RTL8192CU driver issues

Mactownes · 2012-08-17 06:05:47

Hello there, I installed Arch Linux (for the first time ;]) last night. I have a USB wireless adapter, it's a Netgear N150 Micro Adapter. The chipset is a realtek one, so it is supported in the kernel by default. However, the driver seems to make the adapter either stop working for other reasons, or (I suspect) overheat and crash every 5 minutes or so. When I pull it out and feel it, it's about 180 degrees Fahrenheit. So I think it must be overheating.

I know that RTL8192CU is included in the linux-firmware package, and, due to the bleeding-edge nature of arch (oh boy), the driver seems to be kind of buggy.

So, I would like some help. I downloaded the kernel online, but when trying to install I got this error:

make: *** /lib/modules/3.4.9-1-ARCH/build: No such file or directory.  Stop.
make: *** [modules] Error 2

So I'm not exactly sure what is going on here.

Does anybody have any ideas of what I can do?

stqn · 2012-08-17 08:09:01

What exactly are you trying to do?

To make my rtl8192cu driver work, I blacklisted it and installed the rt8192cu package instead.

Mactownes · 2012-08-17 08:17:54

stqn wrote:

What exactly are you trying to do?

I'm just trying to install a driver for my wireless card that won't make it crash every 5 minutes.

Thanks *so much*, I'll try that.

Mactownes · 2012-08-17 10:13:17

stqn wrote:

What exactly are you trying to do?
To make my rtl8192cu driver work, I blacklisted it and installed the rt8192cu package instead.

So I've been fooling with that for a while, doesn't work. I do sudo modprobe rt8192cu and it seems to load fine, but it doesn't actually run the wireless card.

Any ideas?

P.s. I also tried the realtek-provided one (8182cu) and that did not work either.

I am now still using the rtl8192cu driver that overheats my card and makes it crash.

So, what do you think?

stqn · 2012-08-17 15:32:49

The name of the module from the rt8192cu AUR package is 8192cu, not rt8192cu.

Did you build (makepkg) the package under your current kernel, install it, blacklist rtl8192cu and reboot to the same kernel?

Mactownes · 2012-08-17 16:03:54

stqn wrote:

The name of the module from the rt8192cu AUR package is 8192cu, not rt8192cu.
Did you build (makepkg) the package under your current kernel, install it, blacklist rtl8192cu and reboot to the same kernel?

At first, yes. Then after that I tried blacklisting it and then rebooting and then building and installing it.

Oh... dear. I didn't realize it was called 8192cu and not rt8192cu. Crud.
I... I've installed *two* drivers now (one from realtek and the AUR one) that are under the name 8192cu
I did not try the AUR one under the name 8192cu before I tried installing the one from realtek.

So... I'm not sure if it works or not, because when I try to modprobe 8192cu, I get this:

% sudo modprobe 8192cu
ERROR: could not insert '8192cu': Device or resource busy

And I'm not sure if that's the realtek one or the AUR one. And why it's busy, I don't know, because right now I'm using the rtl8192cu driver.

So, have I screwed it up by installing two modules under the same name?

Last edited by Mactownes (2012-08-17 16:07:36)

Mactownes · 2012-08-18 07:02:53

Bump

stqn · 2012-08-18 07:15:17

Mactownes wrote:

Bump

Don’t do that.

Mactownes · 2012-08-18 08:06:16

Sorry about the bump, won't happen again. I'm used to much quicker forums

So since I last posted, I've tried enabling testing and installing the newer version of the kernel. I thought it was going to last, but once again the connection failed.
But because I installed a new kernel, all of the modules were gone. So I took this as an oppurtunity to install rt8192cu (rt, not rtl) again and see if it worked now (because also the other rt8192cu would be gone, the one from realtek that is). I blacklisted rtl8192cu in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and then rebooted. I went into the build directory (I had no internet at this point) ran pacman -U on the tar.xz. It said it was already installed, and I realized that that must be because I had it installed, installed the new kernel and it got deleted, but it still thought it was there. It said it updated it, so I figured oh well that must mean that it installed it again.

So, it finished and I rebooted. On boot up (rtl8192cu was still blacklisted at this point and the adapter was not active) I ran modprobe 8192cu. It said the module was not found. Alarmed, I tried modprobe rt8192cu, and that got the same result. I've tried 8192 and rt8192 as well, and neither work. In a little while I will try uninstalling and reinstalling rt8192cu and report back.

UPDATE:

I just moved the adapter on a cable to the floor, and it seems to be better.
I think it's just too hot in my room, it's about 90 degrees in here. The floor is a lot cooler.
I'll report back if I find out how to solve the overheating.

Last edited by Mactownes (2012-08-18 08:47:11)

dr.dynamics · 2012-08-18 14:40:32

I've tried for months to get my Belkin N150 micro wireless to work (same chipset and driver as your netgear), doing much the same as what you've described above, but I've never managed to make it work reliably. I didn't experience the rather extreme heating you described, though. It worked okay on the standard drivers for a while, but somewhere around kernel 3.1 or 3.2 it broke, and after much screwing around, I've given up trying to fix it for now. Every time there's a new kernel release, I try it again, but no dice. I've gone back to a 'full size' usb adapter with a different chipset for now. If you're successful, please share your approach.

P.S. Hope the wireless issue doesn't disuade you from Arch. I used RedHat / Fedora for many years, switched to Arch about a year ago, and I've been loving it. I've had the same issue with the N150 on my laptop, which still runs Fedora.

Last edited by dr.dynamics (2012-08-18 14:43:31)

stqn · 2012-08-18 16:33:31

Mactownes wrote:

I went into the build directory (I had no internet at this point) ran pacman -U on the tar.xz. It said it was already installed, and I realized that that must be because I had it installed, installed the new kernel and it got deleted, but it still thought it was there. It said it updated it, so I figured oh well that must mean that it installed it again.
So, it finished and I rebooted. On boot up (rtl8192cu was still blacklisted at this point and the adapter was not active) I ran modprobe 8192cu. It said the module was not found.

You have to rerun “makepkg -f” after a kernel update, before reinstalling the driver; did you forget that part?

Installing a new kernel doesn’t delete any driver you might have added yourself. It only deletes the files that were in the previous kernel package. The 8192cu driver is not deleted but will be in the modules directory of the old kernel, which is why you have to make the package again and install it again. That will delete the “old” 8192cu.ko and install the “new” one to the correct directory.

Also you’ll probably have to run “sudo depmod” before you can modprobe the 8192cu driver.

Last edited by stqn (2012-08-18 17:00:10)

dr.dynamics · 2012-08-18 20:04:52

Okay, so your previous post inspired me to try once more with my N150 - and it works! I blacklisted not only the rtl8192cu, but also the rtlwifi, and the rtl8192c_common modules, and ran the depmod command before trying modprobe. I hadn't been aware of the depmod command before, that may have been the difference, but in any case, I'm up and running. Thanks to all.

Mactownes · 2012-08-19 04:58:19

dr.dynamics wrote:

Okay, so your previous post inspired me to try once more with my N150 - and it works! I blacklisted not only the rtl8192cu, but also the rtlwifi, and the rtl8192c_common modules, and ran the depmod command before trying modprobe. I hadn't been aware of the depmod command before, that may have been the difference, but in any case, I'm up and running. Thanks to all.

Wait, so, you mean you installed the "rt 8192cu" package from the AUR (rt, not rtl), blacklisted rtl8192cu, rtlwifi, and rtl8192c_common, ran depmod, and then modprobed "8192cu" and it works?

Just want to clarify...

EDIT: Also, the adapter still crashes. It's less frequent, but it still happens about every half hour or so if I'm lucky. If I put the adapter on the end of a USB extension cord (yes, I have one of those and it's awesome) and hang it in front of my case fan, it's a little bit better, but it still fails to work consistently.

Last edited by Mactownes (2012-08-19 05:06:41)

Mactownes · 2012-08-19 07:08:20

Just tried the following:

Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and insert:

blacklist rtl8192cu
blacklist rtlwifi
blacklist rtl8192c_common

Reboot
cd to the build directory for rt8192cu
makepkg -f
sudo yaourt -U rt8192cu tar.xz
reboot
sudo depmod
sudo modprobe 8192cu

It didn't work. Any ideas?

Last edited by Mactownes (2012-08-19 07:09:43)

dr.dynamics · 2012-08-21 04:53:32

Yes, the driver that worked for me was rt8192cu from AUR. I use packer to install rather than yaourt, but your procedure seems to be the same as mine. The only thing that I have done differently is the format of my blacklist.conf is like so:

install rtl8192cu /bin/false
install rtl8192c_common /bin/false
install rtlwifi /bin/false

I'm not sure where I saw this format, but it seems to work. You might try it. Maybe issue a lsmod to check if rtl8192cu is blocked or not.

I've struggled for so long with this adapter. I really wanted it to work because the small size is super convenient. I'm still kind of shocked that it actually works.

One other note, I did have a kernel panic as the machine was shutting down today, just before it was supposed to power off, but other than that, all seems okay. I've had kernel panics in the past that resulted from pulling it out of the USB slot while the machine was running. It shouldn't do that, but sometimes it would.

c0mpute · 2016-12-04 18:43:44

I've also had problems with this driver on kernel 4.8.11. If anyone is experiencing problems, the AUR package has been renamed to 8129cu-dkms. When you install it from the AUR, the following file will be created:

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-8192cu-dkms.conf

The file had the following contents:

blacklist rtlwifi
blacklist rtl8192c_common
blacklist rtl8192cu
blacklist rtl8xxxu

My wifi adapter did not work at all with this config. To make it work, I deleted this file and created /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf with the following contents:

blacklist rtl8192cu

It seems like the rtl8xxxu module needs to be loaded in order for this driver to work properly. The rtlwifi and rtl8192c_common modules will no longer get loaded even if they're not specifically blacklisted, so just blacklisting rtl8192cu should be enough.

WorMzy · 2016-12-04 20:40:02

Thanks for sharing that information, but please be aware that this thread is over four years old, the participants are unlikely to still be looking for a solution.

Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-08-17 06:05:47

RTL8192CU driver issues

#2 2012-08-17 08:09:01

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#3 2012-08-17 08:17:54

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#4 2012-08-17 10:13:17

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#5 2012-08-17 15:32:49

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#6 2012-08-17 16:03:54

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#7 2012-08-18 07:02:53

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#8 2012-08-18 07:15:17

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#9 2012-08-18 08:06:16

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#10 2012-08-18 14:40:32

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#11 2012-08-18 16:33:31

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#12 2012-08-18 20:04:52

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#13 2012-08-19 04:58:19

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#14 2012-08-19 07:08:20

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#15 2012-08-21 04:53:32

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#16 2016-12-04 18:43:44

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

#17 2016-12-04 20:40:02

Re: RTL8192CU driver issues

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