I've been banging my head against the wall trying to get my wireless card to work properly only to go from having it work badly to not having it work at all. I'm hoping someone can help me at least get my wireless up and running again or (even better) help solve the underlying problem I'm having.
Basically, this is where I am:
I had wireless issues, tried to troubleshoot them. It appeared I was having driver issues. I tried installing handful of alternate drivers others with similar problems recommended and none of them fixed the problem. I decided to stick with the driver that worked slightly better than the original one I was using. Now, for some reason, this driver is completely non-functional. I can connect to my router, but not to the internet. The problem is not with my router. I'm not sure how to re-install my default drivers.
I am using Linux Mint 17
Kernel: 3.19.1 (I needed hardware support not offered by the default kernel)
Wireless: Realtek RTL8188EE
Currently attempting to get this driver to work, but I'm willing to revert to the default if it is easier:
https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new
Steps I've taken to resolve this: Honestly, I know this is an easy fix but my brain is so fried from hours of troubleshooting that I can't seem find the solution easily.
I you are so kind as to help me fix my underlying issue (which I would greatly appreciate), I've listed the steps I've taken below. However, I will be more than happy to just get back my wireless, no matter how terrible the connection may be, so reading everything below the line of asterisks isn't necessary.
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The issue I am having is that my wireless connection will drop at random times, and sometimes won't stay connected for more than a minute at a time. I'll indulge you if you ask, but I'm absolutely certain this is a driver or some other type of low-level issue. In reading numerous forum threads and a bug report, I've basically found that there are 4 different driver options available to me: the driver that can with my install, and updated version of the driver that came with my install, a proprietary driver, and an alternate driver put out by a hacker who goes by "FreedomBen".
From what I've read, installing Realtek's proprietary driver solves thi issue for almost everyone. My problem but it seems to be incompatible with the newer kernel (as far as I can tell). Running "make" I get this output:
Code:
make -C /lib/modules/3.19.1-031901-generic/build M=/home/alex/Downloads/rtl modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.19.1-031901-generic'
CC [M] /home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.o
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c: In function ‘_rtl_init_mac80211’:
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c:365:4: error: ‘struct ieee80211_hw’ has no member named ‘channel_change_time’
hw->channel_change_time = 100;
^
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c: In function ‘rtl_action_proc’:
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c:885:32: error: ‘struct ieee80211_conf’ has no member named ‘channel’
rx_status.freq = hw->conf.channel->center_freq;
^
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c:886:32: error: ‘struct ieee80211_conf’ has no member named ‘channel’
rx_status.band = hw->conf.channel->band;
^
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c: In function ‘rtl_beacon_statistic’:
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c:1160:2: error: implicit declaration of function ‘compare_ether_addr’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
if (compare_ether_addr(hdr->addr3, rtlpriv->mac80211.bssid))
^
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c: In function ‘rtl_send_smps_action’:
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c:1451:24: error: ‘struct ieee80211_conf’ has no member named ‘channel’
info->band = hw->conf.channel->band;
^
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c: In function ‘rtl_store_debug_level’:
/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.c:1684:2: error: implicit declaration of function ‘strict_strtoul’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
ret = strict_strtoul(buf, 0, &val);
^
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[2]: *** [/home/alex/Downloads/rtl/base.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/alex/Downloads/rtl] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.19.1-031901-generic'
make: *** [all] Error 2
I don't know enough about the kernel to know whether this is resolvable or not. My main issue with reverting to an older kernel is that I have some peripherals that aren't supported by anything below 3.18. If there is a way to make everything play nice, I will be happy to indulge.
Alternately, many people seemed happy with FreedomBen's driver. Using his driver seemed to improve my connection in that it wouldn't drop completely, but my connection speed would fluctuate wildly making it completely unusable. He has a few tweaks on his github page and I tried them. However they didn't seem to resolve my connection speed problems. His github:
https://github.com/FreedomBen/rtl8188ce-linux-driver
Finally, I tried the "updated" drivers. They are slightly more stable than my default drivers (or maybe that just wishful thinking) but suffer from the same connection drop issues.
I have tried a number of recommended "tweaks" recommended in various places but they haven't helped.
References:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2264505
http://askubuntu.com/questions/46303...ing-connection
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=183886&p=2
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1108801
Wifi Issues
