I have tried Fedora, Mint, Ubuntu, SuSE, Elementary, Debian, and a few others. None of them can detect or use my wireless network card. Problem is all I have is WiFi in the house. I don't have time to tinker with Linux, I just want to install it and it will work. Suggestions?

My wireless network card is a RealTek RTL8723BE B/G/N wirless card.

According to a number of links (here's one), that card can be made to work with Linux, though it may not work out of the box, but you will likely need at least temporary access to a wired connection.

A search for "RealTek RTL8723BE B/G/N linux" will turn up a number of additional links.

Yeah that stuff is way above my head. I'll just stay with Windows. Thanks!

Looks like it is MS Windows that is causing the problem. Turn off secure boot & try running Linux from a 'live' media.

Hi...

If you want to give Linux another shot, please open a terminal and enter these commands...

Then post the results (or a link to them) in your next reply. This might give us additional information that could help us resolve your issue.

Regards...

I can only connect to internet thru WiFi. I don't have a standard ethernet port on this computer. So I would not be able to do what you are asking.

Hi...

No problem, we can do it this way. Open a terminal and save to a text file the results of these commands...

Then save the file to a thumb drive and then when you boot to Windows 10, simply copy and paste the results to your next post. I may need the results of additional commands later.

Taking a look at frankbell's link here, this is really no different than what I'm requesting above. Simply choose the appropriate Linux distribution (Ubuntu, Debian, etc.,) and copy and paste the commands into a terminal one at a time.

Regards...

Debian non-free images might work...
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/u...ding-firmware/

Total 'empathy' for the frustration! Here's my '10minute' zero-tinker (unusual) idea:
VirtualBox & OSboxes.org/ <yourDISTROchoice> (probably need 7UNzip)

Maybe first grab the .vdi (my only 1min-glitch was finding Google-Drive upper-right dl button)
As the 1GB .7z downloads, install [Oracle's free] VBox. It's simple/safe. Basically ignore W10!

Maybe try it, just as a 'proof-of-concept' for me (my 'easy 10min'[?] statement)
It uses your W10 wifi 'transparently', like any [web] application would. &Easy to delete it

When you click New, giving it a Name of a distro it recognizes, causes it to select Linux...
Take all defaults, except 'use existing' [not 'create' vhd] (where 7z extracted vdi to).

Using a 'pre-installed' OSbox, skips Linux install! (you can always do .iso install later)

Best wishes, in any case! (use Win10 as *nothing but* a monstrous 'device driver' )

kona0197,

Your easiest and cheapest way to solve this is to get a D-Link N150 USB wifi adapter (£5.94 in the UK) which has a Realtek rtl8188eu driver:

https://www.cclonline.com/product/11...aptor/NET0927/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-Wire.../dp/B002IJHTE6

https://www.amazon.com/D-Link-Wirele...ct_top?ie=UTF8

http://www.ebay.com/itm/D-Link-Wirel...wAAOSwJQdW9ta7

Make sure that it looks exactly like the illustrations in the above links.

This works “out of the box” in Ubuntu 16.04 and Linux Mint 18 MATE.

EDIT: Also on MX-16 (see post #12).

2 members found this post helpful.

Sounds good. Thanks.

kona0197,

Just to confirm that your easiest and cheapest way to solve this is to get a D-Link N150 USB wifi adapter.

I have just installed MX-16 64 bit (details below) on an old desktop PC which naturally had no wifi card.

I plugged in the D-Link N150 USB wifi adapter and then booted from the MX-16 DVD.

The D-Link wifi adapter was automatically recognised and all I had to do was give the name of my wifi network and the wifi password.

I then continued with the installation which was flawless.

Details of MX-16:

MX Linux:
https://mxlinux.org/

I downloaded MX-16 64 bit from the Original Release here:
https://mxlinux.org/download-links

Select your nearest mirror and then burn the ISO image to DVD or USB drive.

That USB dongle would look very out of place on a brand new 2 month old laptop. Now if they made one that looked like a wireless mouse dongle, that would be best.

kona0197,

D-Link make this wireless-N Nano adapter (DWA-131):
http://www.dlink.com/uk/en/home-solu...no-usb-adapter

If it does not work automatically (unlikely) then you will first need to set up a temporary working internet connection using an ethernet adapter and RJ45 cable (see below).

Two solutions (#2 & #3) are provided here for the DWA-131:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/73891...ubuntu-14-04-4

Another alternative would be to get an adapter similar to this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-Gigab.../dp/B00NPJP33M

With a suitable length of RJ45 cable connected to the router, it would enable you to make a temporary initial internet connection and then follow the earlier advice from frankbell and ardvark71 to get your existing Realtek RTL8723BE wifi card working.

Here are two more ways to get that RTL8723BE working:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/u...y-realtek.html

All to complicated for me, it's better that I just stick with Windows 10 or buy a copy of Windows 7. Thanks anyhow.

(And BTW, this computer does not have a RJ45 port...)