How to get RT5390 wireless wifi card working on ASUS X54C laptop under Debian Linux

The ASUS X54C laptop is our go-to machine when we are mobile.  Our earlier article described how we made it dual boot Windows 7 and Debian Linux. 
 
The ASUS comes with a RaLink Device 5390 wireless card and support for that card is not included in Debian Linux. 
 
These are my notes on getting this laptop to connect to my wireless network under Debian linux.
 
First, be sure you have linux ethernet connectivity working under debian on the X54C .
 
The lspci command showed the card to be:
Network Controller : RaLink Device 5390
 
Fortunately, the gang at ralinktech.com has a linux driver RT5390 which you can download after registration:
2011_1007_RT5390_Linux_STA_V2.5.0.3_DPO
 
I had to make one change in os/linux/config.mk to set
HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y
 
 
Then the standard commands to install a linux driver:
# make
# make install
 
Once the driver is installed, I could see a device ra0:
# ifconfig ra0
ra0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr ...
 
From Applications / System Tools / Network Tools, I created a new wireless connection to my network and I was in business!