Had a clean install of Trisquel Mini 7.0 64-bit on a Toshiba Netbook. When I click on the wireless button on the taskbar, a pop-up box comes up, saying "No network devices available".

How can I get the wireless working?

Thanks for the help!
Vexon

What wireless chipset is installed? You can use the command lspci in a terminal to determine that (you may have to do so as root).

1 members found this post helpful.

I ran lspci normally. Last line is:

07:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)

Does this seems to be correct?

Thanks again.

It can connect to your network via Ethernet? If so, hook it up and try installing the realtek driver like so:

Then test wireless, may need reboot.

Hi...

Considering that this particular distribution is committed to the cause of free software (and discourages the use of non-free software,) seen from threads like this one and this one, it's quite possible this command won't work, depending on which repositories Trisquel is using. From what I see here, it's their own, not Ubuntu's.

The OP can get the firmware in a Debian package here but I'm not entirely sure which version he/she will need or if it will even work with this distribution.

Regards...

It requires a driver (kernel or module compiled against the current kernel) and firmware (closed source binary blobs). Which may or may not be provided by your distro. It may also need a driver and firmware version newer than the one provided by your distro. The output of dmesg should help identify some hints on the status of things.

$ dmesg | grep -i firm

$ dmesg | grep -i net

Hello and welcome to the forum

If you would and have access to the internet via ethernet, please open a terminal and run these commands...

Then post the results (or a link to them) in your next reply. Thanks!

Regards...

No, unfortunately, I don't have direct access to my network via Ethernet.

That is, unless someone wants to suggest some method of hooking my machine up via Ethernet to my other Windows machine that is connected to the network via WiFi?

I see, am not at all familiar with Trisquel. Well, then seems like OP's choices are to:

- try and test installing the driver somehow (not recommended/supported by Trisquel)
- buy a compatible internal wifi card (wnic)
- trying to find a compatible USB wifi dongle
- or choose a different OS

Vexon,

Once (on another computer) you have downloaded and burned the .iso image to a DVD, no ethernet connection is required on the first suggestion.

1. On a netbook you would probably be better using a lightweight distribution such as the 32 bit or 64 bit version of antiX-16.1 which is based on Debian:
http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Download the 32 bit or 64 bit antiX-16.1_386-full.iso:
http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?tit...Page#Downloads

antiX-16 FAQs:
http://download.tuxfamily.org/antix/...FAQ/index.html

To enable wifi after installation:

Menu > Control Centre > Network > Network Interfaces (ceni) > wlan0 > follow wizard and give SSID/network name and wifi password.

Your Realtek 8188ce may still present problems, but it is worth a try first.

2. Failing that, one easy and cheap way to solve this is to get a D-Link N150 USB wifi adapter:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-Wire.../dp/B008PC19DC

This wifi adapter works “out of the box” in Linux.

3. The kernel driver on your Toshiba is rtl8188ce (rtl8192ce covers rtl8188ce and all other rtl81xxce versions).

Trisquel is Ubuntu-based.

Possible solutions (requiring an ethernet connection) on Ubuntu 14.04 & 16.04:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/50376...ltek-rtl8188ce

Do you have a rtl8192ce driver? (find/locate/modinfo) -MAYBE/wild_guess- this:
echo "options rtl8192ce swenc=1 ips=0" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8192ce.conf
sudo modprobe -rfv rtl8192ce
sudo modprobe -v rtl8192ce

Yes, free software is a concern for me. That's why I got Trisquel. Unfortunately, I need the machine work right now, and I can't get new hardware.

I downloaded the file from that page. What should I be doing now?

Thanks again for the help!

Hi...

If Trisquel comes with a program like gdebi, then you can just double click on the file and it should begin installing it using a GUI. If not, or if you would prefer to install it by command line anyway, you can open a terminal and navigate to the location of the file and then use something like...

I don't know if Trisquel uses sudo, so you may need to omit that particular part. Again, I have no idea if installing that package will work or if it's kernel specific. Take careful note where it installs the firmware files to as you may need to delete them later.

Disclaimer: Be careful with commands that are prefaced with "su" or "sudo." They will essentially allow root access to your system. Mistakes could possibly damage or even destroy your OS.

Regards...

Attached are dmesg output pictures.

Attached Thumbnails

   

Hi...

Concerning the firmware error message, was this after you tried installing the package you asked me about?

Regards...