How To Install Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter

On 09/21/2011 06:26 PM, ganser694 wrote:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Device 1510
> 00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Device 9802
> 00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
> 00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
> 00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
> 00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 42)
> 00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
> 00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller (rev 40)
> 00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40)
> 00:14.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI2 Controller
> 00:15.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 43a0
> 00:15.1 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 43a1
> 00:15.3 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 43a3
> 00:16.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
> 00:16.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
> 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 0 (rev 43)
> 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 1
> 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 2
> 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 3
> 00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 4
> 00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 6
> 00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 5
> 00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 7
> 02:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 5209 (rev 01)
> 06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 05)
> 07:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)
> --------------------
>
> /sbin/lspci results in

I already knew you had a card supported by rtl8192ce. That was clear in the
dmesg output supplied in the previous posting.

Very sorry if it will not work I will switch distos.

On 09/21/2011 09:06 PM, ganser694 wrote:
>
> Very sorry if it will not work I will switch distos.

It will work, but you need to do the things I ask. The reason I know it will
work is that I’m using that card at the moment. In addition, I am the one that
entered the driver into the kernel.

If you use another distro with a kernel older than 2.6.38, it still won’t work.

Problem is I did the things you asked, Would using the 12.1 dev work?

On 09/22/2011 06:16 AM, ganser694 wrote:
>
> Problem is I did the things you asked, Would using the 12.1 dev work?

I asked you to check if the firmware is installed, and gave very specific
instructions that you did not respond to.

Specifically, I wrote “You have the driver, but the firmware is not installed.
Did you add the kernel-firmware package the way I suggested? Use YaST =>
Software Management and search for “firmware” to check.” You responded with
lspci output. That describes the hardware. What I wanted was a look at the
installed software. Quite a difference.

The only difference between 11.4 and 12.1 is that the driver is in the kernel
and you would not need the compat-wireless package. You would still need the
firmware, which is the part you do noit have now.

Very sorry about that, kernel-firmware is installed.

On 09/22/2011 04:06 PM, ganser694 wrote:
>
> Very sorry about that, kernel-firmware is installed.

Then, post the output of ‘ls /lib/firmware/rtlwifi’ and ‘dmesg | grep firmware’.

First command

bash: ls /lib/firmware/rtlwifi: No such file or directory

although I have 3 folders called RTL8192E, RTL8192SE and rtl_nic in the firmware directory, if that helps
second command: No output

On 09/22/2011 05:36 PM, ganser694 wrote:
>
> First command
> Code:
> --------------------
> bash: ls /lib/firmware/rtlwifi: No such file or directory
> --------------------

In the file list for the kernel-firmware package are the following:

/lib/firmware/rtlwifi
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192cfw.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192defw.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192sefw.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin

The first ‘bin’ file is the one you need. If kernel-firmware is really
installed, those files would be there. The version is 20110709-8.2-noarch.

> second command: No output

What is going on? Did you change kernels? Earlier the driver was loading - when
that happens, you either get the message that the firmware was loaded, or you
get the one that the firmware was not found, but you never get nothing!

found 1 instance of firmware

     0.188753] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored

Reinstalled kernel-firmware rtlwifi is there.

On 09/23/2011 04:06 PM, ganser694 wrote:
>
> found 1 instance of firmware
> Code:
> --------------------
> 0.188753] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
> --------------------
>
> Reinstalled kernel-firmware rtlwifi is there.

That Firmware Bug is a problem with your BIOS. It has nothing to do with wifi.

If you do not start answering ALL my questions, you are going to be on your own.

DID YOU CHANGE THE KERNEL? If not, what happened to the driver?

What does ‘lsmod | grep 8192’ show?

What happens with ‘sudo /sbin/modprobe -v rtl8192ce’?

I’m going through the same issues, and have followed the advice given so far (installing kernel-firmware, etc.)

>What does ‘lsmod | grep 8192’ show?

nothing

>What happens with ‘sudo /sbin/modprobe -v rtl8192ce’?

FATAL: Module rtl8192ce not found

rtl8192cfw.bin is in /lib/firmware/rtlwifi.

Any ideas? (Please)

Thanks.

On 10/15/2011 04:46 PM, daousley wrote:
>
> I’m going through the same issues, and have followed the advice given so
> far (installing kernel-firmware, etc.)
>
>> What does ‘lsmod | grep 8192’ show?
>
> nothing
>
>> What happens with ‘sudo /sbin/modprobe -v rtl8192ce’?
>
> FATAL: Module rtl8192ce not found
>
> –
>
> rtl8192cfw.bin is in /lib/firmware/rtlwifi.
>
> Any ideas? (Please)

You still did say why the driver disappeared. It was there once and then was
gone. Something happened.

I’m not the same person as in the earlier posts – just having the same problem. I don’t know that it was once there. If the driver is the file rtl82192cfw.bin, then it is there – at least in /lib/firmware/rtlwifi. This is a new machine, and I have not yet gotten the wireless to work in linux (it works in windows, so I assume the hardware is okay). The card at this point does not show up in networkmanager or yast. lspci shows that the card is present. iwlist scan shows only lo and eth0, which do not support scanning. I’ve double checked all the things which need to be installed (compat-firmware, etc.), and have only one kernel (desktop) installed. If output of specific commands would help. let me know and I will post. Thanks.

On 10/16/2011 05:46 PM, daousley wrote:
>
> I’m not the same person as in the earlier posts – just having the same
> problem. I don’t know that it was once there. If the driver is the
> file rtl82192cfw.bin, then it is there – at least in
> /lib/firmware/rtlwifi. This is a new machine, and I have not yet gotten
> the wireless to work in linux (it works in windows, so I assume the
> hardware is okay). The card at this point does not show up in
> networkmanager or yast. lspci shows that the card is present. iwlist
> scan shows only lo and eth0, which do not support scanning. I’ve double
> checked all the things which need to be installed (compat-firmware,
> etc.), and have only one kernel (desktop) installed. If output of
> specific commands would help. let me know and I will post. Thanks.

Guess what? /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192cfw.bin is FIRMWARE. It is not a
driver. The driver is named rtl8192ce.ko. It became part of the kernel in kernel
2.6.38, thus the standard openSUSE 11.4 kernel does not have it built in.

You need to (1) install the compat-wireless package, (2) install a kernel 2.6.38
or later, (3) download the driver from the Realtek site and build it yourself,
or (4) build a new kernel from source. I ranked them in order of increasing
difficulty. You pick the solution you want.

>> You need to (1) install the compat-wireless package, (2) install a kernel 2.6.38
>>or later, (3) download the driver from the Realtek site and build it yourself,
>>or (4) build a new kernel from source. I ranked them in order of increasing
>>difficulty. You pick the solution you want.

I have verified that compat-wireless is installed for desktop kernel. rtl8192ce.ko is present in /lib/modules/2/6/37/1-1.2-desktop/updates/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8192ce/

Does this satisfy #1? If so, any guesses as to why it doesn’t work?

Again, my thanks!

On 10/16/2011 07:36 PM, daousley wrote:
>
> Does this satisfy #1? If so, any guesses as to why it doesn’t work?

Yes. What does dmesg show?

Is the driver loaded?

What does ‘/usr/sbin/rfkill list’ show?

Have you read the stickies at the beginning of this forum?

Yes. What does dmesg show?

nothing: I went through the output, also grepped 8188, Realtek and wireless: all blank

Is the driver loaded?

I’m not sure how to tell (I only go through this occasionally, and forget a lot by the next time I do it – pls bear with me)
modprobe -v rtl8192ce
FATAL: Module rtl8192ce not found.

What does ‘/usr/sbin/rfkill list’ show?

also blank

Have you read the stickies at the beginning of this forum?

I reread them, thanks.

On 10/17/2011 11:06 AM, daousley wrote:
>
> Yes. What does dmesg show?
>
> nothing: I went through the output, also grepped 8188, Realtek and
> wireless: all blank
>
> Is the driver loaded?
>
> I’m not sure how to tell (I only go through this occasionally, and
> forget a lot by the next time I do it – pls bear with me)

The command is lsmod.

> modprobe -v rtl8192ce
> FATAL: Module rtl8192ce not found.

You have no driver installed. It is not in the kernel until 2.6.38. Get the
compat-wireless package for the kernel you use. How to do these is described
several places in the forum.

comapt-wireless-kmp-desktop and compat-wireless-scripts are installed. (I mentioned this a few messages back.) I have reinstalled them to be sure. I followed the directions in this forum about adding the wireless repository. They show up installed in Yast.