Arch Linux

VoidArchal

Member

Registered: 2017-09-03

Posts: 5

[Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

Hey.

I've made a fresh install of Arch Linux on a Lenovo Thinkpad E570, but I'm having issues with wifi on it.

The network specs are as follows:

• 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1

• M.2 Card

• Gigabit Ethernet

• Realtek R8111GUS

The wired connection works without issues, however I can't connect to wireless.
Their official driver supports kernel up to 4.7, but current is 4.12.8-2

'ip link' gives me the loopback and enp4s0, 'iw dev' outputs nothing and 'iwconfig' doesn't help either

I've tried the following to fix it, all of which didn't help:

• Check rfkill

• Switch from r8169 to r8168

• Use ndiswrapper

I'm expecting there to be a wireless interface, but it isn't there, and I'm out of clues for how to make it work without changing network card. Any ideas?

Last edited by VoidArchal (2017-09-06 11:11:43)

jeremy31

Member

Registered: 2015-11-01

Posts: 149

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

Post results for

lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 net; dmesg | egrep -i 'iwl|ath'

VoidArchal

Member

Registered: 2017-09-03

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:505b]
	Kernel driver in use: r8169
	Kernel modules: r8169
05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:c821]
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:c024]

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,231

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

So far there's no indication towards a wireless card existing in all the posts you made  (r8169 is the driver for the wired connection), since the controller doesn't even seem to appear in lspci (you might want to post an untruncated lspci and lsusb and an untruncated dmesg while we are at it)  check your BIOS/UEFI and make sure that the wireless card isn't accidentally disabled on a firmware level.

Edit: Oh that really is a wlan chip, see response below.

Last edited by V1del (2017-09-04 16:14:02)

jeremy31

Member

Registered: 2015-11-01

Posts: 149

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:c821]
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:c024]

Your wireless device is a Realtek RTL8821CE that is not yet supported in Linux.  I would contact Lenovo about a replacement for your laptop that is made by Intel.  Lenovo uses a whitelist in the BIOS and they will only boot if a supported wireless card is present in the internal slot

Last edited by jeremy31 (2017-09-04 16:05:24)

VoidArchal

Member

Registered: 2017-09-03

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

For now I've gone ahead and asked them if they can do something about it, or if I have to return it for a different model.

R00KIE

Forum Fellow

From: Between a computer and a chair

Registered: 2008-09-14

Posts: 4,734

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

At most you might have to buy a different wifi card from them, there should be a document with the Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) list where you can check which wifi cards your laptop should accept. Do double check with lenovo though, I have no idea if the whitelist is a list or if it is for the single wifi card model that comes installed.

---

R00KIE
Tm90aGluZyB0byBzZWUgaGVyZSwgbW92ZSBhbG9uZy4K

VoidArchal

Member

Registered: 2017-09-03

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

For now I solved the problem by using a Wi-Fi dongle to connect, so I'll be marking this solved.
On a side note, is there a way to find out when (if at all) the wireless card gets Linux support?

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

It looks like there is a linux driver available, I found this on someones github page...
https://github.com/endlessm/linux/searc … =%E2%9C%93

---

No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

VoidArchal

Member

Registered: 2017-09-03

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

It looks like there is a linux driver available, I found this on someones github page...
https://github.com/endlessm/linux/searc … =%E2%9C%93

It does indeed seem like there's a driver for it, though I'm not entirely certain how I would compile and install it from there, assuming a such thing is possible.

sks032

Member

Registered: 2017-10-30

Posts: 1

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

Driver from endlessm works for me ( ThinkPad E470, RTL 8821CE ).
Original link => https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/400259

Worked solution (Requirements: kernel >=4.11) :

Download driver directory from this repo: https://github.com/endlessm/linux/tree/ … /rtl8821ce
You can do it by this link: https://minhaskamal.github.io/DownGit/# … /rtl8821ce

1. Unpack zip archive.
2. Change the Makefile. Line "export TopDIR ?= ..." to export "TopDIR ?= PATH TO EXTRACTED DIRECTORY".
3. make
4. sudo make install
5. sudo modprobe -a 8821ce

msilberg

Member

Registered: 2017-11-20

Posts: 1

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

Driver from endlessm works for me ( ThinkPad E470, RTL 8821CE ).
Original link => https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/400259

Worked solution (Requirements: kernel >=4.11) :

Download driver directory from this repo: https://github.com/endlessm/linux/tree/ … /rtl8821ce
You can do it by this link: https://minhaskamal.github.io/DownGit/# … /rtl8821ce

1. Unpack zip archive.
2. Change the Makefile. Line "export TopDIR ?= ..." to export "TopDIR ?= PATH TO EXTRACTED DIRECTORY".
3. make
4. sudo make install
5. sudo modprobe -a 8821ce

This worked for me too on my E470 and now WiFi just works. However I'm still having problems with Bluetooth, it simply doesn't start so I can't see other BT devices.

It seems that rtl8821ce firmware isn't supported.

Last edited by msilberg (2017-11-29 21:55:36)

Michael Gruenstaeudl

Member

Registered: 2014-12-03

Posts: 51

Re: [Solved] Wifi issues on Thinkpad E570

Driver from endlessm works for me ( ThinkPad E470, RTL 8821CE ).
Original link => https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/400259

Worked solution (Requirements: kernel >=4.11) :

Download driver directory from this repo: https://github.com/endlessm/linux/tree/ … /rtl8821ce
You can do it by this link: https://minhaskamal.github.io/DownGit/# … /rtl8821ce

1. Unpack zip archive.
2. Change the Makefile. Line "export TopDIR ?= ..." to export "TopDIR ?= PATH TO EXTRACTED DIRECTORY".
3. make
4. sudo make install
5. sudo modprobe -a 8821ce

Please note:
For the proposed solution to work, the package linux-headers must be installed to successfully compile the package.

Last edited by Michael Gruenstaeudl (2018-03-07 15:27:06)