[SOLVED] Realtek wireless driver Arch Linux

pjk1939 · 08-04-2011, 06:42 PM

Alright I just recently installed Arch onto my laptop; however, I am struggling getting wireless. I have looked around and can't really find anything.

sudo lspci | grep -i net

Code:

02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8191SEvA Wireless LAN Controller (rev 10)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)

iwconfig

Code:

lo         no wireless extensions.

eth0       no wireless extensions.

lsmod

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
ipv6                  288690  22 
ext2                   63714  1 
joydev                  9959  0 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     22784  1 
snd_hda_codec_realtek   297871  1 
uvcvideo               62143  0 
i915                  648410  2 
videodev               78070  1 uvcvideo
hp_wmi                  7802  0 
snd_hda_intel          22186  0 
drm_kms_helper         27529  1 i915
snd_hda_codec          77543  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
sparse_keymap           3128  1 hp_wmi
snd_hwdep               6342  1 snd_hda_codec
rfkill                 15498  1 hp_wmi
media                  10437  1 videodev
drm                   181991  3 i915,drm_kms_helper
snd_pcm                73736  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
evdev                   9530  15 
v4l2_compat_ioctl32     8364  1 videodev
snd_timer              19488  1 snd_pcm
i2c_algo_bit            5239  1 i915
i2c_i801                8195  0 
sg                     25621  0 
intel_agp              10848  1 i915
snd                    57256  7 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
pcspkr                  1891  0 
i2c_core               20165  6 i915,videodev,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_algo_bit,i2c_i801
video                  11300  1 i915
intel_gtt              14359  3 i915,intel_agp
psmouse                54752  0 
soundcore               6178  1 snd
r8169                  41003  0 
snd_page_alloc          7161  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
serio_raw               4366  0 
iTCO_wdt               12781  0 
intel_ips              11285  0 
wmi                     8387  1 hp_wmi
battery                10945  0 
processor              24328  0 
thermal                 7903  0 
mii                     4003  1 r8169
iTCO_vendor_support     1969  1 iTCO_wdt
button                  4510  1 i915
ac                      3305  0 
ext4                  368162  2 
mbcache                 5793  2 ext2,ext4
jbd2                   70956  1 ext4
crc16                   1337  1 ext4
sr_mod                 14663  0 
sd_mod                 27379  5 
cdrom                  36393  1 sr_mod
ahci                   20905  4 
libahci                18925  1 ahci
libata                173061  2 ahci,libahci
ehci_hcd               39359  0 
scsi_mod              130020  4 sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata
usbcore               142192  3 uvcvideo,ehci_hcd

ifconfig

Code:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 78:AC:C0:41:25:5E  
          inet addr:192.168.0.10  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::7aac:c0ff:fe41:255e/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:6774 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:6059 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:6848108 (6.5 Mb)  TX bytes:921270 (899.6 Kb)
          Interrupt:41 Base address:0xe000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

I thought that the kernel automatically loaded the driver at start up but I guess not.

Any help would be appricated
Thanks

pjk1939 · 08-05-2011, 07:45 AM

Alright I got my driver installed and running. "iwconfig" shows the wlan0 output even after I restart my computer. Also I typed "ip link set wlan0 up" and "ifconfig wlan0 up" which should tell me that I don't need further firmware because they didn't output anything. So I assumed I was good and I should be able to install Wicd and connect to wireless.

However...

That is not the case. Wicd doesn't see any wireless signals and there should be a lot (I have two in my apartment). I also tried "iwlist wlan0 scan" and all it says is scan complete: with no wireless essids.

Also I tried wpa_supplicant, but I got "dhcpcd wlan0" to just time out.
So is there another step that I happen to forget to do? Maybe it is the wrong driver I installed?

Any help would be great.... Sorry I don't have any command output, I'm at work but I will be heading home for lunch and I can put some up then.

Thanks

pjk1939 · 08-08-2011, 08:51 AM

Alright I figured it all out, so I thought I would post everything that I did to get it working.

First I had to find the driver for the my wireless card.
I used

Code:

lspci | grep -i net

to find out the type of wireless card I needed.

I then went to the Arch User Repositories (AUR) and found the driver. I installed all the dependicies by downloading the tarball and compiling with

Code:

makepkg

and installing using

Code:

sudo pacman -U *.xz

/* *.xz is a file that is generated after compiling */

I then installed the driver doing the same method as above.

I then modprobed

Code:

sudo modprobe /*Driver name goes here*/

to add it to the list of kernel modules to start at boot up

Lastly, I shutdown my computer and restarted with

Code:

sudo shutdown -h now

Sorry if the explanation sucks; hopefully people can follow it or at least give them an idea of what do.

Thanks

gerryggg · 08-20-2011, 04:19 AM

On a slightly different note, I recently purchased an HP Pavilion g4-1117dx notebook which uses the Realtek wireless N card. It is the 8188CE card. After installing Xubuntu 11.04 as a dual boot alongside the original Windows 7, I was experiencing problems with dropped connections, connection speeds fluctuating between 4mbps to 120mbps and poor performance. After several days of troubleshooting, including a visit from the ISP's tech, we discovered a problem with noise on the line, AND poor performance from the wireless card, both in Windows and Xubuntu. A visit to the Realtek site revealed updated drivers for both Windows and the source code for a driver for Linux kernels 2.6.35 and newer as well as a new driver for older kernels. After downloading both the windows driver and code for the newer Linux driver, I installed the driver in windows. performance improved dramatically, but still was less than perfect. The big gain came when I compiled and installed the new Linux driver. Performance is now as consistently steady 150mbps with all the other equipment unchanged ( They're coming out to run a new dedicated line for the cable modem on Monday. It seems the original installer used a splitter on an existing cable tv line rather than running a dedicated line). The only problem I ran into was I actually had to reboot twice after compiling to get the driver working. Since I haven't done much compiling from source it was probably something I did. I still have a small issue getting it to connect automatically but I'm working on it.