Hi.

Can't install linuxmint-20.3-mate-64bit on my HP-Stream 11.
Love Linux, hate MS, life hell since Win11.


Tried linuxmint-20.3-mate-64bit live disk on a USB key, but couldn't proceed to install as no wi-fi.
The key works well on another computer and has been verified.
Sb suggested Ubuntu 14.10. Couldn't get past GRUB.

Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Adapter.

No Ethernet connectivity, home not wired at all, living off my smartphone hotspot.

Is there any other way to proceed?
Another distro?
Install the necessary packages from a USB key?
Alternative wi-fi adapter on a USB key? But will that be compatible...?

Used to be an average Linux user years ago. No geek.

HP-Stream 11-ak0xxx
64-bit, Intel(R) Celeron(R) N4000, 4Gb RAM, 64Gb flash storage.

Thank you kindly.
Haim

Realtek has a PCIe driver in kernel 5.15.27. I don't know if it's in earlier versions. Another distro is definitely an option.

Was glad to see your answer, business kid.

Looked for distros featuring kernel 5.15.27.

Found claims to the effect that Arch and OpenSuse Tumbleweed do.
Not inclined to tackle Arch.
OpenSuse seems to be considering, but has not yet integrated it, from what I saw around.

An alternative would be to look for the driver itself.

Here's a post I came across:
"...you can download the driver from their website onto a flash drive, then install whatever distro you want, install the driver, modprobe it, reboot and bam, your Internet works!"

I should be able to check this out on a live disk, before installing.

Had no idea about the driver.
Hope the above idea works.
Trying it would be relatively painless.

Thank you, business kid.

Have a look at this page, some information about the wireless.

https://linux-hardware.org/index.php...c821-17aa-c024

Helpful, Debian6to11.

Looked it up and bookmarked it.

Main fact found there: "The device is supported by kernel versions 5.9 and newer".

No wonder my ISO, linuxmint-20.3-mate-64bit, didn't work, as it runs 5.4, if I recall.

Turns out, though, there is a Mint flavor that may do the job.
The Edge ISO people say:
"This image is made for people whose hardware is too new to boot the 5.4 LTS kernel included in Linux Mint 20.3. It ships with kernel 5.13.0-25 instead."

Will give that a try.
Didn't know.

Kind of you to help, and glad I learnt this.
Haim

Look, the reason I am on 5.15.27 is because there's some security bug that was fixed there. The only other kernel I had was 5.0.0-32. grep the /boot/config-<whatever> for 8821CE or trawl the web for where it was added. It might be in 5.10.

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ok, business kid, got it.

Next attempt scheduled for tomorrow.

Solved.
Very pleased.

Two solutions:

• To my great pleasure, installing from live disk was enough. The system itself announced that the adapter didn't work and offered to fix it. It then went on to do so successfully.
  I benefited here from Pierre's advice, on the LinuxMint forums, see link below, to USB tether the laptop to my smartphone connection. I had had no idea about this, it worked fine, and was, needless to say, indispensable as long as the adapter wasn't recognized.

• The above is enough, obviously.
  While still on the live disk, before the install, I did, however, check out, the procedure.
  https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspo...altek.html#ID6
  suggested by Pierre.
  Installing the driver went without a hitch. Couldn't test it, as testing required a reboot, and on live disk, changes obvioulsy don't presist.
  I'm convinced it would work fine.
  I'm mentioning this in case your system doesn't fix things on its own.

Thank you all for the attention.
Thank you, Pierre from the LinuxMint Forums, for this helpful advice.

1 members found this post helpful.