Ok..this is my situation and maybe someone can help me with it. I currently have Mint RC11...while I do like it I would like to switch distros...there are lots of things that I like about different distros out there and switching would not be an issue with one exception. I am looking for something that has the driver for the RTL8188CE built in so that it will work out of the box. The only reason I need this is because I do not have access to a wired system at all currently.

Anyone that has had this experience or has experience with this driver and what a pain it can be...I would really appreciate any insight you can give me.

Thank you for your time

So I'm new at this but I have RTL8192E (which from what I read on google is just as ... well ... fun if you will, as 8188ce) and I didn't have too much trouble with it in Dreamlinux (debian based, but it's pretty old ) I think it installed crap drivers however, and in the end I ended up searching for the driver myself which I got and then it mostly worked but was choppy... I guess that the word I would use.
It didn't support my SD slot either (MMC:0 unknown controller error - pretty common error it turns out) and I had to blacklist that ... Just last night I got zorin OS, and it seems everything on my system is doing a bit better.

My video, wireless, sound, and even my SDslot is operational now. had all the drivers right at install. Maybe try a Ubuntu based system? I have no expertise in this area, and the only experience I have is listed here. I don't know how close our RTL81xxE problem is, but I do know there are alot of computers out there with realtek (mostly fujitsu and toshiba it seems) and if your looking for something with the driver built in, it does exist ... And I hope you find it

And you are using their free version? And other than just the drivers...how is the feel of this distro?

I have Linux Mint currently and it is Ubuntu based, as are many of the other distros that I have used...although I would like to really get away from the Ubuntu base...my only problem with trying to obtain the drivers with other distros is that being not able to connect, due to not currently having access to a wired system makes it difficult hence, the need for wireless to work out of the box

Yup I'm using the free os 4 version. I like the overall feel, It is meant to be simple - almost all interaction is done with an interface and not in the terminal. and also out of the box came with all lib files for playing DVDs, came with games, audio software ... Just tons of stuff. I didn't think I would like it at all, I really didn't want ubuntu cause I've read about alot of problems with 11.04 (I was actually going to get Mint)... But my computer is running better then when I first got it, and it's a breeze to use. My only problem was the liveCD runs reeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllly slow, but once installed on the HDD it is alot faster.


So you can't connect at all? ... As I said, with dream I was able to use mine but it was a bit iffy. It only worked on wi-cd with madwifi and only with WPA and unsecure connections ... and only if it felt like it. As far as I can tell realtek sucks (I didn't even like it when I had xp on here)