wifi card issue

iceman81 · 10-27-2017, 05:14 PM

Hey guys, i have a fairly new lenovo laptop(510-15ikb) and there seems to be some issues with they type of wifi card that is it. Its a realtek(RTL8821AE).

I installed fedora 26, and notice it drops constantly. Found no real resolution but that its a bug, so i tried a live usb version of linux mint, and I'm encountering the same issue.

on the mint forums i found someone saying to edit the NetworkManager.conf to comment out

#dns=dnsmasq

this keeps me connected it seems, but speed tests are showing 25/3. where when the win10 hdd is in, i steadly get 50/25.

I think the issue is the link is showing 72.2 Mb/s

Is there anything that can do to fix this?

agillator · 10-27-2017, 06:41 PM

What you describe is often a matter of the driver. Broadcom is well known for problems but Realtek seems to have been more reliable. However, check to make sure you have the most current driver from realtek. Then you might check the modules loaded and remove all wifi card drivers except the correct one. Sometimes there are conflicts. If none of that works then try ndiswrapper with a windows driver. That will often work when nothing else will.

iceman81 · 10-27-2017, 09:56 PM

i have installed an up to date driver. Seems like this wifi card is not very compatible with linux. Such a bummer, every time i try to use linux there is always some type of brickwall it seems. I have no issues with the learning curve, but at the end of the day, sometimes you just want things to work. I guess this laptop will just have to run linux on a VM.

agillator · 10-28-2017, 02:14 AM

Try ndiswrapper with a windows driver. Sometimes a bit of a pain to install, but once installed it seems to work ok. I've had to use it a time or two.

Shadow_7 · 10-28-2017, 05:53 AM

Dropped connections for me have traditionally been bad/old driver and firmware issues. Although on my most recent laptop there's an antennae quirk. The hardware has connection points for 2 antennae but only 1 is connected to an antennae, and NOT the default one. So I have to pass ant_sel=# to the module/driver. If when you scan for networks and the signal strength is never > 50%, that is probably why. Quality 32/70 is the best I saw before applying the solution resulting in Quality 70/70. Although the module for your chipset doesn't seem to have that option.

$ sudo modinfo rtl8821ae

Code:

filename:       /lib/modules/4.12.0-2-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtlwifi/rtl8821ae/rtl8821ae.ko
firmware:       rtlwifi/rtl8821aefw_29.bin
firmware:       rtlwifi/rtl8821aefw.bin
description:    Realtek 8821ae 802.11ac PCI wireless
license:        GPL
author:         Realtek WlanFAE	<wlanfae@realtek.com>
alias:          pci:v000010ECd00008821sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v000010ECd00008812sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
depends:        rtlwifi,rtl_pci,btcoexist,mac80211
intree:         Y
vermagic:       4.12.0-2-amd64 SMP mod_unload modversions 
parm:           swenc:Set to 1 for software crypto (default 0) (bool)
parm:           ips:Set to 0 to not use link power save (default 1) (bool)
parm:           swlps:Set to 1 to use SW control power save (default 0) (bool)
parm:           fwlps:Set to 1 to use FW control power save (default 1) (bool)
parm:           msi:Set to 1 to use MSI interrupts mode (default 1) (bool)
parm:           debug_level:Set debug level (0-5) (default 0) (int)
parm:           debug_mask:Set debug mask (default 0) (ullong)
parm:           disable_watchdog:Set to 1 to disable the watchdog (default 0) (bool)
parm:           int_clear:Set to 0 to disable interrupt clear before set (default 1) (bool)

$ sudo ip link set wlo1 up
$ sudo iw dev wlo1 scan

$ sudo iwlist wlo1 scanning

In my case $(sudo dmesg) results in these lines when my driver is loaded (rtl8723be).

$ sudo dmesg

Code:

[1461427.473007] rtl8723be: Using firmware rtlwifi/rtl8723befw_36.bin
[1461427.473229] rtl8723be 0000:02:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware rtlwifi/rtl8723befw_36.bin
[1461427.474401] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'rtl_rc'
[1461427.475397] rtlwifi: rtlwifi: wireless switch is on
[1461427.479690] rtl8723be 0000:02:00.0 wlo1: renamed from wlan0
[1461437.711735] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlo1: link is not ready

Take note of the firmware and it's location /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8723befw.bin and make sure that you have the newest version available. Yours will obviously differ in name. Various git methods from kernel.org to get the latest firmware, but you'll need to manually move it to the location that the driver pulls it from.