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gnome-nettool package

Ubuntu 9.10 - realtek wireless 8191/2 native support

Asked by columbus

Im a newbie at this so bear with me, but in 9.10 and presumably earlier releases, there appears to be no support for realtek rtl8191/2 wireless network chips - in my case on PCI in a medion P7612 laptop (which I just acquired), but I think USB wireless card is also affected.

The clean install does not even recognise the device!

These chips are appearing in a increasing number of machines. There is a workaround I have heard about using ndiswrapper and windows XP !!!! driver (not the ideal open source solution) but realtek do have a native linux driver download available for kernel 2.6.3 on their site but it needs to be configured and compiled to suit debian/ubuntu as a deb package... It is beyond my expertise - any takers? or has it or is it already being done?

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actionparsnip
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Best actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

try using a wired connection and run:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

To get fully updated, then reboot. You can then try:

gksudo jockey-gtk

to see if you are offered a driver.

If not there is a driver you can download and compile it:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8651157

You will need to recompile each time you get a new kernel as the driver will need to be compiled against the new kernel-headers

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

BTW using ndiswrapper is essential for some wifi cards, yours may need it if you cannot compile the driver

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freedomrun (freedomrun) said : 		#3

Hello,

try: modprobe r8192se_pci

..if not please take a look on discussion here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/401126

Best regards

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columbus (columbus) said : 		#4

Thankyou so much actionparsnip, downloaded realtek driver and compiled (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8651157), seems to work fine with kernel 2.6.31.19 so far, connected straight away, did not need to upgrade to kernel 2.6.32.

Thats great, thanks again

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#5

Keep the source, you WILL need to compile it every time you boot to a new kernel.