Wireless card unavailable in Debian, but works in Ubuntu

[S4mmael]

Hello guys,

I have a liittle problem with a wireless card of a cheap HP laptop. It works perfectly well out of the box in Ubuntu 14.04, but not in Debian Jessie.

Here is what I managed to find.


In Ubuntu it looks like that:

root@ubuntu:~# dmesg | grep 02:00.0
[ 0.986323] pci 0000:02:00.0: [10ec:8179] type 00 class 0x028000
[ 0.986347] pci 0000:02:00.0: reg 0x10: [io 0x2000-0x20ff]
[ 0.986383] pci 0000:02:00.0: reg 0x18: [mem 0x90700000-0x90703fff 64bit]
[ 0.986486] pci 0000:02:00.0: supports D1 D2
[ 0.986490] pci 0000:02:00.0: PME# supported from D0 D1 D2 D3hot D3cold
[ 0.986542] pci 0000:02:00.0: System wakeup disabled by ACPI

root@ubuntu:~# lspci -s 02:00.0 -v
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 197d
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
I/O ports at 2000 [size=256]
Memory at 90700000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Device Serial Number 00-e0-4c-ff-fe-81-91-01
Capabilities: [150] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Kernel driver in use: rtl8188ee


Whereas in Jessie it looks like that:

root@debian:~# dmesg | grep 02:00.0
[ 1.109622] pci 0000:02:00.0: [eaea:eaea] type 6a class 0xeaeaea
[ 1.109628] pci 0000:02:00.0: unknown header type 6a, ignoring device

root@debian:~# lspci -s 02:00.0 -v -H1
02:00.0 Class eaea: Device eaea:eaea (rev ea) (prog-if ea)
!!! Unknown header type 6a

It's only available in the output of lspci with -H1 option.


I'm aware that header type 6a is incorrect, but is there any workaround or something? How do I make the card work in Debian? How does Ubuntu do that?

Thank you in advance for any help, it's greatly appreciated.

[mastablasta]

Kernel driver in use: rtl8188ee

Ubutnu most likely ships with some drivers that Debian does not use as a result of distro opensource only policy. I am guessing here but most likely there is a backport to install the necessary drivers in debian.

or just use Ubuntu.

[S4mmael]

Thanks for quick reply.
I've installed rtl8188ee.ko in debian, I can even modprobe it. Unfortunately, it's useless since kernel does not "know" there is a wireless card in the system.

[ajgreeny]

Is the debian machine still cable attached? many Linux OSs will not detect the wireless if there is an ethernet cable still attached; that is true of Ubuntu, I think.

[S4mmael]

Is the debian machine still cable attached? many Linux OSs will not detect the wireless if there is an ethernet cable still attached; that is true of Ubuntu, I think.

I've just gave it a try. No luck.

[Yellow Pasque]

Have you installed firmware-realtek package? What Debian kernel are you using?

[S4mmael]

Have you installed firmware-realtek package? What Debian kernel are you using?

Yes, I have. As I sad rtl8188ee.ko is available and can be modprobed. 3.14-2

[QIII]

As this appears to be specific to Debian (not an official flavor of Ubuntu ) the thread has been moved to Other Operating Systems and Projects.

You have a few crack commandos helping you already, so they will be able to follow the redirect. Hopefully you won't get lost.

Cheers.

[S4mmael]

Any ideas please?

[Yellow Pasque]

Does dmesg say anything after you modprobe the module?