Realtek 8192CE PCI-E Can't obtain IP with Wicd.
 

I needed to get a wireless adapter for my desktop PC so I went to newegg and looked around to see what PCI-E cards they had available. I came across a Encore one that uses the realtek 8192CE chipset. I confirmed before I bought it that it is supported in the kernel as of version 2.6.38. I am running Slackware 13.37 and I compiled a new 2.6.39.1 kernel and after I rebooted the kernel I checked lsmod,iwconfig, and ifconfig and confirmed that all the correct modules are loaded and the card is recognized by both iwconfig and ifconfig. At first Wicd acted as if there was no card in the system so I checked dmesg and found that I was missing the firmware for the drivers. I went to the realtek sight and downloaded the drivers from there and got the firmware and copied it to /lib/firmware/rtlwifi and now wicd recognized the card and finds my networks. But whenever I try to connect to my network I get an error saying "Can't obtain IP address". I have googled around and can't find any clues on this. The only thing I have noticed is that the activity LED is not working which leads me to believe the card is either turned off/or not powered on. The light works fine in Windows 7. The network I am connecting also uses WEP. I am having no trouble connecting in Windows so I know the card works. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Thank You.

Hi Daedra, May we see the output from ifconfig and iwconfig please? Have you tried this?

Good luck. ;-)

Hi Peacedog,

Thanks for the reply, but a friend of mine just let me borrow his old Super G card with an atheros chipset. I threw it in and everything is working fine now. I am going to revisit this problem later, but for now I am putting it on the back burner. :)

You're welcome. Glad you're up and running.

Good luck. ;-)

Can you tell me the exact card -- "Super G card with an atheros chipset" ?

We will be using 3G mobile broadband at home until the 2-year contract expires
in Feb 2013, so the PC I'm about to build for my wife will require a PCI wireless
adapter. I'd like to know one that someone is using and works well.

Yeah, its the Encore ENLWI-SG, there very cheap on ebay if you want to save a buck http://compare.ebay.com/like/1904873...=sbar&_lwgsi=y

But anyone with a atheros chipset should be no problem, I did my research before I bought and even though the realteks and ralinks do work well they sometimes need firmware and whatnot which can be a hassle sometimes. The atheros chipset has open source drivers which I like and "just work". I did notice an issue with wireless n cards that use atheros, specifically the ath9 driver. The signal strength is low compared to the windows driver. So IMO if you want the least amount of hassle get one that uses the the ath5 driver (wireless G).