# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Ubuntu Official Flavours Support > Networking & Wireless > [ubuntu] Realtek RTL8191SE

## fositen

Hi there.

I recently purchased a laptop Toshiba L500-13W.
I have installed Ubuntu on it and i have ony one problem for now.

It's Realtek RTL8191SE wireless lan isn't recognized by Ubuntu.

On a desperate try to put it working i've made the upgrade to the new Ubuntu version 9.10(its still in beta) but i couldn't put it to work.

I was hopping for a bit of help regarding this.

Ty for your time.

----------


## mattmc

You and me both. I can't get the card to work for the life of me. I have the Toshiba l500-02H with the Realtek RTL8191SE WIRELESS CARD PCI-E NIC. I do not have the wifi card with the Bluetooth.

I have tried ndiswrapper on 9.04 and no luck there, I have downloaded 9.10 today "not the RC" and ifconfig wlan0 up  says there is no device. I an not new to the bash and ndiswrapper install but can't figure this one out.

Anyone have any ideas?

----------


## FatherDale

Same issue. I have a new Toshiba T115 with Realtek RTL8191SE. Guess this is a windows box....

----------


## Aurawin

I have a Toshiba T135-S1309 with the same Wireless chip integrated.  I guess I'm stuck with Windows Seven ...

Ubuntu needs a driver task force IMO.

----------


## Dude-PWB-

Check out this thread at launchpad: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/401126

It is for the rtl8192se chipset, but someone in there reported it worked for the 8191se chipset as well.

Alternatively, send an e-mail to realtek and give them your network device info, and the version of ubuntu you are running and they will send you the proper driver.

I just went through all of this with an rtl8192e chipset and they were extremely fast at sending me a driver for it.

----------


## bjsmith307

I have a Toshiba Satellite L505 and here is what worked for me: run terminal and type 
"sudo apt-get install ndisgtk" and after that is done go here and get the win2k driver.
Then I just unzipped the driver file into the download file. Then I clicked 
system-administration-windows wireless driver, and searched for
for downloads - rtl8191 (the file that you unzipped)-91_92_SE_Driver-win2k-net8192se.inf 
and click install and close. Worked for me hope it works for you! I had to use WPA Personal
and tkip algorithms to make it all work, but it is working good for me.

----------


## collegeKid28

Worked for me!!! 

Thank you, bjsmith307  :Smile: 





> I have a Toshiba Satellite L505 and here is what worked for me: run terminal and type 
> "sudo apt-get install ndisgtk" and after that is done go here and get the win2k driver.
> Then I just unzipped the driver file into the download file. Then I clicked 
> system-administration-windows wireless driver, and searched for
> for downloads - rtl8191 (the file that you unzipped)-91_92_SE_Driver-win2k-net8192se.inf 
> and click install and close. Worked for me hope it works for you! I had to use WPA Personal
> and tkip algorithms to make it all work, but it is working good for me.

----------


## Aurawin

I recieved the drivers direct from realtek.  I had to compile them but as soon as I ran make and make install and rebooted it worked.  Anyone need driver source?  I cannot attach source since it's larger than the quota.

But I'm using my wireless every day with this version.  It's pretty stable unless you have to switch hotspots.  That may lead to a system hang.  But that hang even happens on Windows 7.

----------


## kieran_ole

If you can, please, do, i'm on the same boat, i've tried a few different drivers, etc, i've tried the linux drivers on their page to no sucsess, so if you have it i'll take it, thanks...

do you want my email so you can send it??

----------


## A_M_S

I'm interested!!!


Do you want my email so you can send it??

----------


## andytiedye

"Missed by that much…"

Alas, that link now just goes to the main MSI page, presumably because the old W2K driver has been scrubbed from the site.   Searching their site for "Realtek" or "RTL" gets nothing.
It's gone from the realtek site too,  only versions left are Vista/XP and ******* 7.

Any other place a working driver can be found anymore?

----------


## SeePU

So, there's no 'realtek-firmware' in the non-free repositories that will work or provide the driver????

There's such firmware in a non-free repo in Debian Squeeze but I can't test for you as I don't own a wifi adapter with this chipset.  

I was considering a nano style adapter that has a similar Realtek 8188SE chipset that uses 8188SU firmware.  I think it would use the same firmware package as the 8192 but it sounds like it's not a good idea at the moment since the support is so poor.

Anyway, if no firmware you find is available or it doesn't work, here's the website where you can download the driver.   I think you have to compile it, though.

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/dow...&GetDown=false

'Hope that helps but don't blame me if it doesn't.  That's the only info I can find so far.

----------


## thejpster

> So, there's no 'realtek-firmware' in the non-free repositories that will work or provide the driver????


There is a driver for the 8192SE / 8191SEvB but on the latter chipset at least, it appears to be unreliable as it keeps dropping the wifi connection.

Firmware usually describes code that runs within the processor of the accessory. The driver is what runs on the host computer.

I believe (looking at a random example) that Realtek's driver code is licensed under the GPL and shipped entirely as source, but the binary firmware image they load into the wifi processor is not.




> There's such firmware in a non-free repo in Debian Squeeze but I can't test for you as I don't own a wifi adapter with this chipset.


That's probably Realtek's driver, but this is an Ubuntu forum. Ubuntu supply a driver with the kernel in their distribution, which, for some of us, doesn't work. Realtek also supply the same (but newer) driver on their website which again, for some of us, doesn't work.




> I was considering a nano style adapter that has a similar Realtek 8188SE chipset that uses 8188SU firmware.  I think it would use the same firmware package as the 8192 but it sounds like it's not a good idea at the moment since the support is so poor.


They run on a different driver and, as I understand it, do not suffer this issue.




> Anyway, if no firmware you find is available or it doesn't work, here's the website where you can download the driver.   I think you have to compile it, though.
> 
> http://www.realtek.com/downloads/dow...&GetDown=false


We've tried almost all the drivers on that page, but thanks for the suggestion. Actually, on checking it appears there is a new one available with specific 11N WEP / TKIP fixes, so I might try that and report back.

----------


## thejpster

While rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0019.1207.2010 was gloriously fast for a few minutes, a quick trip to Youtube.com soon killed the connection stone dead, just like all the previous versions.

Back to ndiswrapper. As you were.

----------


## thejpster

Bah. Stupid double post.

----------


## thenendo

> Back to ndiswrapper. As you were.


Thejpster, any chance you could post those MSI drivers that work with ndiswrapper? The link on the previous page no longer works.

PM me if you don't have a server to put them on -- I could host them.

----------


## thejpster

I didn't realise you could post attachments. Try this.

----------


## milesmonk

Any luck since, anyone? Thejpster?

----------


## thejpster

Yes, what?

I'm still running with ndiswrapper. Seems to take a little while to connect sometimes, but once it's connected it's reliable.

----------


## emtdan

My internet is completely out now. Connects for less than a minute.  I have no idea how to use ndiswapper (sp) and but I do have the newest realtek driver installed. My internet used to stay up for 2-3 days now less than a minute... Back to windows unless one of you can help

----------


## milesmonk

> Yes, what?
> 
> I'm still running with ndiswrapper. Seems to take a little while to connect sometimes, but once it's connected it's reliable.


I'm running a 64-bit version of Ubuntu, and the available Realtek drivers (the ones you've attached) don't work since they're 32-bit. Even on the Realtek website the 64-bit drivers don't seem to be available. 

(Also, sometimes


```
sudo modprobe r8192se_pci
```

makes the system hang.  

This happens almost always if /lib/modules/2.6.35-25-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ does not contain a symlink called r8192se_pci.ko -> /lib/modules/2.6.35-25-generic/kernel/ubuntu/rtl8192se/r8192se_pci.ko and happens once in a while if that symlink is present.  The solution seems to be to turn off the "Enable Networking" check mark, physically switch off the wifi switch on my Thinkpad, then run:


```
sudo rmmod r8192se_pci && sleep 2 && sudo modprobe r8192se_pci
```

And then put wifi switch to on again, and then click on "Enable Networking" again.)

----------


## thejpster

> I'm running a 64-bit version of Ubuntu, and the available Realtek drivers (the ones you've attached) don't work since they're 32-bit. Even on the Realtek website the 64-bit drivers don't seem to be available.


I had to replace my 64-bit install with a 32-bit one specifically to use ndiswrapper with those drivers.

----------


## ikonitas

....

----------


## ikonitas

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-2.6.35-22-generic

----------


## thejpster

I tried the wireless backports, but all I got was a r8192se_pci module that wouldn't load due to missing symbols.

I'm back on ndiswrapper again.

----------


## lucipacurar

Hi guys,

I have a Toshiba Satellite L655 with Realtek 8191SE WLAN card and I'm using Ubuntu 11.04. My problem is that I can't connect to a D-Link 615 wireless router with WPA Personal ecryption at work. At home I have the same router but with WPA2 Personal ecryption and it works fine. Is this a known issue?

Thanks

----------


## thejpster

> I have a Toshiba Satellite L655 with Realtek 8191SE WLAN card and I'm using Ubuntu 11.04. My problem is that I can't connect to a D-Link 615 wireless router with WPA Personal ecryption at work. At home I have the same router but with WPA2 Personal ecryption and it works fine. Is this a known issue?


My wireless was equally unreliable in WPA and WPA2, so I usually leave it in the latter. Is there perhaps some other configuration difference between the two?

I've just tried 11.04 AMD64 via Wubi, to avoid damaging my (working) 10.10 install. The install failed half way through on two occasions: once it locked up and all my fans went up to full speed, the second time threw me to a text console showing an r8192se_pci call stack trace. I have given up.

Is anyone having better luck with r8192se_pci in 11.04?

----------


## milesmonk

> Is anyone having better luck with r8192se_pci in 11.04?


I did an upgrade (not fresh install) to 11.04, didn't help. I removed old kernels, didn't help. I activated ubuntu-proposed repository, and installed linux-kernel 2.6.38-9 (which someone had suggested solves the problem), didn't help. I removed old symlinks, didn't help. I created new symlink (pointing /lib/modules/2.6.38-9-generic/kernel/net/wireless/r8192se_pci.ko -> /lib/modules/2.6.38-9-generic/kernel/ubuntu/rtl8192se/r8192se_pci.ko), didn't help.

----------


## bhuvan

I faced this issue in maverick (10.10) release. Reloading r8192se_pci kernel module had helped.

$ sudo rmmod r8192se_pci
$ sudo modprobe r8192se_pci

----------


## Richardarkless

Hi guys for anyone still having problems with the rtl8191se chipset I think I have found a solution, this has been tested on my sister's Advent Quantum q200 which is running the RTL8191SEvA chipset

What I did was install these 3 packages which will install the 2.6.39 kernel 

linux-headers-2.6.39-3 
linux-headers-2.6.39-3-generic 
linux-image-2.6.39-3-generic 

and then removed any backport modules or any other things I attempted before trying this and then restarted, so far its been 5 minutes and been great

Below is the command if you want to do it through the terminal

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.39-3 linux-headers-2.6.39-3-generic linux-image-2.6.39-3-generic

I dunno if this will fix the problems people are having with the rtl8192se chipset but its worth a try

EDIT: Restarted again and then it broke

----------


## GiladGressel

HI guys,

I upgraded my asus1201n to natty 11.04 on a fresh install

i downloaded a livecd and ran from USB. (upgrading in 10.10 was broken...)

The wifi signals all appear to be strong and connect very fast (compared to the wrapper i was using in 10.10)

however it's still broken.  It worked really fast for about 20 minutes, but I left it downloading a torrent and when I came back it had stopped working.  The signal is still there (it doesn't continually ask for password etc) but there is no activity when you try to browse or download

please note -- this problem appears to only exist in WPA password networks.  Right now I'm on a cafe wifi with no problems 

so... still broken.  will probably go to ndswrapper later on.
also of interest is that the asus1201n has an annoying error with the NVidia graphics.  This error might be more than annoying if I was to play any serious 3d games.  
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ey/+bug/771788

-gilad

----------


## paralia20105

> OMG thank you so much!! my wireless now works !!! thank you!


 For me too. Thank you so much !!

----------


## hackwater

I too am struggling with this issue in Natty (64-bit Kubuntu; I did a fresh install rather than upgrade my Lucid install). I've tried compiling the module from the source available on the Realtek site to no avail. The rmmod/modprobe combination can successfully force the wireless back into operation, but it isn't a permanent fix, as it will go down again.

I note in the release notes from Realtek that the version of the driver publicly available is good for kernels 2.6.27 - 2.6.37; I suppose it's possible that they are not supporting 2.6.38 yet. I also note that this driver seems to be the same driver as for the 8192SE; I'm wondering if that's an issue.

In Windows, my laptop warns about interference from Bluetooth and the wireless card; since I wasn't using Bluetooth, I disabled it in Windows and attempted to disable it in Kubuntu, though I'm not 100% certain I succeeded. (I disabled the Powered option in the Bluetooth settings and stopped the bluetooth service.) This does not seem to affect the wireless's behavior.

I am now trying to contact Realtek to see if there's a driver for Natty/11.04 and/or the 2.6.38 Linux kernel; I will update with their response if any.

----------


## neo1786

i had similar problems... mine was 8192ce tho

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1790306

----------


## hackwater

While waiting for Realtek to get back to me, I installed the 3.0 kernel (aka 2.6.40). I've been running using this kernel for around 9 hours with no problems. So the good news is that this will likely be fixed by the time Oneiric comes out. The not-so-bad news is that right now, I'm running on release candidate 4 of that particular Linux kernel, so they've had 3 candidates to review. I suspect this kernel is close to stable. The not-so-good-news is that these test kernels are not meant for every day use. I won't be getting kernel updates unless I add the kernels PPA to my APT repos, which is a scary idea. If this is the only way to go forward, so be it. But I'm going to test an alternative, which is the latest drivers from Realtek.

Yep, five hours after I e-mailed them, Realtek came back with a zipped package containing the March 29, 2011 driver source. Ignore the date in the filename; I base my date on the Readme and the Release note, which, incidentally, mentions fixing the "crash issue caused by LPS ps-poll and null tx desc wrong," this last being a staple of my syslog when the wireless goes down.

I haven't tried it yet, but that's my next attempt: 2.6.38 with the 0620.2011/March 29, 2011 Realtek drivers. Hopefully that will take care of things until Oneiric releases. I've attached the drivers in case they are helpful to others having the same issue.

----------


## hsoulen

> While waiting for Realtek to get back to me, I installed the 3.0 kernel (aka 2.6.40). I've been running using this kernel for around 9 hours with no problems. So the good news is that this will likely be fixed by the time Oneiric comes out. The not-so-bad news is that right now, I'm running on release candidate 4 of that particular Linux kernel, so they've had 3 candidates to review. I suspect this kernel is close to stable. The not-so-good-news is that these test kernels are not meant for every day use. I won't be getting kernel updates unless I add the kernels PPA to my APT repos, which is a scary idea. If this is the only way to go forward, so be it. But I'm going to test an alternative, which is the latest drivers from Realtek.
> 
> Yep, five hours after I e-mailed them, Realtek came back with a zipped package containing the March 29, 2011 driver source. Ignore the date in the filename; I base my date on the Readme and the Release note, which, incidentally, mentions fixing the "crash issue caused by LPS ps-poll and null tx desc wrong," this last being a staple of my syslog when the wireless goes down.
> 
> I haven't tried it yet, but that's my next attempt: 2.6.38 with the 0620.2011/March 29, 2011 Realtek drivers. Hopefully that will take care of things until Oneiric releases. I've attached the drivers in case they are helpful to others having the same issue.


I am also having the same issue with an RTL8192SE since moving to Natty. I also wrote to Realtek and they sent me the same driver... And then the _real_ fun began!

The zip contains driver source for several cards so be very careful when using "make install" as it will add driver modules for cards you do not have present.

So... You can edit the makefiles to trim out all but your drivers, or just delete the other sub-dirs and deal with the compile warnings/errors.

But for me, after successfully compiling this driver and getting it installed I get kernel panics on every boot. I have to boot to recovery kernel and get into single user mode, then manually rm the driver to be able to boot again. Sent logs to RT but have not heard back for a solution.

So for me the problem persists. Realtek drivers have been working pretty stable for me through 10.10 but on upgrade to 11.04 neither the Ubuntu kernel driver nor the Realtek driver are in any way reliable.

A beer for anyone who can get this card stable!

Hank

----------


## hackwater

> I am also having the same issue with an RTL8192SE since moving to Natty. I also wrote to Realtek and they sent me the same driver... And then the _real_ fun began!
> 
> The zip contains driver source for several cards so be very careful when using "make install" as it will add driver modules for cards you do not have present.
> 
> So... You can edit the makefiles to trim out all but your drivers, or just delete the other sub-dirs and deal with the compile warnings/errors.


Thanks for the warning. I'm going to try editing the main makefile under the theory that if it can't call the sub-directory's makefiles from that one, I should be OK for compilation purposes.



> But for me, after successfully compiling this driver and getting it installed I get kernel panics on every boot. I have to boot to recovery kernel and get into single user mode, then manually rm the driver to be able to boot again. Sent logs to RT but have not heard back for a solution.


I will hope that the June 20, 2011 date is somehow meaningful (i.e., they haven't updated their documentation in the Readme/Release notes), but if kernel panics ensue, I will continue using the 3.0 kernel and keep myself up-to-date as judiciously as possible, but sadly, manually.



> So for me the problem persists. Realtek drivers have been working pretty stable for me through 10.10 but on upgrade to 11.04 neither the Ubuntu kernel driver nor the Realtek driver are in any way reliable.
> 
> A beer for anyone who can get this card stable!


Somebody must have; it definitely works for me and one other guy using the 3.0 kernel. See this bug. He installed from the daily builds; I went more conservative and installed from the RC4 mainline build. I also had to update my module init tools with the Oneiric deb. So 4 debs total: the two header debs, the kernel imagte, and the module init tools, essentially following the recipe on the MainlineBuilds wiki page.

I've only had a couple of minor issues with 3.0 so far: it seems slower than 2.6.38, and I couldn't get it to see my printer until I powered the printer down, unplugged the USB cable, and plugged it back in on a different USB port, powering it back on. But the wireless has been going strong, so there's a half-baked solution there (certainly beats kernel panics).

Will report back later (or perhaps sooner, if kernel panic ensues) the results of compiling the driver I posted.

----------


## hsoulen

Thanks "hackwater".

Looks like your driver was actually newer then the one I got a week or so ago, must have been some changes since I sent in my feedback.


Edited the makefile to only look for RTL8192se



```
sudo su
make clean (force of habit)
make
make install
```

Compile went fine (no errors), module installed and after an init 6 it came up and sure enough wireless was enabled.

But... Now the box freezes up after a few seconds to a minute, before I can even connect to a network.

dmesg has no reference to what happens when it freezes, just stops logging, as the only change was this driver I am back to the drawing board. Hacking the driver out now  :Sad: 

Appreciate the effort, hopefully you will have better luck. I am on an Asus 1201n BTW.

Cheers,

Hank

----------


## hackwater

I booted back into the 2.6.38 kernel and put some load on my connection until it went down halfway through a 12 minute YouTube video. I then opened a terminal and

```
cd Downloads/realtek/kernel-module-source-directory
sudo su
rmmod r8192se_pci
make
make install
modprobe rtl8192se
```

Note the name change for the module. No kernel panics so far, and I've successfully watched various trailers on YouTube for execrable entertainment (the things I'll do for testing), as this sort of load has proven most successful in the past in bringing down my connection. Connection is still up. Gonna try a reboot and some more tests (aka YouTube vids).

----------


## hsoulen

Ok so decided not to give up on the new driver!

Hacked it out and went back to the drawing board.

Re-compiled, brought the driver up and did a bit of surfing. Rebooted (actually powered down) and it seems stable so far with no further freezes.

One thing I did do, I killed conky. I know this sounds strange but after watching when the freezing was happening I started to think it might be when conky started probing wlan0. Nothing empirical, simply a guess but so far so good.

Will report back should anything change, but for the moment it seems the driver that hackwater posted is working for me with kernel 2.6.38.

Thanks a bunch for the post, seems that RT took my kernel panics seriously!

Cheers,

Hank

----------


## hackwater

> Thanks "hackwater".


Call me Jose.


> Looks like your driver was actually newer then the one I got a week or so ago, must have been some changes since I sent in my feedback.


I was hoping this would be the case. Watching videos on ESPN to test my connection. No kernel panics on the way in to the desktop; none so far.


> Edited the makefile to only look for RTL8192se
> 
> Compile went fine (no errors), module installed and after an init 6 it came up and sure enough wireless was enabled.
> 
> But... Now the box freezes up after a few seconds to a minute, before I can even connect to a network.


First thing I've been firing up after boot (but before I connect to the Internet) is the terminal, live-tailing (tail -f) the syslog and dmesg. Messages in both logs have been sparse compared to when I was using the r8192se_pci module, which was a lot chattier, showing channels attempted and lots of benign AP connection info. I'm wondering if the new module is not as verbose or is diverting output elsewhere...


> dmesg has no reference to what happens when it freezes, just stops logging, as the only change was this driver I am back to the drawing board. Hacking the driver out now


Anything in syslog?


> Appreciate the effort, hopefully you will have better luck. I am on an Asus 1201n BTW


I'm on a Toshiba Satellite A500 from January 2010. Sounds like whatever change they made to the kernel module is conflicting with some other module. Wanna give the 3.0 kernel a go? Or post lspci -nnv, though with no dmesg/syslog output, I'm not sure how valuable that would be...

Best,

Jose

----------


## hackwater

Hank, fantastic news! Completely disregard my last message, which was obsoleted by your post three minutes before I posted. That's interesting about conky; I'm not sure where I'd file that bug, but a few revs of Ubuntu ago (maybe around Hardy or so), I ran into an issue where running powertop would freeze one of my machines. I shrugged and stopped trying to use it (bad developer; should have reported the bug...), but this sounds like something in the driver doesn't like external monitoring.

Best,

Jose

----------


## hsoulen

> Hank, fantastic news! Completely disregard my last message, which was obsoleted by your post three minutes before I posted. That's interesting about conky; I'm not sure where I'd file that bug, but a few revs of Ubuntu ago (maybe around Hardy or so), I ran into an issue where running powertop would freeze one of my machines. I shrugged and stopped trying to use it (bad developer; should have reported the bug...), but this sounds like something in the driver doesn't like external monitoring.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Jose


Thanks Jose, yeah I agree this driver is way less "chatty" I am not seeing all the channel and re-sync messages either.

So far so good without conky, I am going to have a look at the probing code to see if I can find anything funky, maybe the rate is too high but I am now 90% sure conky is the issue. I am going to take the monitor for wlan out and start it up again to see what happens.

For anyone using the rt8192se, give the driver Jose posted a go, seems to be a solid fix for now and much appreciated.

Cheers,

Hank

 :Guitar:

----------


## infinitylx

Hi Jose.

I have same problems with this ****** realtek (05:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8191SEvB Wireless LAN Controller (rev 10)).

I try to use your driver but i feild to compile it 




> /home/infinitylx/Downloads/rtl_92ce_92se_92de_linux_mac80211_0003.0620.2011 # make
> make -C /lib/modules/2.6.39.1-33-desktop/build M=/home/infinitylx/Downloads/rtl_92ce_92se_92de_linux_mac80211_0003.0620.2011 modules
> make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.39.1-33-obj/x86_64/desktop'
> make -C ../../../linux-2.6.39.1-33 O=/usr/src/linux-2.6.39.1-33-obj/x86_64/desktop/. modules
>   CC [M]  /home/infinitylx/Downloads/rtl_92ce_92se_92de_linux_mac80211_0003.0620.2011/base.o
> /home/infinitylx/Downloads/rtl_92ce_92se_92de_linux_mac80211_0003.0620.2011/base.c: In function ‘rtl_action_proc’:
> /home/infinitylx/Downloads/rtl_92ce_92se_92de_linux_mac80211_0003.0620.2011/base.c:840:25: error: ‘RX_FLAG_TSFT’ undeclared (first use in this function)
> /home/infinitylx/Downloads/rtl_92ce_92se_92de_linux_mac80211_0003.0620.2011/base.c:840:25: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
> make[4]: *** [/home/infinitylx/Downloads/rtl_92ce_92se_92de_linux_mac80211_0003.0620.2011/base.o] Error 1
> ...


Can you please help?

PS my kenrel is 2.6.39.1-33-desktop

----------


## hackwater

Custom kernel, eh?

According to this thread on linuxquestions.com, you're facing an incompatibility of the source code and your kernel version. The driver code is only good for kernels from 2.6.35 to 2.6.38, but to compile against the 2.6.39 (according to that thread), try

```
# sed -i 's|RX_FLAG_TSFT|RX_FLAG_MACTIME_MPDU|g' base.c rtl8192{ce,se,de}/trx.c
```

 before attempting to make the code. As it looks like you have the exact same chipset as me, you probably don't want to bother building the ce or de variants of the driver; you can edit the Makefile to accomplish this, or let me know and I can upload my modified Makefile. I have no idea if there are other kernel incompatibilities, but the thread I linked to seems to indicate this worked out OK.

Good luck!

Jose

----------


## infinitylx

> According to this thread on linuxquestions.com, you're facing an incompatibility of the source code and your kernel version. The driver code is only good for kernels from 2.6.35 to 2.6.38, but to compile against the 2.6.39 (according to that thread), try
> 
> ```
> # sed -i 's|RX_FLAG_TSFT|RX_FLAG_MACTIME_MPDU|g' base.c rtl8192{ce,se,de}/trx.c
> ```
> 
>  before attempting to make the code.
> 
> Good luck!


thx... seems to work now.

----------


## arif-ali

> While waiting for Realtek to get back to me, I installed the 3.0 kernel (aka 2.6.40). I've been running using this kernel for around 9 hours with no problems. So the good news is that this will likely be fixed by the time Oneiric comes out. The not-so-bad news is that right now, I'm running on release candidate 4 of that particular Linux kernel, so they've had 3 candidates to review. I suspect this kernel is close to stable. The not-so-good-news is that these test kernels are not meant for every day use. I won't be getting kernel updates unless I add the kernels PPA to my APT repos, which is a scary idea. If this is the only way to go forward, so be it. But I'm going to test an alternative, which is the latest drivers from Realtek.
> 
> Yep, five hours after I e-mailed them, Realtek came back with a zipped package containing the March 29, 2011 driver source. Ignore the date in the filename; I base my date on the Readme and the Release note, which, incidentally, mentions fixing the "crash issue caused by LPS ps-poll and null tx desc wrong," this last being a staple of my syslog when the wireless goes down.
> 
> I haven't tried it yet, but that's my next attempt: 2.6.38 with the 0620.2011/March 29, 2011 Realtek drivers. Hopefully that will take care of things until Oneiric releases. I've attached the drivers in case they are helpful to others having the same issue.


Nice one, I will give this a go on my laptop this evening, and will report back. Maybe worth creating a dkms modules for this so that we don't have to keep compiling it for kernel upgrades that natty will bring later as well.

FYI, I have been using natty with the 3.0.0 rc4 kernel from mainline, and that has been working really well for me.

----------


## hsoulen

Ahhhh well I spoke too soon.

About an hour after my last successful session, box locked up hard again.

Going through the logs to see if I can find the culprit but as this box was stable a few hours before the RT drivers I am going to assume the worst.

My quest for stable wireless in Natty continues. Gotta tell ya, this is one of those things, even if everything else is working it makes no difference if I have to hang a bloody USB dongle off the side of my laptop.

Distro-hunting continues until a solution is found. I might just have to live with yum (yuck).

*Edit*: Sure enough syslog shows NetworkManager wlan0 roamed from the BSSID and when it tried to reconnect BAM! hard-lock. After this first hard-lock the only way for me to get back to a proper boot (hard-lock within several seconds both in X and cli) is to turn off the card with the physical switch. Going to continue to debug and see where it gets me.

Cheers,

Hank

----------


## arif-ali

> Ahhhh well I spoke too soon.
> 
> About an hour after my last successful session, box locked up hard again.
> 
> Going through the logs to see if I can find the culprit but as this box was stable a few hours before the RT drivers I am going to assume the worst.
> 
> My quest for stable wireless in Natty continues. Gotta tell ya, this is one of those things, even if everything else is working it makes no difference if I have to hang a bloody USB dongle off the side of my laptop.
> 
> Distro-hunting continues until a solution is found. I might just have to live with yum (yuck).
> ...


You could instead try the kernel 3.0.0-0300rc4-generic from mainline in the meantime, which I have been using for a few weeks now without any problems (for me anyway), This has the relevant drivers already compiled in.

The only thing is that you will probably need a new version of module-init-tools, but it seems to work really well

----------


## hsoulen

> You could instead try the kernel 3.0.0-0300rc4-generic from mainline in the meantime, which I have been using for a few weeks now without any problems (for me anyway), This has the relevant drivers already compiled in.
> 
> The only thing is that you will probably need a new version of module-init-tools, but it seems to work really well


Did you install the mainline from some PPA, from the debs or from source? I am in dependency hell from the updated module-init-tools.

Cheers,

Hank

----------


## arif-ali

> Did you install the mainline from some PPA, from the debs or from source? I am in dependency hell from the updated module-init-tools.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Hank


I downloaded the module-init-tools from the following URL

http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu/pool...le-init-tools/

and then the relevant 3 files from

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa...0-rc4-oneiric/

i.e. 
linux-headers
linux-headers-generic
linux-image

Install all 4, and reboot, and it should work

Note: other 3rd party drivers had issues, so I would try to test the kernel on it's own entity first, and then  try any 3rd party drivers

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## kozimodo

> While waiting for Realtek to get back to me, I installed the 3.0 kernel (aka 2.6.40). I've been running using this kernel for around 9 hours with no problems. So the good news is that this will likely be fixed by the time Oneiric comes out. The not-so-bad news is that right now, I'm running on release candidate 4 of that particular Linux kernel, so they've had 3 candidates to review. I suspect this kernel is close to stable. The not-so-good-news is that these test kernels are not meant for every day use. I won't be getting kernel updates unless I add the kernels PPA to my APT repos, which is a scary idea. If this is the only way to go forward, so be it. But I'm going to test an alternative, which is the latest drivers from Realtek.
> 
> Yep, five hours after I e-mailed them, Realtek came back with a zipped package containing the March 29, 2011 driver source. Ignore the date in the filename; I base my date on the Readme and the Release note, which, incidentally, mentions fixing the "crash issue caused by LPS ps-poll and null tx desc wrong," this last being a staple of my syslog when the wireless goes down.
> 
> I haven't tried it yet, but that's my next attempt: 2.6.38 with the 0620.2011/March 29, 2011 Realtek drivers. Hopefully that will take care of things until Oneiric releases. I've attached the drivers in case they are helpful to others having the same issue.


The attached drivers compile and load fine but cannot get a connection. I also tried the 3.0 kernel (rc1 since that is what is in the ppa) and get a panic on boot.

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## kozimodo

Ah, I see that there are more recent rc's.  rc5 seems to be working great for me so far.  Will know more tomorrow.

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## hsoulen

> I downloaded the module-init-tools from the following URL
> 
> http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/ubuntu/pool...le-init-tools/
> 
> and then the relevant 3 files from
> 
> http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa...0-rc4-oneiric/
> 
> i.e. 
> ...


Thanks a bunch.

Will have a look, probably need the newest Nvidia drivers from the oneiric PPA otherwise not too many custom drivers.

I have to think about other distros to be honest, I realize this is not Ubuntu's "fault" but the fact that I had stable wireless for several versions and then all of a sudden I don't is frustrating, especially considering that the drivers were added to the kernel but apparently with little testing outside a WEP connection at 54Mb.

I'll keep posting as I go and let you all know my results.

Thanks for all the support.

Hank

----------


## kozimodo

I can confirm that the 3.0 rc4 and rc5 kernels work much better but I still regularly, although less frequently, get deauths so that instead if being unusable, it is now only annoying.

The 3.0 kernel has other problems for me.  There are some boot up warnings/errors and mounting USB drives is broken.

Toshiba L675-S7107.

----------


## thejpster

I am currently using the driver from compat-wireless-3.0-rc4-1.tar.bz2. It passes the YouTube test and I've been happily surfing for a few hours without issue.



```
me@laptop:~$ modinfo rtl8192se
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.38-8-generic/updates/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8192se/rtl8192se.ko
firmware:       rtlwifi/rtl8192sefw.bin
description:    Realtek 8192S/8191S 802.11n PCI wireless
license:        GPL
author:         Realtek WlanFAE	<wlanfae@realtek.com>
author:         lizhaoming	<chaoming_li@realsil.com.cn>
srcversion:     937F4C8CF0D06038BBDF950

me@laptop:~$ uname -a
Linux Satellite-L500 2.6.38-8-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Mon Apr 11 03:31:50 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
```

----------


## hsoulen

Just thought I would post my final results.

Anyone out there with a draft n router (in my case Belkin) you WILL have issues with the 8192/92se cards in Linux.

After countless hours wasted the Belkin/Realtek combo just does not work. I can get a more stable connection if I set my router to WPA Personal TKIP (not WPA2 AES) and to a/b/g (no n) but still flaky, not to mention the Belkin will ONLY connect at n speeds if you use WPA2/AES anyway...

Solution for me was to grab an old Linksys 54g router, load dd-wrt on it and run it in bridge mode to my Belkin, that way all my other n devices can connect to the Belkin SSID and get full n speed and my Linux box can connect at g speeds to the Linksys on another SSID.

Crappy solution to be sure as the same card in Windows connects at n with no issues or drops, my opinion is that draft n (not sure about n in general) with the WPA/AES combo is just not stable in Linux but this is conjecture.

Also decided to move to another Distro on this box, not just because of this issue but a few others as well. But have no fear you are all still stuck with me anyway as I have four other Ubuntu boxes in the house.

Cheers,

Hank

----------


## kozimodo

> I am currently using the driver from compat-wireless-3.0-rc4-1.tar.bz2. It passes the YouTube test and I've been happily surfing for a few hours without issue.


So far so good with compat-wireless-3.0-rc4-1.tar.bz2 as well.

----------


## milesmonk

> So far so good with compat-wireless-3.0-rc4-1.tar.bz2 as well.


Can confirm that this has worked great for me so far.  

However, I did need to add an entry saying "modprobe rtl8192se" to /etc/modules to make it load automatically.

----------


## GiladGressel

Hi,
glad to hear something is working again.
Can someone give me easy to follow directions for how to use the driver found in that tarbal?

i browsed the compat site and am more confused than before.  

thanks
-gilad

----------


## chili555

> Hi,
> glad to hear something is working again.
> Can someone give me easy to follow directions for how to use the driver found in that tarbal?
> 
> i browsed the compat site and am more confused than before.  
> 
> thanks
> -gilad


Would you please start a new thread? I'm working a hunch here and, if it doesn't work out, we can build compat-wireless pretty easily. Please post in your thread:

```
lspci -nn | grep 0280
```

----------


## thejpster

Performed some updates and rebooted to find I had no wifi. Oh, look, a kernel update. Here we go again.

cd ~/compat-wireless-3.0-rc4-1
make clean
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe -r rtl8192se
sudo modprobe rtl8192se

Phew. Good job I didn't delete that tarball  :Wink:  Can't wait until this driver goes mainstream.

Using this driver I haven't had any drop outs in the last two weeks, and it's much faster and more reliable at connecting than ndiswrapper was.

----------


## Glowbeard

I have the RTL8191SEvB chip and after upgrading to the most recent Realtek drivers and switching my routers security from WPA to WEP authentication I was able to get the wireless working.

Y-A-Y

----------


## thejpster

Just to add, the driver baked into to Kernel 3.0.0 in Ubuntu 11.10 works fine. No more backports for me.

----------

