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Using the Realtek 8172 and 8192se Wireless Controller with Ubuntu 9.10
Author(s)
Bill Giannikos (Home Page)
Introduction
Ubuntu 9.10 does not support either the Realtek 8172 or 8192se as standard. This guide will help you add support for these wireless controllers to your system.
Notes
These are not the best drivers ever written and may exhibit problems (such as dropouts) from time to time. If you are having issues you may like to periodically check if newer drivers have been released and install those.
For Realtek 8172 owners, while this guide talk about using the 8192se driver it works for the 8172 as well.
Prerequisites
You should run a full update for your installation of Ubuntu to ensure you have all the latest packages installed.
Installing the 8192se driver
Here are the steps in installing the Realtek drivers.
1. Open a web browser and head to the Realtek 8192se driver page. From here you need to download the latest Linux driver. At the time of writing this was 0014 so we will use that version in this guide, your file name and folder created will be slightly different than the one below if you downloaded a different version.
2. Load up a terminal window if you are in the graphic interface.
3. Type in the following to install gcc and the kernel headers:
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
You may be asked for your password with the above commands, type it in and press Enter.
4. Move to the /usr/src/ folder with:
cd /usr/src
5. Now extract the contents of the file you downloaded with the following command (make sure to replace /path/to/ to the actual path you downloaded the file to):
sudo tar xzvf /path/to/rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0014.0115.2010.tar.gz
6. Move into the newly created folder with
cd rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0014.0115.2010
7. Lets copy across the required firmware with this command:
sudo cp -rf firmware/RTL8192SE /lib/firmware
8. Now lets build the driver:
sudo make
You may get an error at this stage depending on your kernel. Don't worry about it, the stuff we need is compiled.
9. These set of drivers contain a whole lot of rubbish we don't need, so we only want to copy the driver module itself. Use the following two commands to install the driver:
sudo cp HAL/rtl8192/r8192se_pci.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/ sudo depmod -a
10. Optionally, you may like to delete the driver folder now, use the following command:
sudo rm -rf /usr/src/rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0014.0115.2010
11. Reboot your computer and your realtek wireless controller should begin to work.
Please note that if Ubuntu release an updated kernel you will have to go through the above steps again but make sure you skip the copying of the firmware.
Thanks for reading this peepz ;)
Discussion
see here for debian http://wiki.debian.org/rtl819x
Works perfectly for Debian Squeeze, Kernel 2.6.32-5-amd64
Thank you.
Ughhrr.. Latest one (0017) gives an error on compile. OS is gentoo amd64, kernel 2.6.34 R6, linux-headers 2.6.35.
I got all the way up to step 9, entered the first command;
sudo cp HAL/rtl8192/r8192se_pci.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/
…and got this:
cp: cannot create regular file '/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/': No such file or directory
… :(
Does anyone know what i should do?
Ahh - i checked my file structure to see whether or not it existed, and found that it was:
/lib/modules/2.6.31-14-generic/kernel/drivers/net/
…so, with no real clue as to what i was doing, i replaced `uname -r` with 2.6.31-14-generic in the command, and ran it, and it seemed to work.
Went through the rest of the step, restarted the computer, and now Ubuntu at least seems to know that I have a wireless card.
Now i just have to figure out how to make it detect my home wireless network. (For the record, i'm more pissed off at Microsoft's wireless wizard for obscuring the nitty-gritty of what goes on than with Ubuntu for me not-knowing what to do now that i have a card with a driver.)
Hi,
Please sent a mail to wlanfae@realtek.com and they will help you with a latest driver.
In fact I tried (mine is Lucid - 64 bit) most of the options. But there are some issues with the driver you may be using, esp. the Makefile or some where else. Do sent a mail and they will definitely respond you immediately.
With regards
jose
I have the same !!
Hi Bill, thankyou very mush for your tutorial for installing r8192se_pci driver. I am using a Thinkpad T410i with Lucid 64bit. Recently I updated the kernel to 2.6.32.22 and thereafter the wireless driver failed to load. With the steps in your tutorial I have installed “rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0017.0507.2010.tar.gz” downloaded from RealTek site, and able to install and load without any error. But /var/log/syslog reports an error like the following
un 30 17:16:53 jose NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: starting → ready
Jun 30 17:16:53 jose NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 2 → 3 (reason 42)
Jun 30 17:16:53 jose kernel: [ 1072.942494] ===============⇒r8192_wx_set_scan(): hwradio off
and failed to list anything with iwconfig or iwlist commands.
can you please share any insights into this problem ?
(Okay, I know it's bad form to resurrect old threads, but this does come up near the top in searches so I thought I'd post this anyway.)
If you have tried all of the above and are still having difficulty with your Realtek 8192 as I was, then read the following:
I had one bugger of a time getting the realtek 8192SE to work on my Toshiba Satellite. The fix actually was not on my computer, but on the router. The moment I changed the router from both “WPA2 AND WPA” to just WPA everything worked like a charm. I'm not a programmer and can not even begin to understand why things suddenly just worked after that change, but it did.
I've tried several live CD's, all of which now work with my wireless 8192SE after making just that one change.
Good luck all.
Driver loaded without complaints, but no wlan device :(
All the above works like a charm, no complaints anywhere, however, it does not ever produce a wlan device. The kernel module can be loaded using insmod, dmesg shows:
[ 468.029176] rtllib_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
[ 468.029188] rtllib_crypt: registered algorithm 'TKIP'
[ 468.029195] rtllib_crypt: registered algorithm 'CCMP'
[ 468.029201] rtllib_crypt: registered algorithm 'WEP'
[ 468.029207]
[ 468.029209] Linux kernel driver for RTL8192 based WLAN cards
[ 468.029215] Copyright © 2007-2008, Realsil Wlan Driver
yet, iwconfig shows no wlan0 devevice. Any idea where to look?
Hi! You did a very good job with that. I made it step by step with Kubuntu 10.04 on a new toshiba L500 notebook and it worked perfectly! I spent hours of internet browsing to find a help like this. I'm an absolute newbie and I typed it without knowing what I'm doing just trusting you! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with the world!
will there be an update to this page for 10.04?
also, after going through this, if it doesn't work, do I need to undo any of these steps to try a different fix? I'm 99.8% beginner.
just after posting, found this:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/567016
10.04 fix available in lucid-proposed in software sources as per pablomme. have tried and it works, though it has only been a little while.
still i wonder if i should undo any of the operations performed on this page?
I'm using a wireless Realtek 8172 with Ubuntu 10.4 64bit
I tried to use the above which didn't work out for me. I needed to add this to get things working:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Device/Realtek%208172
run the below on each boot to get wireless working:
rmmod r8192se_pci
cd /usr/src/rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0015.0127.2010
./wlan0up
if your wireless stops working there is an wlan0down script run that then the wlan0up again
I got up to step 9 and it says “cp: invalid option etc.
I entered the command correctly.
This guide is very useful : thank you very much !
I don't know what I did.
Don't know haw to get the sudo—–> tar.gp to work.
But went to the unpacked file and then followed your suggestions (i think).
anyway IT WORKS!!!!!!
Could it not be automated?
For poor simple minded hesitant but willing windows leavers?
Thanks for the tutorial it took a couple of hours but hey it WORKS!!!!
Hajo
Mine works too but only going to the hardware drivers in system/ administration, and disabling and enabling back the realtek drivers, and like Jon Watts, only works for a short period of time, then it freezes all my computer, around 5/10mins later.
This is a great fix! Thanks. But I'm still having trouble with my wireless… incredibly spotty and I have to keep turning it on and off.
So I was working on unraveling a fix with Ndiswrapper when I noticed that there is an update on this driver on the Realtek page. But I'm having trouble figuring out how to translate your instructions for #15! Update?
thanks again
Just did an install with the version 15 release from Realtek: Debian Lenny, vanilla 2.6.32.11 kernel. Instructions were perfect. What's the problem you're having?
I got an error when trying to unzip saying it wasn't a .gz file when trying this in Ubuntu, but my Mandriva machine unzipped it fine, then I could move it back to the Ubuntu machine…
Then I got cp: cannot stat 'HAL/rtl8192/r8192se_pci.ko' : no such file or directory
and it right, it's not in there.
*sigh* back to Windows I guess…
To be honest, sounds like you didn't follow the instructions correctly.
Nice work! My Thinkpad X200 had been gathering dust because of this problem.
This is amazing i was looking for this so much time…!But for debian not ubuntu it works on debian too!!!Thank you:)
I thought there was a space in “sudo cp HAL/rtl8192/r8192se_pci.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/” between ”…-r`” and ”/kernel…” Anyway, copying by typing is not always the best option. It is sometimes best to copy.
THANK YOU so much for this tutorial. I am grateful.