Morning,
I have been researching prior to installing the 64 bit version of opensuse, to ensure that it supports the hardware in my laptop.
Toshiba A505D-S6958
AMD Turion-X2 64
ATI Radeon 3100
4GB RAM
Realtek rtl8192e bg+n wireless
I have read of issues with Realtek wireless but wanted to ask if there have been successes in getting it to work with this OS…
I would greatly appreciate your info, suggestions…
Thanks,
Tony …
apstroth wrote:
> Morning,
> I have been researching prior to installing the 64 bit version of
> opensuse, to ensure that it supports the hardware in my laptop.
> Toshiba A505D-S6958
> AMD Turion-X2 64
> ATI Radeon 3100
> 4GB RAM
> Realtek rtl8192e bg+n wireless
> I have read of issues with Realtek wireless but wanted to ask if there
> have been successes in getting it to work with this OS…
> I would greatly appreciate your info, suggestions…
The only Linux driver for the rtl8192 is the vendor-written version
for the rtl8192su. Without seeing the PCI IDs, I don’t know if that is
the same as the rtl8192e. In any case, RealTek drivers do not meet
Linux standards, thus the rtl8192su driver is in the “staging”
directory, which means that it will compile and “work”, but there are
no guarantees. I don’t think it was put there until 2.6.30 or 31, thus
your only option of having that driver built in would be 11.2;
however, there are still lots of serious bugs.
For openSUSE 11.1 you would need to use ndiswrapper with the Windows
driver. With 64-bit, those have been a lot of trouble.
Afternoon and thank you for the info. Seems to be an issue here and with other well used Linux versions…I tried Ubuntu 9.0.4 on this notebook and it has the same issues…tried with the 64bit drivers for Vista and XP, same results…Oh well, suppose I will just wait…If you tell me how to product the list of "PCI IDs, I will gladly do that and post here…
questions: will the PCI IDs be the same whether theh list is from Ubuntu or Opensuse? Can I use the Live CD for suse to get the same list if they would be different?
Thanks again,
Tony
apstroth wrote:
> Afternoon and thank you for the info. Seems to be an issue here and with
> other well used Linux versions…I tried Ubuntu 9.0.4 on this notebook
> and it has the same issues…tried with the 64bit drivers for Vista and
> XP, same results…Oh well, suppose I will just wait…If you tell me
> how to product the list of "PCI IDs, I will gladly do that and post
> here…
Drivers are part of the kernel and the essentially the same kernel is
used by all distros - only the version differs and some make local
changes. Drivers are not part of these changes. The difference between
distros is the organization of some of the system files, and some
utilities differ. Yum and zypper are examples.
> questions: will the PCI IDs be the same whether theh list is from
> Ubuntu or Opensuse? Can I use the Live CD for suse to get the same list
> if they would be different?
The PCI IDs come from the device’s hardware. You can boot ANY Linux
and get the same answer.
The command is ‘/sbin/lspci -nnv’, at least for openSUSE. I think
Ubuntu puts it in /usr/bin, so a simple ‘lspci -nnv’ should work. Only
post the first 2 lines of the paragraph that refers to your rtl8192.
Here it is…
lspci -nn
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:8192] (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 02)
Thanks again,
Tony …
apstroth wrote:
> Here it is…
> lspci -nn
>
> 02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
> Device [10ec:8192] (rev 01)
> 03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
> RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev
> 02)
The driver in staging will not work. Upon investigation, it is for a
USB device. You will have to use ndiswrapper.
Afternoon,
Thank you for the info. Would you happen to know if there is a certain ndis version and driver that has had success? Also, would you know if there is currently any development work to produce a driver for this?
Thanks again,…
Tony …
apstroth wrote:
> Afternoon,
>
> Thank you for the info. Would you happen to know if there is a certain
> ndis version and driver that has had success? Also, would you know if
> there is currently any development work to produce a driver for this?
No to both questions. I have not even checked to see if there is a
vendor-written driver.
In general, the most problems with ndiswrapper have been with 64-bit
drivers. The underlying Windows drivers have not gotten that much
testing. It used to be that Vista drivers did not work with
ndiswrapper. I don’t know if that situation has been fixed. I don’t do
Windows in any form except for running in a VM for the two
applications that do not run under Wine.
Thanks for your response. I have not run windows for a long time now, also except for a VM to run a few apps that I require, that also do not run under wine or cross-over.
I was really hoping to be able to get this resolved so that I could continue to use either Opensuse or Ubuntu…
One more question: do you know of a highly recommended , if you would…Is there a recommended USB wireless device that works well with linux? I suppose I can always continue to use Linux if I can get a well accepted USB wireless device…
Thanks again,
Tony …
Hi
The HCL 
http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Network_Adapters_(Wireless)
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.1 (i586) Kernel 2.6.27.25-0.1-pae
up 11:12, 3 users, load average: 0.28, 0.24, 0.22
ASUS eeePC 1000HE ATOM N280 1.66GHz | GPU Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME
Hi,
I have the wireless Realtek rtl8187b on my laptop. The current driver in OpenSUSE 11.1
is unstable. We can connect but most of time it just does not work.
I made it work with OpenSUSE 11.0 32 bits with ndiswrapper
and the drivers of Window$ 98 and ME. Unfortunately, this does not
work in the 64 bit versions both of 11.0 and 11.1 since there is only
XP and Vista drivers for 64 bits OS. So, I cannot use
my wireless adapter because I use OpenSUSE 11.1 64 bits. :’(
Well, I think it will be the same with your wireless adapter. Any away,
you have to try with ndiswrapper. In this case, I hope you have good luck.
I would just like to say to any one not to buy Realtek adapter. They really
should not work with Linux in general.
Bye.
ednso wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have the wireless Realtek rtl8187b on my laptop. The current driver
> in OpenSUSE 11.1
> is unstable. We can connect but most of time it just does not work.
>
> I made it work with OpenSUSE 11.0 32 bits with ndiswrapper
> and the drivers of Window$ 98 and ME. Unfortunately, this does not
> work in the 64 bit versions both of 11.0 and 11.1 since there is only
> XP and Vista drivers for 64 bits OS. So, I cannot use
> my wireless adapter because I use OpenSUSE 11.1 64 bits. :’(
>
> Well, I think it will be the same with your wireless adapter. Any away,
> you have to try with ndiswrapper. In this case, I hope you have good
> luck.
>
> I would just like to say to any one not to buy Realtek adapter. They
> really
> should not work with Linux in general.
If you want a stable driver for the rtl8187b, then install the
compat-wireless package from the repository at
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/Akoellh/openSUSE_11.1_Update/.
The rtl8187 driver was improved a lot during the 2.6.28 and 2.6.29
cycles. The vendor-written drivers by RealTek are awful, but what you
say above is just plain wrong. Yes, there has been a process of
improving the driver, but now “it just works”, particularly with
64-bit Linux, which is what I used when the most recent bits were
added to the driver.
Maybe you are right. I can badly wait until go home tonight and try this!
But these are unstable drivers, aren’t they? Furthermore, Realtek does
not made driver for rtl8187b for Linux, and it seems that this vendor
does not worry too much about Linux users! So, I still have to say
if you are a Linux user, do not buy Realtek products. There are other
better options fur us that love the freedom, aren’t there? :\
Thank you too much!
ednso wrote:
> lwfinger;2026102 Wrote:
>> If you want a stable driver for the rtl8187b, then install the
>> compat-wireless package from the repository at
>> ‘Index of /repositories/home:/Akoellh/openSUSE_11.1_Update’
>> (http://tinyurl.com/arav7l).
>>
>> The rtl8187 driver was improved a lot during the 2.6.28 and 2.6.29
>> cycles. The vendor-written drivers by RealTek are awful, but what you
>> say above is just plain wrong. Yes, there has been a process of
>> improving the driver, but now “it just works”, particularly with
>> 64-bit Linux, which is what I used when the most recent bits were
>> added to the driver.
>
> Maybe you are right. I can badly wait until go home tonight and try
> this!
> But these are unstable drivers, aren’t they? Furthermore, Realtek does
> not made driver for rtl8187b for Linux, and it seems that this vendor
> does not worry too much about Linux users! So, I still have to say
> if you are a Linux user, do not buy Realtek products. There are other
> better options fur us that love the freedom, aren’t there? :\
The rtl8187 driver is not unstable. RealTek may write lousy drivers,
but they do open-source their drivers, unlike nVidia, ATI or Broadcom.
As a result people can rewrite their drivers into something that
works with Linux. The company should get some credit for that.
There is the problem: I used to work in a computer with a NVidia card and I used
the NVidia driver and it just works wonderful (just have to add the NVidia repo and one click in the driver)!!!
But, I have had a laptop with rtl8187 and now I have one with rtl8187b and neither one of these
cards works with OpenSUSE 64 bits. Furthermore
there are no Linux drivers for rtl8187b in Realtek website. There are for rtl8187 but
they don’t work!
So, Why should I believe that Realtek products are better than NVidia’s for Linux
users?
ednso wrote:
> lwfinger;2026203 Wrote:
>> ednso wrote:
>>> lwfinger;2026102 Wrote:
>>>> If you want a stable driver for the rtl8187b, then install the
>>>> compat-wireless package from the repository at
>>>> ‘Index of /repositories/home:/Akoellh/openSUSE_11.1_Update’
>>>> (‘Index of /repositories/home:/Akoellh/openSUSE_11.1_Update’
>> (http://tinyurl.com/arav7l)).
>>>> The rtl8187 driver was improved a lot during the 2.6.28 and 2.6.29
>>>> cycles. The vendor-written drivers by RealTek are awful, but what
>> you
>>>> say above is just plain wrong. Yes, there has been a process of
>>>> improving the driver, but now “it just works”, particularly with
>>>> 64-bit Linux, which is what I used when the most recent bits were
>>>> added to the driver.
>>> Maybe you are right. I can badly wait until go home tonight and try
>>> this!
>>> But these are unstable drivers, aren’t they? Furthermore, Realtek
>> does
>>> not made driver for rtl8187b for Linux, and it seems that this vendor
>>> does not worry too much about Linux users! So, I still have to say
>>> if you are a Linux user, do not buy Realtek products. There are other
>>> better options fur us that love the freedom, aren’t there? :
>> The rtl8187 driver is not unstable. RealTek may write lousy drivers,
>> but they do open-source their drivers, unlike nVidia, ATI or Broadcom.
>> As a result people can rewrite their drivers into something that
>> works with Linux. The company should get some credit for that.
> There is the problem: I used to work in a computer with a NVidia card
> and I used
> the NVidia driver and it just works wonderful (just have to add the
> NVidia repo and one click in the driver)!!!
> But, I have had a laptop with rtl8187 and now I have one with rtl8187b
> and neither one of these
> cards works with OpenSUSE 64 bits. Furthermore
> there are no Linux drivers for rtl8187b in Realtek website. There are
> for rtl8187 but
> they don’t work!
>
> So, Why should I believe that Realtek products are better than NVidia’s
> for Linux
> users?
I didn’t say that the RealTek drivers were any good. I gave them
credit for open-sourcing their lousy drivers, which we have been able
to make work.
As for the rtl8187 and rtl8187b chips, both work on my 64-bit
computer! What kernel version are you using?
lwfinger;2026203 Wrote:
As for the rtl8187 and rtl8187b chips, both work on my 64-bit
computer! What kernel version are you using?
Hi,
I am at home now and have just added the repository and made a
system update via Yast. Two packages were installed:
compat-wireless-kmp-default and rtl8187b-kmp-default.
I did not choose these packages, they were automatically choose
in a system update.
Unfortunately, when I try connecting, the laptop hard locks and
both caps and scroll look stay flickering. This happens no matter
if I try connect with Knetwork or ifup method.
So, any idea about what is happening?
My laptop’s kernel version is 2.6.27.25-0.1-default.
Thanks.
ednso wrote:
> lwfinger;2026203 Wrote:
>
>> As for the rtl8187 and rtl8187b chips, both work on my 64-bit
>> computer! What kernel version are you using?
>> Hi,
>
> I am at home now and have just added the repository and made a
> system update via Yast. Two packages were installed:
> compat-wireless-kmp-default and rtl8187b-kmp-default.
> I did not choose these packages, they were automatically choose
> in a system update.
>
> Unfortunately, when I try connecting, the laptop hard locks and
> both caps and scroll look stay flickering. This happens no matter
> if I try connect with Knetwork or ifup method.
>
> So, any idea about what is happening?
>
> My laptop’s kernel version is 2.6.27.25-0.1-default.
Do you mean the the caps and scroll lock are blinking at a 1 Hz rate?
If so, that is a kernel panic - just like a BSOD on Windows.
I don’t use compat-wireless, but it should be OK.
Are you using a 32- or 64-bit kernel? Whichever you have, I’ll try to
pull that package and try it on one of my computers.
Larry
lwfinger wrote:
Do you mean the the caps and scroll lock are blinking at a 1 Hz rate?
If so, that is a kernel panic - just like a BSOD on Windows.
I don’t use compat-wireless, but it should be OK.
Are you using a 32- or 64-bit kernel? Whichever you have, I’ll try to
pull that package and try it on one of my computers.
Larry
Yes, they stay blinking at this frequency. (Sorry about my poor English! ;)) But now I realized that this problems only occur when the package
rtl8187b-kmp-default is installed. I let only the package
compat-wireless-kmp-default installed and the things worked, but
it is still too unstable! 
I am using 64-bit kernel:
ednilton@edlap:~> uname -a
Linux edlap 2.6.27.25-0.1-default #1 SMP 2009-07-01 15:37:09 +0200 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Thanks!
ednso wrote:
> Yes, they stay blinking at this frequency. (Sorry about my poor
> English! ;)) But now I realized that this problems only occur when the
> package
> rtl8187b-kmp-default is installed. I let only the package
> compat-wireless-kmp-default installed and the things worked, but
> it is still too unstable!
>
> I am using 64-bit kernel:
I don’t know what the rt8187b… package is, but I suspect that it is
the vendor driver.
The driver works for me, thus there is something peculiar with the
version of the chip that you have, or with your AP configuration. If
you can provide the output from ‘dmesg | grep rtl’ and the portion of
the dmesg output when the connection drops, perhaps I can learn more
of your problem.