Realtek wireless issues with 13.37

D1ver · 04-02-2011, 03:57 AM

I've just bought a new Lenovo thinkpad edge and I'm having some issues with my wireless.

lspci gives the following

Code:

03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8191SEvB Wireless LAN Controller (rev 10)

Out of the box no wireless was detected, so I installed the driver from the realtek website and installed using src2pkg which worked fine. After a reboot the wireless seems to be detected. WICD can see networks and iwconfig detects wlan0.

However WICD can never seem to connect to the network, even with the wep key and settings correct it fails with "Failed to get IP address". Interestingly the following seems to reliably result in a connection

Code:

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid "my_network"
iwconfig wlan0 mode managed
iwconfig wlan0 key restricted xxxxxxxxx
dhclient wlan0

Anyone have any clues to get wicd working reliably?

ChrisAbela · 04-02-2011, 03:33 PM

Try uninstalling wicd and deleting ALL its configurations files. Then re-install and have another go. It sometimes works even if it looks drastic and Windows-ish.

Alien Bob · 04-02-2011, 03:36 PM

You did tell WICD that "wlan0" is the name of your wireless interface?

Eric

markush · 04-02-2011, 04:00 PM

Hello together,

I'm running Slackware64-current without wicd on a Thinkpad x100e with the same wireless device. The module in use is rtl819xSE, if your system uses the same driver (check with lspci -k) for the device, it should work.

Markus

D1ver · 04-02-2011, 06:09 PM

Thank you everyone for your responses. I still don't know what was wrong with WICD but I have managed to set up wireless using wpa_supplicant and the scripts in /etc/rc.d/.

tommcd · 04-03-2011, 06:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by D1ver

Thank you everyone for your responses. I still don't know what was wrong with WICD but I have managed to set up wireless using wpa_supplicant and the scripts in /etc/rc.d/.

Have you edited /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf at all?
When using wicd, it is recommended that you leave /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf in it's pristine, unedited and original state: http://slackware.oregonstate.edu/sla...ADME.SLACKWARE

gegechris99 · 04-03-2011, 04:26 PM

Hello,

Maybe this could help. From CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT:

Quote:

HAL is not new anymore, but here are a few notes related to it:
....
3. User accounts with permission to use network devices, such as with the
wicd package in /extra, should be in the "netdev" group.

Franklin · 04-29-2011, 08:35 AM

Hi - using same wireless (not my PC) and lspci -k indicates that no kernel module is being loaded for this device.
What's the correct module? Do I need to recompile (running huge atm) or do I need to download driver from realtek?
Module listed above is either incorrectly stated or not in the huge kernel.

Thanks in advance

markush · 04-29-2011, 09:38 AM

Hello Franklin,

could you post the output of lspci -k for your device?

As far as I remember I have downloaded the driver from the realtek site. I refer to my post #4.

Markus

Franklin · 05-05-2011, 11:26 AM

Sorry it took so long to reply - I was out of town and had spotty internet access.

Code:

root@firefly:~# lspci -k
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS880 Host Bridge
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780/RS880 PCI to PCI bridge (int gfx)
        Kernel modules: shpchp
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)
        Kernel modules: shpchp
00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1)
        Kernel modules: shpchp
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2)
        Kernel modules: shpchp
00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
        Kernel driver in use: ahci
00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
        Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
        Kernel modules: ohci-hcd
00:12.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0 USB OHCI1 Controller
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
        Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
        Kernel modules: ohci-hcd
00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
        Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
        Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
        Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
        Kernel modules: ohci-hcd
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0 USB OHCI1 Controller
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
        Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
        Kernel modules: ohci-hcd
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
        Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
        Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 3c)
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
        Kernel driver in use: piix4_smbus
        Kernel modules: i2c-piix4
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
        Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
        Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
        Kernel modules: shpchp
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control
        Kernel driver in use: k10temp
        Kernel modules: k10temp
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M880G [Mobility Radeon HD 4200]
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1f
        Kernel driver in use: radeon
        Kernel modules: radeon
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8191SEvB Wireless LAN Controller (rev 10)
        Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 8182
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
        Kernel driver in use: r8169
        Kernel modules: r8169

RTL8191SEvB does not have kernel modules loaded. Seem I need to build the realtek driver from source, yes?

markush · 05-05-2011, 02:05 PM

Yes, go to the Realtek-site and load it down. You'll have to build it youself, but that's no problem.

Markus

bogzab · 05-05-2011, 03:37 PM

I can confirm that on a similar Lenovo Thinkpad (Edge with AMD/ATI hardware), wireless (Realtek RTL8188CE adapter) works fine with WICD control once I remembered that in order to get this working previously with Slackware 13.1 I had to download the driver from Realtek website. Presumably this kernel module is not included in Slackware distribution as it contains some binary-only code.

I have a modified rc.inet1.conf with details I have added such as the wireless LAN key, but this does not seem to interfere with WICD management, except that now and again I have to do a

Quote:

rc.inet1 wlan0_restart

before WICD can arrange the connection.

BTW did I read in another thread that WICD was going to be dropped by Slackware as it was not being maintained? If so, what should we be using in the future? Or even right now?

markush · 05-05-2011, 03:51 PM

wicd is not able to handle wpa2 encryption. If you have wpa2 you'll need wpa_supplicant. But since wpa_supplicant can handle any encryption one can substitute wicd with wpa_supplicant. I'd suggest to read the manpage for wpa_supplicant and wpa_supplicant.conf

Markus