Debian, upgrading to 2.6.30 kernel: rt2879sta firmaware, support for Ralink rt2800U and rt3000U chipsets

If you have a wifi device based on Ralink RT2000U or RT3000U chipset, and you have upgraded your kernel to 2.6.30 version, surely you will get an error on the rt2800(or some among those rt2070, rt2770, rt2870, rt3070, rt3071, rt3072) firmware, no more loaded.
Something like this:

rt2800 firmware not loaded
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not permitted

The raison is that on the firmware has been removed from the 2.6.30 kernel image.

So, ensure you have in /etc/apt/sources.list the following line:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free 

If you have not it, insert and give aptitude update...

After give the following:

aptitude install firmware-ralink

 
This will solve your problem.

Bye.

PS.: refer to this page to the official page.