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#1 2012-08-24 05:30:16

Shinto
Member
Registered: 2012-07-27
Posts: 78

[SOLVED] Thinkpad Edge E525 rtl8192ce unstable WLAN connection

Hello,

yesterday I did a fresh Arch install on my new Lenovo Thinkpad Edge R525.
Wireless did cause trouble during install all the time, being unstable, not dhcp'ing, etc.
Somehow I got my KDE desktop nontheless. lol

Now I'm using the Networkmanager and added it to /etc/rc.conf.

Yesterday evening wireless was working and it connected automatically on boot.

Now 10minutes ago I started up my laptop and it won't connect anymore.
The driver is still loaded, wlan0 is active, but it can't find any Access Points.

All I did was disabling the power options like here https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1149844
But that was when I first started wireless connection, so I can't see how it should affect the current situation.

It's frustating to have no working internet on my laptop. sad

I'm using the current kernel from core.
Could upgrading to the kernel from testing solve the issue?

The module for my wireless card is rtl8192ce.

Last edited by Shinto (2012-09-23 14:10:33)

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#2 2012-08-27 05:47:56

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Edge E525 rtl8192ce unstable WLAN connection

You have any logs that might be relevant?  Also, did you by chance try using something else to connect like wicd?  If all the automated appreaches fail, see if doing it manually works  like so

# wpa_passphrase ESSID "YourKey" > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
# wpa_supplicant -Dwext -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
# dhcpcd wlan0

I also found that dhclient was a bit more stable for me personally, but this seems to vary from rtl8192ce user to rtl8192ce user. 

Note that the above assumes usage of wpa security.  I am unfamiliar with manual wep, but I understand that it is much easier.

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#3 2012-08-27 11:26:37

Shinto
Member
Registered: 2012-07-27
Posts: 78

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Edge E525 rtl8192ce unstable WLAN connection

Hey, thanks for your reply.

During install I used the method you mentioned above. It didn't worked always...
To be precise, it worked better when I had a power supply connected instead of running on battery.

That happens to be the case... when I unplug the power supply it most likely won't find any networks.

When I use the power supply, I can find them. Sometimes it takes 10minutes to find one, but it works somehow...

I guess it's a power consumption option that interferes with my wlan.

I already added the modprobe.d/rtl8192ce.conf as mentioned in the fourth post here.

To sum up, without my power supply I will most likely have no internet. It's like a high risk gamble.
With my power supply it will work, it just takes some time and I have to be patient, cuz the connection isn't the stablest one.

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#4 2012-08-27 14:42:22

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Edge E525 rtl8192ce unstable WLAN connection

That is rather interesting... I have an E430 and I love it, with the exception of the wlan card.  I achieved a bit more stability than when I first got it using the method you found above, but it was still kind of wonky.  So I found some requests on various other forums for whitelist removal in my machines bios. (In case you are unaware, Lenovo includes a whitelist of their won wlan and wwan cards in the bios so that nothing but approx. 5 cards of their own will work) So Saturday, a very kind soul got around to the post, fixed up the bios for myself and another guy, and I flashed it with great success.  I am now using an Intel Centrino 6235 and it is amazing. 

I am sorry that is not really a "solution" but it is how I ended up handling the situation.  Maybe there will be improvements with the 3.5* kernel which moved to core today.  Best of luck Shinto!

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#5 2012-08-29 19:24:30

Shinto
Member
Registered: 2012-07-27
Posts: 78

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Edge E525 rtl8192ce unstable WLAN connection

The 3.5 kernel doesn't seem to improve anything at all. sad

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#6 2012-09-23 14:09:30

Shinto
Member
Registered: 2012-07-27
Posts: 78

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Edge E525 rtl8192ce unstable WLAN connection

Okay, I flashed my BIOS from a freeDOS usb stick.
It seems to have reduced my WLAN connection problem to almost zero.

Thanks for the tip.

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#7 2012-09-23 19:10:59

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: [SOLVED] Thinkpad Edge E525 rtl8192ce unstable WLAN connection

Hey I'm glad you got things working.  It seemed to me that it was the only real option unfortunately.

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