Arch Linux

URemery

Member

Registered: 2019-09-30

Posts: 14

[SOLVED] Find a driver for a Realtek rtl8188ee Wireless Card

Hi,

I would like to install archlinux on my HP Pavilion laptop, following the installation guide with the latest iso.
When I tried to connect to internet via WiFi (I cannot connect via ethernet for now) I noticed that ip link
is not showing any wireless interface. Let's see what is my wireless network card :

root@archiso ~ # lspci -v -s 02:00.0
02:00.0 Network Controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
        DeviceName: Realtek RTL8188EE 802.11bgn Wi-Fi Adapter
    Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
    Flags: fast devel, IRQ 255
    I/O ports at 4000 [size=256]
    Memory at b4200000 (64-bit, non-prefechable) [size=64K]
    Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
    Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
    Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
    Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
    Capabilities: [148] Device Serial Number 00-e0-4c-ff-fe-c8-21-01
    Capabilities: [158] Latency Tolerance Reporting
    Capabilities: [160] L1 PM Substates
    Capabilities: [170] Precision Time Measurement
    Capabilities: [17c] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0003 Rev=1 Len=054 <?>
    Kernel Modules: wl

So, it seems that there no driver running to control this device, even if wl is loaded :

root@archiso ~ # lsmod | grep wl
wl        6467584  O
cfg80211     856064  1 wl

The installation guide says that I need to check for errors while loading wl firmware but
I am not sure how to do that. Meanwhile I wonder why wl is not doing the job if it can do it ?

I have also found that there is plenty of Realtek related modules that I can load in the kernel,
especialy rtl8188ee (see quote below) which may be the right one to pick according to
https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/use … rs/rtl819x.
But why is it not listed by lspci as available Kernel Module ?

root@archiso ~ # modinfo rtl8188ee | less
filename: /lib/modules/5.3.8-arch1-1/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtl/wifi/rtl8188ee/rtl8188ee.ko.xz
firmware: rtlwifi/rtl8188eefw.bin
description: Realtek 8188E 802.11n PCI wireless
...

Can you help me find a answer to these questions and make things work ? Thank you, Ugo.

Last edited by URemery (2019-11-11 12:10:09)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,416

Re: [SOLVED] Find a driver for a Realtek rtl8188ee Wireless Card

If you unload the wl module with

rmmod wl

then load the rtl8188ee module with

modprobe rtl8188ee

does that add an interface to `ip l`?

URemery

Member

Registered: 2019-09-30

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Find a driver for a Realtek rtl8188ee Wireless Card

Hi loqs,

I already tried that, forgot to mention it sorry.
But it does not add an interface to ip link and of course lspci tells that there is no driver in use for this device.

Ty, Ugo

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,280

Re: [SOLVED] Find a driver for a Realtek rtl8188ee Wireless Card

Your card is probably a RTL8821CE, not RTL8188ee. You most likely need the driver from the AUR: rtl8821ce-dkms-git

Edit: An in-kernel driver might come next year: https://lkml.org/lkml/2019/5/15/650

Last edited by progandy (2019-11-10 08:47:00)

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URemery

Member

Registered: 2019-09-30

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Find a driver for a Realtek rtl8188ee Wireless Card

Your card is probably a RTL8821CE, not RTL8188ee. You most likely need the driver from the AUR: rtl8821ce-dkms-git

OK so I built a custom archlinux ISO using archiso so that it contains the RTL8821CE driver. It work perfectly fine now, thank you!

Edit: An in-kernel driver might come next year: https://lkml.org/lkml/2019/5/15/650

Noted I'll stay tuned.

Thank you guys, Ugo.

EDIT: How do I "[Solved]" the topic?

Last edited by URemery (2019-11-10 15:29:03)

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,280

Re: [SOLVED] Find a driver for a Realtek rtl8188ee Wireless Card

Edit the first post and change the title.

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