Realtek wireless

Mike Chambers · #1 11th May 2008, 04:34 PM

Bought a gateway laptop that using realtek for both wired and wireless. Wired is detected, but wireless is not. I tried getting the vista realtek inf/sys files and use ndiswrapper but NetworkManager still didn't seem to recognize it or pick it up. And it seems this driver is connected via usb inside the laptop? lsusb shows the driver listed.

http://www.gateway.com/systems/produ....php#techspecs (if the link doesn't work, it's a Gateway M-1625 Pacific Blue laptop).

Should this be recognized out of the box or do I need to jump a couple of hoops to get it to work? Have used Fedora/Red Hat for years, just not on a laptop. Have F9 (rawhide as of today actually) to install but want to wait before trying again. It seems gateway didn't like me resizing the partition and installing linux on the other end. I would rather have dual boot, but will either add an external HD for linux or install linux 100% and not have to worry about windows.

Any thoughts/ideas?

bbfuller · #2 11th May 2008, 06:08 PM

Hello Mike Chambers

Not sure if I'll be able to help, but at least this question and your response will bring you back to the top of the list a couple of times.

I think you'll need to specify just what realtek chipset you laptop uses to get much help. I'd normally say use:

Code:

/sbin/lspci

to get that, but if it's a usb device soldered to the mainboard then:

Code:

/sbin/lsusb

should give you an output like:

Quote:

[bbfuller@atx17 Desktop]$ /sbin/lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04cc:1520 Philips Semiconductors
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04b4:6560 Cypress Semiconductor Corp. CY7C65640 USB-2.0 "TetraHub"
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

The interesting bit will be the eight characters separated by a colon after the "ID" for your device.

If you do an internet search using those it may well lead you to an identity of your device.

How far have you gone with ndiswrapper?

Did:

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

reveal that it had found your card?

Have you added the required alias to modprobe.conf?

I assume you are using Fedora 8 and 32 bit?

Just spotted one other oops! Ndiswrapper is very unfriendly to Vista drivers so I hear. See if you can get XP drivers and try with those.

Mike Chambers · #3 11th May 2008, 06:52 PM

RTL8187B is the chip and yes to get it I had to us lsusb. Using F9 (current rawhide) and 32 bit . ndiswrapper -l did show the driver was ready/installed. But I didn't add it modprobe.conf. Could you show example, like alias wlan0 drivernamehere? Not sure what the driver name for that would show me.

bbfuller · #4 11th May 2008, 07:25 PM

Hello Mike Chambers

Here are the generic notes I use for ndiswrapper in Fedora. Don't forget what I said about ndiswrapper and Vista drivers at the end of my last post.

Quote:

Acquire full root rights with:

Code:

su -

That's a space and a minus sign after the su. It gives full root rights over the machine, not just over your own environment which is what you get with plain su.

Code:

ndiswrapper -i <path to your windows driver file>.inf

should install the driver,

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

if it is going to work should return "hardware present"

Code:

modprobe ndiswrapper

should load the driver into the kernel, but probably only until you reboot.

If you are lucky now and NetworkManager is running then after a short while it 'may' begin reporting wireless networks. NetworkManager is the preferred method of connecting to wireless networks with Fedora and should be located on the top Gnome Panel to the right in the notification area.

If it's not there, "Gnome System Menu - Administration - Services" will give you the opportunity to start it, set it to start at boot time and save the changes.

If it works, or indeed if it doesn't you will also need to run:

Code:

ndiswrapper -ma

and then edit the file:

Quote:

/etc/modprobe.conf

as root and add the line:

Code:

alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

to it.

With that all in place, reboot the computer to get the alias recognised and open "Gnome System Menu - Administration - Network", highlight your wlan0 entry, click "Edit" and make sure now that it is set NOT to "Activate device when computer starts" but that if it is there, "Controlled by NetworkManager" is ticked. That last item will only be in place if your machine is currently fairly up to date.

Reboot and try connecting again.

If you have problems during that process I'll be looking for questions.

#5 11th May 2008, 07:53 PM

Hi Mike

I'm using F8 on a Gateway MT6705, it also has rtl8187b wifi chip with ID=0x8189. It works fine for me with driver from ATrpms.net repository (http://atrpms.net/dist/f8/rtl8187/), the only drawback is that I need to restart wpa-supplicant service every time I boot to Fedora, as I use WPA2-encryption.

Mike Chambers · #6 13th May 2008, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4z0smq20kk

Hi Mike

I'm using F8 on a Gateway MT6705, it also has rtl8187b wifi chip with ID=0x8189. It works fine for me with driver from ATrpms.net repository (http://atrpms.net/dist/f8/rtl8187/), the only drawback is that I need to restart wpa-supplicant service every time I boot to Fedora, as I use WPA2-encryption.

I have added this driver, but it connects randomly, so not sure it does like it should. I haven't totally tried the ndiswrapper scenario yet, but don't know how consistant it would be compared to using the module from above.

Anyone else ever compared or can say how consistant ndiswrapper is?

Mike Chambers · #7 15th May 2008, 08:37 AM

Well, I have following the instructions above as per adding/using ndiswrapper and to no avail. It shows as being installed but for some reason it's won't even try to start. At least with the actually 3rd party driver it attempted to anyway, whereas with ndiswrapper it won't. Actually, now it is locking up and not sure why. Will have to look into that, as it won' get through rhgb without locking up for some reason.

bbfuller · #8 15th May 2008, 09:32 AM

Hello Mike Chambers

I suspect that if you have both ndiswrapper and the rtl8187 kernel module loading on your machine then you will have trouble.

If you still want to use ndiswrapper then I would try blacklisting the rtl 8187.

That's only going to help if you can get the machine booted though. You would run the commad:

Code:

/sbin/lsmod

to ascertain the actual name of the rtl8187 module that is being loaded. It may be rtl8a87, but that is not guaranteed In point of fact:

Code:

/sbin/lsmod | grep rtl

would narrow the search down but only if the module name starts "rtl".

Then you would add a line reading:

Code:

blacklist rtl8187

or whatever module name you found to the file:

Code:

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

On the other hand, if you want to keep rtl8187 and discard ndiswrapper you can probably blacklist that in the same way.

Mike Chambers · #9 19th May 2008, 05:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbfuller

Hello Mike Chambers

I suspect that if you have both ndiswrapper and the rtl8187 kernel module loading on your machine then you will have trouble.

If you still want to use ndiswrapper then I would try blacklisting the rtl 8187.

That's only going to help if you can get the machine booted though. You would run the commad:

Code:

/sbin/lsmod

to ascertain the actual name of the rtl8187 module that is being loaded. It may be rtl8a87, but that is not guaranteed In point of fact:

Code:

/sbin/lsmod | grep rtl

would narrow the search down but only if the module name starts "rtl".

Then you would add a line reading:

Code:

blacklist rtl8187

or whatever module name you found to the file:

Code:

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

On the other hand, if you want to keep rtl8187 and discard ndiswrapper you can probably blacklist that in the same way.

Got that all accomplished, but when NM tries to start, laptop freezes up. I don't know why but it and this laptop don't want to cooexist. Guess gonna have to wait for a driver that works to show up. That, or buy a wireless network card and use it if not cheap.

Intel works?

bbfuller · #10 19th May 2008, 10:02 AM

Hello Mike Chambers

Given the ease of reinstalling Fedora, I might consider doing a fresh installation and then trying ndiswrapper again. You've tried several ways of connecting now and it could be some left over remnants that are causing your machine to freeze. My worry would be that if you purchased a new card it would be no better given the current state of the operating system.

If you do go for a new card your options are going to be determined by what sockets you have and how you disable the onboard wireless. You may find an option for that in the bios but then you would need to use the external card in Windows also.

As you machine seems to have a USB interface built in for its wireless I don't know if the first option applies to you. I prefer to see if there is a panel on the bottom of the laptop that reveals a mini-pci or mini-pci-express slot holding the current card and replace that. Might invalidate your warranty though.

Then there is a USB dongle.

Third option is a PCMCIA card.

I've bought several over the past few weeks mostly Atheros based cards and I've used e-bay. Even then the task isn't straightforward. There are problems with some Atheros 5007 cards, and some that advertise themselves as 5006 but are really misrepresented 5007's.

Even then, for best performance you would probably disable the 'ath5k' module built into Fedora and download the 'madwifi' modules in its place. The Atheros I've played with really work brilliantly when I've done that.

If you can find an external Intel card then they usually work pretty well also.

Broadcom cards based around the 4306, 4311 and 4318 chipsets seem to work well.

I usually pay around 10 British pounds for my cards and I guess that translates to about 20 Dollars.

All a bit nebulous I'm afraid. If you want to go into any more depth on any of that, post back and we'll discuss it some more.

Mike Chambers · #11 19th May 2008, 05:50 PM

Ok, did a complete reinstall with default selections. Got ndiwrapper installed, and the driver (used realteks driver from their site) from the winxp part. Got that all setup and driver recognized by ndiswrapper. ndiswrapper seems to load on boot (modprobe ndiswrapper in my /etc/rc.local) and the driver is recognized by wlan0 (alias wlan0 ndiswrapper in my /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper file). Everything seems to be OK, cept it JUST WON'T CONNECT!! (Ok, not yelling or throwing stuff, just frustrated but did laugh as I typed that haha). It's not freezing or anything, desktop logs on and everything, just will NOT connect to my router. iwlist wlan0 scan shows the router. I use wpa2 and the password is correct. IP/route/gateway/dns is all correct.

Now, can I use wpa1/2 with ndiswrapper at all? Am I limitied? I have seen it come back to me via WEP asking for key and such, wondering if wpa2 can't be used by it?

Or someone look at their settings (service config netowrk and no it's not running) and tell me what in my ifcfg-wlan0 file should contain, compared to what the NetworkManager settings should contain so they don't overlap or something? Wondering if it might work but just need to make sure proper settings are where they need to be?

Thanks for the help so far.

bbfuller · #12 19th May 2008, 07:17 PM

Hello Mike Chambers

I note that you have the alias command in your /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper file. However for Fedora that is not usually enough. That relies on the alias being in /etc/modprobe.conf

I'm not sure that will make any difference though as you have got as far as you have.

I presume you've done all the usual Fedora stuff of setting the card not to "activate at startup" in Network Configuration and are trying to control it with NetworkManager?

It would be interesting if you can to see if you match my experience of ndiswrapper with my broadcom 4306 based card.

With that combination, if I take encryption off my network altogether I can connect. If I up the encryption to WEP I can still connect, what I can't do is connect using WPA or higher.

Same card works perfectly using the b43 built in driver for that sort of card though.

You "may" find that if you try different drivers you get somewhere. Ndiswrapper doesn't treat all Windows drivers equally

Mike Chambers · #13 19th May 2008, 08:57 PM

I did have to add "modprobe ndiswrapper" to rc.local file. And yes I did the "not start at boot" thing and the "let NM control it" thing as well. I have tried now without any security at all and with and neither worked. I went to try the WinME driver and laptop froze. So gonna have to narrow the drivers down on what is at least recognized.

Anyway, got a factory cd coming so can restore to factory settings, so at least it's running like it suppose to until something better comes along. Might even sell it to my mom as she might be getting one. Then might look into later getting one better supported out of box.

bbfuller · #14 19th May 2008, 10:26 PM

Hello Mike Chambers

I'm still not too sure why you are adding entries to /etc/rc.local

I don't think it will make any difference to the outcome you are getting, but if you have to install ndiswrapper on Fedora again, you might as well at least have the standard Fedora way of doing it.

Quote:

This is the generic instruction set for installing your windows driver with ndiswrapper:

Acquire full root rights with:

Code:

su -

That's a space and a minus sign after the su. It gives full root rights over the machine, not just over your own environment which is what you get with plain su.

Code:

ndiswrapper -i <path to your windows driver file>.inf

should install the driver,

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

if it is going to work should return "hardware present"

Code:

modprobe ndiswrapper

should load the driver into the kernel, but probably only until you reboot.

If you are lucky now and NetworkManager is running then after a short while it 'may' begin reporting wireless networks. NetworkManager is the preferred method of connecting to wireless networks with Fedora and should be located on the top Gnome Panel to the right in the notification area.

If it's not there, "Gnome System Menu - Administration - Services" will give you the opportunity to start it, set it to start at boot time and save the changes.

If it works, or indeed if it doesn't you will also need to run:

Code:

ndiswrapper -ma

and then edit the file:

Quote:

/etc/modprobe.conf

as root and add the line:

Code:

alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

to it.

With that all in place, reboot the computer to get the alias recognised and open "Gnome System Menu - Administration - Network", highlight your wlan0 entry, click "Edit" and make sure now that it is set NOT to "Activate device when computer starts" but that if it is there, "Controlled by NetworkManager" is ticked. That last item will only be in place if your machine is currently fairly up to date.

If you should go for another laptop I can tell you that I took delivery of a Dell today with the Intel 4965 wireless chipset and it worked straight out of the box, as did my previous laptop with an Intel 3945.

There are a few manufacturers who are beginning to specify exactly what wireless is in their machines and that was one of the reasons I went for the Dell.

Mike Chambers · #15 20th May 2008, 07:23 AM

Ok, the reason for adding modprobe ndiswrapper to rc.local, is because when you run ndiswrapper -ma it automatically adds alias wlan0 ndiswrapper to my /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper file. But I never saw ndiswrapper loaded as a module (should I? , at least according to lsmod. But adding it to rc.local, then it being associated with wlan0 via the alias, it is recognized and stuff (I guess). Just doesn't connect is all.

I can always reinstall, that is no biggie, but if anyone wants to ssh into it (I can set that up via wired) and wants to see what I have set, I don't care. A reinstall and stuff is no biggie, and will just use a different root password during the look adn not my real one. Just let me know.