver

1) Download driver from: http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/2008_0708_RT2860_Linux_STA_v1.7.0.0.tar.bz2 (for 8.10 Intrepid, use http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/2008_0918_RT2860_Linux_STA_v1.8.0.0.tar.bz2 instead, which adds support for 2.6.27 kernel)

2) Unzip and move to USB drive(if working with second computer). Move to EEE.

3) cd into 2008_0325_RT2860_Linux_STA_v1.7.0.0

4) execute "nano os/linux/config.mk" (without the speech marks)

5) find the lines which read

Support Wpa_Supplicant HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=n

Support Native WpaSupplicant for Network Maganger HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=n

and change them to look like

Support Wpa_Supplicant HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y

Support Native WpaSupplicant for Network Maganger HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y

6) ctrl + o to save, then ctrl + x to exit

7) sudo make

8) sudo make install

9) sudo modprobe rt2860sta

That's it, NetworkManager will now work perfectly. Wasn't that easy?

If your network is still not working, you may need to do the following: shut down, take the battery out, put it back in, power on. (I know it sounds crazy, but it made all the difference for my EEEPC901-BK001.)

My issue was that after completed steps 1-9, I was losing wireless connection after each system start in System -> Network. In System -> Hardware Drivers, new driver had status "not in use". So each time I had to type sudo modprobe rt2860sta. Then I found that you can automatically add this to /etc/modules/. And here are my additional steps:

10) sudo gedit /etc/modules

11) add new line "rt2860sta" at the end of the list and save

You will have to redo steps 7 - 9 every time your kernel is updated though. This method is technically more "correct" than using Ndiswrapper though, and should (repeat, should, as this is untested) offer better performance.