You are not logged in.

#1 2011-07-04 11:53:11

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

[Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

The built-in wireless adaptor (based on ath5k) of my Acer Aspire One is really flaky (disappears completely after anywhere between 30 seconds and an hour), so I decided to buy a USB wireless-N adaptor, to get some stability and take advantage of my wireless-N router. After plugging it in and booting, it wasn't listed. This was due to the custom kernel I use (kernel-netbook, from the AUR) not having it compiled. So I recompiled it, selecting all the Realtek entries as modules. I rebooted into the new kernel, but still it wasn't discovered. I've tried using modprobe to load the drivers in (one by one, as the RTL8188SU doesn't actually have a driver by it's name, so I tried all the Realtek ones, rebooting in between), but still no luck - it's still not appearing under ifconfig.

I'm pretty noob when it comes to troubleshooting, but I'm learning. Just need a few pointers smile
What do I have to do to get it to appear in ifconfig? Do I have to blacklist my ath5k (can't see why, it's possible to have more than one wireless adaptor, surely??)

Edit: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dow … =true#2282
If I understand this correctly, the driver isn't in the kernel and I need to download this?? sad

Last edited by chemicalfan (2011-07-23 19:23:59)

Offline

#2 2011-07-05 11:30:40

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Hmm, looking at various posts on the Ubuntu forums (eg. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1425697), it's a bit of a nightmare to get these wifi chipsets playing ball. Is the advice given on the Ubuntu forums still applicable for Arch? The configure/make/make install chain will be, but how about the config & blacklisting stuff? I can't believe there isn't a module included in the kernel!

Offline

#3 2011-07-05 12:56:15

lukaszan
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 117

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Compiling and module blacklisting will be the same for Arch (and any other *NIX).

Instead of doing configure/make/install manually, put it into a simple PKGBUILD and use makepkg to create a pacman package. You will be able to uninstall/upgrade it later on.

Offline

#4 2011-07-06 08:35:04

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Ok, the website links wouldn't open so I checked the AUR, which had an out-of-date PKGBUILD for the firmware, but it failed to compile sad
Something about "cannot find smp_lock.h" after it enters my kernel's source directory. I'm using a custom kernel, but the headers for it are also installed so I don't understand what the issue is? I'll post up the actual traceback tonight if it'll help?

I think I might e-mail Realtek, as according to the Ubuntu forum posts, they're pretty good when it comes to customer support

Offline

#5 2011-07-06 10:06:51

lukaszan
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 117

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

The error you get is because you are trying to compile outdated AUR on 2.6.39 kernel.

I'm at work now so I can't be more specific but you can try a couple of things:
- compile against 2.6.38.x
- try and update AUR PKGBUILD to use newer firmware version
- if there is no newer version try and patch the firmware sources (google for big kernel lock issues)

Offline

#6 2011-07-06 13:26:42

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Hmm, not keen on compiling against an earlier kernel (unless I can still use on my current kernel?)

Not sure about updating the PKGBUILD - the firmware would be obtained from the Realtek website presumably, and it wasn't working properly yesterday! If it were, I wouldn't have bothered with AUR! lol

Offline

#7 2011-07-06 16:00:55

lukaszan
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 117

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

The version of firmware to be downloaded from website is specified in PKGBUILD. You said it's outdated so there may be newer versions available. Check on Realtek website, update version in PKGBUILD, and try to compile that.

Can't gurantee it will work though.

Offline

#8 2011-07-07 07:59:29

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Yeah, the issue is the Realtek website doesn't work (clicking the download link doesn't do anything).
I'm at work at the moment, so can't check, but I think the PKGBUILD links to an FTP site, so I'll see if I can navigate it later, maybe I can find the new version.

Grr, why aren't these things in the kernel?? I thought wireless under Linux was no longer an issue!!! It's like stepping back 3 years sad

Offline

#9 2011-07-20 08:52:15

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Ok, just found out from the Debian wiki (http://wiki.debian.org/rtl819x), that the r8192s_usb driver was superseeded and removed from kernel 2.6.37 (whether this is Debian specific, I'm not sure) - I'm running 2.6.39, so it's not in my kernel. It's apparently been replaced by r8712u, which should be in the kernel, so I'm confused why I'm still having trouble? Would the command be "modprobe r8712u", or something different?

Edit: Ok, according to this - http://www.archlinux.org/packages/core/ … -firmware/ - the driver is included in this package, which I installed a couple of days ago. It's listed as "lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin", so.......how do I get it working?

Last edited by chemicalfan (2011-07-20 09:05:40)

Offline

#10 2011-07-20 21:34:58

MoonSwan
Member
From: Great White North
Registered: 2008-01-23
Posts: 881

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Is the driver listed in the output of "lscpci" or "lsusb" ?  Is the firmware listed in either of those too?  If yes, that means it's using the firmware supplied.

I have a usb D-Link WUA-160 (a usb device) and I too need firmware in the same directory.  Fortunately they did that recently so I no longer need to supply my own firmware from the d-link site.  Can you issue a iwlist scan ?  If that works you're halfway there.  After that just use whatever you use to connect to the net.

Offline

#11 2011-07-21 08:01:39

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

It shows up under lsusb (although I thought that listed everything anyway, regardless of driver status?), but it doesn't have a wlanX interface, so I can't do an iwlist scan sad

Offline

#12 2011-07-21 09:33:00

lukaszan
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 117

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Yeah, lspci will give you a list of connected devices. Nothing to do with their respective drivers.

The firmware should be loaded with the driver. Load the driver and post output of

tail /var/log/kernel.log

EDIT: or even

dmesg | tail

Posted on android initially, no | there...

Last edited by lukaszan (2011-07-21 15:01:58)

Offline

#13 2011-07-21 12:15:56

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

I'm at work at the moment, I'll give it a go tonight smile

Offline

#14 2011-07-21 20:49:57

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Ok, if I understand from the file list of linux-firmware, the driver name is "rtlwifi", which I was able to modprobe successfully (it didn't throw any errors anyway). However, it hasn't altered dmesg at all. Rmmod followed by another modprobe didn't make a difference either. It hasn't created an interface under ifconfig or iwconfig, so I still can iwscan.

It's listed under lsmod now though, hmm. More help please!! smile

Offline

#15 2011-07-21 20:58:49

lukaszan
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 117

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

rtlwifi is not your driver then...

EDIT: In your earlier post you said yourself that your driver is r8192s_usb. An uber-quick google got me the same result. Load that driver instead of rtlwifi (where did that come from?).

Last edited by lukaszan (2011-07-21 21:02:27)

Offline

#16 2011-07-21 21:13:20

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

rtlwifi came from the file list of linux-firmware (in an earlier post, I referenced a Debian article about the superseeded driver), the rtl8172u.bin file is under rtlwifi, so I made an assumption.

Anyway, I managed to get the new driver from Realtek's website (I guessed they fixed their issue...). However, I'm still bumping into "smp_lock.h" issues when compiling. The header file definitely isn't under /usr/linux/linux-2.6.39-netbook/include/linux/ so I'm gonna head back to my kernel maintainer and see what they say. I don't suppose I could just copy that file from the old stock header into that folder? Or would that just create more trouble than it's worth?

Edit: Hold on, is it missing because I'm using BFS CPU scheduler?

Last edited by chemicalfan (2011-07-21 21:15:47)

Offline

#17 2011-07-21 21:27:34

lukaszan
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 117

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Sorry, I misread your older post. So what about:

modprobe rtl8172u

?

Offline

#18 2011-07-21 21:40:39

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

FATAL: Module rtl8172u not found.

Looks like the module isn't on the system, and I can't compile it with my current headers. Kinda stuck sad

Edit: So, it's in the kernel source under /drivers/staging/rtl8712. What is staging, and how do I use it? The only file under it is Kconfig, which is pretty brief

Edit 2: AGH!! Here's a big clue as to why I'm struggling - in /boot/kconfig-netbook, there's a line:

.....
# CONFIG_R8712U is not set
.......

Looks like a kernel recompile is on the cards....

Last edited by chemicalfan (2011-07-21 21:58:24)

Offline

#19 2011-07-22 09:55:20

lukaszan
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 117

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Off top my head staging drivers are the ones outside main kernel tree, community maintained (or something like that anyway smile ).

If it's supported in the kernel than great! Just have to enable it and recompile the kernel.

Offline

#20 2011-07-22 11:12:35

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Right, so they still figure in the kernel config, but aren't maintained by Linus & the gang?
I'm gonna try recompiliing tonight, I'll post back after that

Offline

#21 2011-07-22 20:01:21

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Ok, kernel recompiled, module now loading during boot (as per dmesg), and appears under lsmod. No sign of it under 'ifconfig -a' though, have I missed a trick? Where's the interface?

Offline

#22 2011-07-22 21:41:21

lukaszan
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 117

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Relevant dmesg please.

EDIT: ifconfig won't show your interface until you actually bring it up. Try iwconfig instead.

Last edited by lukaszan (2011-07-22 21:46:59)

Offline

#23 2011-07-23 19:23:29

chemicalfan
Member
From: United Kingdom
Registered: 2011-05-25
Posts: 58

Re: [Solved] Realtek RTL8188SU wireless USB - not listed in ifconfig

Ok, it's now working! All I did was compile Chromium (what difference does that make???) in a terminal (outside of X), and after a reboot its' working!

Now, it's taken wlan0, which was previously where the internal ath5k interface used to sit. I haven't blacklisted it, so I guess it's done it automatically? Or have I just got lucky on this boot? Anyway, it's working at the moment so I count this as solved - thanks for all your help on this smile

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB