Arch Linux

whereareyouall

Member

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 13

[WORKAROUND] Realtek 8192e NOT working after kernel update to 3.0

And here it is again ... issues with realtek wireless chipsets. (I have lost count of the time I spent making those work)

In this case, the problem is - again - with a realtek 8192e (on a samsung n510). With kernel 2.6.39 I already had the problem that the firmware shipped in the firmware package did not work properly. With that old kernel I was able to get the system working by copying over the firmware files from a newer driver package provided by Realtek.
Since the update to kernel 3.0 the chipset does not do anything. Initially it loaded not only the 8192e module, but the 8192se module as well (a problem well known to me). I unloaded all modules, waited, and reloaded the r8192e_pci module only. But - dmesg still gives:

 rtl819xE:ERR in CPUcheck_firmware_ready()
 rtl819xE:ERR in init_firmware() step 2
 rtl819xE:ERR!!! _rtl8192_up(): initialization is failed!

The problem is that this time I cannot obtain a newer firmware from realtek this time, since the whole driver is supposed to be included since kernel 2.6.xx (something like 2.6.36, I think). So - please help ....

Thanks a lot in advance :-)

Last edited by whereareyouall (2011-10-25 12:40:53)

Gusar

Member

Registered: 2009-08-25

Posts: 3,606

Re: [WORKAROUND] Realtek 8192e NOT working after kernel update to 3.0

What are the chances that your wireless card is now actually covered by the 8192se driver? Have you tried that?

In any case, post the output of "lscpi -nn" so we'll know exactly which card you have.

whereareyouall

Member

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 13

Re: [WORKAROUND] Realtek 8192e NOT working after kernel update to 3.0

thanks for the quick answer ...

It really is a RTL 8192e ... the output of lspci -nn:

03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8192E Wireless LAN Controller [10ec:8192] (rev 01) 

And yes, I tried to use the 8192se driver exclusively - to no avail. If I load the 8192e driver, an appropriate device is at least installed (wlan0) which cannot do anything (no scanning, no connecting ...). When using the rtl8192se driver nothing happens at all - except the idle module appearing, of course.

I was wondering about another thing: if anybody has a working 8192e installation - does the module load the cfg80211 module? Strangely enough this dependency apparently only appears if the module is successfully loaded, since loading r8192e_pci does not load that module automatically.

Thanks again :-)

EDIT: Sorry, I completely forgot: 32bit installation

Last edited by whereareyouall (2011-10-12 18:47:50)

Gusar

Member

Registered: 2009-08-25

Posts: 3,606

Re: [WORKAROUND] Realtek 8192e NOT working after kernel update to 3.0

Holy eff, they have a device whose ID actually is 8192? LOL. Makes searching really not easy. All I know is, the 8192se driver claims it does support this card, but I have no direct experience with Realtek wireless cards. I have experience with pretty much all other wireless card vendors, but not Realtek. Which is kinda weird, as I encounter their wired chips all the time, the very computer I'm typing this on has one

Aakko

Member

Registered: 2007-10-23

Posts: 65

Re: [WORKAROUND] Realtek 8192e NOT working after kernel update to 3.0

The quality of r8192e driver is terrible. I've lost hope that Realtek will ever make it stable. The driver has been on Kernel's staging drivers for years.

r8192e on my Samsung N310 works with 3.0 Kernel. Though I usually get those firmware loading errors when loading the driver. I have to reload the module few times before it starts working:

modprobe -r r8192e_pci
modprobe r8192e_pci
ifconfig wlan0 up

Also the driver doesn't work after I resume from suspend. I have to reload it manually.

whereareyouall

Member

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 13

Re: [WORKAROUND] Realtek 8192e NOT working after kernel update to 3.0

Well, yes .... the strange thing is it did work with kernel 2.6.36 quite nicely. I had to manually copy the firmware from the new realtek-driver but it did work properly ....

So, I am about to try two things:

• downgrading to the last 2.6.xx kernel

• recompiling the kernel manually (both 3.0 first, and if it doesn't help, 2.6xx second)

I will relate my results in a couple of days .... until then ...

and @Gusar:

but I have no direct experience with Realtek wireless cards. I have experience with pretty much all other wireless card vendors, but not Realtek.

Lucky you ... sometimes they work out-of-the-box. If not ....

Last edited by whereareyouall (2011-10-25 12:17:38)

whereareyouall

Member

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 13

Re: [WORKAROUND] Realtek 8192e NOT working after kernel update to 3.0

Well, that was quick. I kind of found a solution which makes the Realtekt 8192e work stable once more (or in my case, work at all) ...

The point is - it is not really a solution, instead more of a workaround: downgrading and compiling the shipped driver package.

The steps:

• obtain the rtl8192e_linux_2.6.xxxx.tar.gz package (rtl8192e_linux_2.6.0015.1013.2010.tar.gz in my case). You can find it on the net or just contact the realtek support. They just might give it to you.

• install the kernel26-lts package (kernel 2.6 with Long Term Support) by doing the following step (naturally, only install the nvidia package if you really use a nvidia graphics card):

  pacman -S kernel26-lts kernel26-lts-headers nvidia-lts

• create a grub entry looking like:

  # (2) Arch Linux 2
  title Arch Linux kernel 2.6.xx LTS
  root   (hdX,X)
  kernel /vmlinuz26-lts root=/dev/sdXX ro
  initrd /kernel26-lts.img

  by simply copying the old entry for kernel 3.0 and attaching the -lts where it is needed

• blacklist any incompatible module. create a file like /etc/modprobe.d/r8192x-blacklist.conf and enter (where the first entry drops the kernel 2.6 shipped module and the second the incompatible 8192se driver):

  blacklist r8192_pci
  blacklist rtl8192se

• reboot into the 2.6 lts kernel

• enter the unzipped package and type

  make && make install

Well ... these steps work for me quite well.

When I have time I will look into self-built 3.0 kernels or into editing the Realtek driver to be compiled on kernel 3.0 .... but really not right now.

Have fun