[Solved] New Laptop - wifi problems

[russell.eberhardt]

Just bought a new laptop, Toshiba C870 and I was having problems with wifi similar to a number of posts here on a new install of PCLinuxOS 2012.8 KDE. It works fine on Windoze 7

By deleting the the ethernet connection and then configuring the wifi I could get it working, although it would only show my home network after configuration and not the others.  It would work for a while, anything from a few minutes to an hour or so, then stop working even though the panel  indicator showed it to still be connected.  I would then have to reboot and try again as above.

I've tried all the recommendations in the various posts on the topic to no avail.  In desperation I tried an another distro live cd and had the same problem.  I then tried a Linux Mint disk, kernel 3.5.0-17 and found that to work perfectly so I guess it is a kernel problem with the Realtek RTL8188CE wifi adaptor.

For now I am having to use Mint on this laptop until the problem is solved.

[Yankee]

A few ideas and/or questions.

Use WEP it should connect easier for awhile.

What is your wifi card hardware ?

Who is your DSL provider ?

Use the PCL Control Center as much as possible.

Browse hardware, delete the connection, run config, the usual routine.

Reboot between major configuration changes, it helps to clear the old out
and the new in.

I find PCL fairly easy, sometimes too easy, makes my mind lazy in regards
to these things.    I remember configuring XXX distro (name omitted) and
I had to enter 13 things, yes 13, accurately, to get the wifi to work.   PCL
was a few checks for auto-configuration and it auto-set everything and still works.

WPA appears to be a current problem, config files not being properly updated
or some similar problem.    Well known and should be fixed soon I would think.

regards,

FF

[agmg]

Just bought a new laptop, Toshiba C870 and I was having problems with wifi similar to a number of posts here on a new install of PCLinuxOS 2012.8 KDE. It works fine on Windoze 7

By deleting the the ethernet connection and then configuring the wifi I could get it working, although it would only show my home network after configuration and not the others.  It would work for a while, anything from a few minutes to an hour or so, then stop working even though the panel  indicator showed it to still be connected.  I would then have to reboot and try again as above.

I've tried all the recommendations in the various posts on the topic to no avail.  In desperation I tried an another distro live cd and had the same problem.  I then tried a Linux Mint disk, kernel 3.5.0-17 and found that to work perfectly so I guess it is a kernel problem with the Realtek RTL8188CE wifi adaptor.

For now I am having to use Mint on this laptop until the problem is solved.

Have you tried the new kernel 3.4.11 (which is currently in testing)?

[sammy2fish]

A few ideas and/or questions.

Use WEP it should connect easier for awhile.

What is your wifi card hardware ?

Who is your DSL provider ?

Use the PCL Control Center as much as possible.

Browse hardware, delete the connection, run config, the usual routine.

Reboot between major configuration changes, it helps to clear the old out
and the new in.

I find PCL fairly easy, sometimes too easy, makes my mind lazy in regards
to these things.    I remember configuring XXX distro (name omitted) and
I had to enter 13 things, yes 13, accurately, to get the wifi to work.   PCL
was a few checks for auto-configuration and it auto-set everything and still works.

WPA appears to be a current problem, config files not being properly updated
or some similar problem.    Well known and should be fixed soon I would think.

regards,

FF

Yes... I'm curious as our reply to this.......

[russell.eberhardt]

A few ideas and/or questions.

Use WEP it should connect easier for awhile.

Tried that, still no go.  The connection is still very intermittent when I can get it at all.

What is your wifi card hardware ?

Realtek RTL8188CE

Who is your DSL provider ?

SFR (in France) but the connection works fine on my old laptop, an Android tablet, and a smart phone.

Use the PCL Control Center as much as possible.

Yes, I have done that.

Delete the connection, run config, the usual routine.

Done that as well. It sometimes brings the connection back if I reboot after deleting all the connections but then it stops working again. The strange thing is that the panel indicator still shows me to be connected.

Reboot between major configuration changes, it helps to clear the old out
and the new in.

Yes, if things don't work first time I always do.

I find PCL fairly easy, sometimes too easy, makes my mind lazy in regards
to these things.    I remember configuring XXX distro (name omitted) and
I had to enter 13 things, yes 13, accurately, to get the wifi to work.   PCL
was a few checks for auto-configuration and it auto-set everything and still works.

Yes, it has worked like that on every other machine I've tried over the past four years.  The LiveCD brought the network up very easily but then after a while it stopped working like the installed version. 

WPA appears to be a current problem, config files not being properly updated
or some similar problem.    Well known and should be fixed soon I would think.

Hope so!

Regards,

Russell

[russell.eberhardt]

Have you tried the new kernel 3.4.11 (which is currently in testing)?

Sorry if I'm being a bit thick but where do I find this kernel?  Is there a special repository for testing?

Russell.

[Yankee]

This file is in Synaptic:

dkms-r8192se    (might work)

This file is from Realtek.   I don't see it in the repo, but if it was that would be great.
They say these are auto install but I've never done it.  Kernels to use are listed too.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=48&PFid=48&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true#RTL8188CE

Is your machine 32 or 64 bit ?

When you switched to WEP did you change the modem also to expect WEP ?

Good luck.

FF

[agmg]

Have you tried the new kernel 3.4.11 (which is currently in testing)?

Sorry if I'm being a bit thick but where do I find this kernel?  Is there a special repository for testing?

Russell.

You have to go to Synaptic -> Repositories and edit the properties of your mirror so that under "Section(s)" you have:
main updates nonfree kde games xfce testing
Reload and search for kernel-3.4.11-pclos1.bfs and install it. Remember to remove the "testing" section from your mirror when you're done.
Reboot your computer and select the new kernel. Give it a little time on first boot. When you get to the desktop check that you have the new kernel by typing uname -a in terminal. See if it makes any difference in your problem.

This file is in Synaptic:

dkms-r8192se    (might work)

This file is from Realtek.   I don't see it in the repo, but if it was that would be great.
They say these are auto install but I've never done it.  Kernels to use are listed too.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=48&PFid=48&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true#RTL8188CE

Is your machine 32 or 64 bit ?

When you switched to WEP did you change the modem also to expect WEP ?

Good luck.

FF

dkms-r8192se is not required for kernels 2.6.38.x and greater because it comes with the kernel.

[russell.eberhardt]

Is your machine 32 or 64 bit ?

When you switched to WEP did you change the modem also to expect WEP ?

Thanks Ferdes,
64 bit
Yes I changed the modem

Russell.

[russell.eberhardt]

You have to go to Synaptic -> Repositories and edit the properties of your mirror so that under "Section(s)" you have:
main updates nonfree kde games xfce testing
Reload and search for kernel-3.4.11-pclos1.bfs and install it. Remember to remove the "testing" section from your mirror when you're done.
Reboot your computer and select the new kernel. Give it a little time on first boot. When you get to the desktop check that you have the new kernel by typing uname -a in terminal. See if it makes any difference in your problem.

Thanks, I'll give it a go (when I can get the connection up long enough )

Russell.

[russell.eberhardt]

O.K. after a couple of reboots I was able to get the wifi working long enough to install the 3.4.11 kernel. Whlie I was installing it I pinged the router:

Code: [Select]

[russell@localhost ~]$ ping 192.168.1.1
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_req=7 ttl=64 time=1.15 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_req=8 ttl=64 time=1.19 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_req=9 ttl=64 time=1.18 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_req=13 ttl=64 time=1.90 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
13 packets transmitted, 4 received, 69% packet loss, time 12002ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.157/1.359/1.904/0.317 ms
I tried launching Firefox and everything froze - 100% packet loss.  The other distro gives 0%.

O.K. rebooted and hacked the grub2 that was installed by the other distro so that I could boot the new kernel.  It was even worse - I could't get a wifi connection at all

Any more ideas?

Russell

[russell.eberhardt]

Just a thought - the working distro is 64 bit as opposed to the 32 bit PCLinux.  Could that have anything to do with it?

Russell

[agmg]

Can't connect the laptop through ethernet to do your tests and downloads?

Check if you have rtl8192se-firmware installed (I don't know if that will help though).
Realtek provides drivers for Linux (Ferdes Fides posted the link). Have you tried with that one?
There are detailed instructions on how to install inside the driver package.
From a quick search around the net, I see there are many problems reported with this adapter in many distros...

[Yankee]

Can't connect the laptop through ethernet to do your tests and downloads?

Check if you have rtl8192se-firmware installed (I don't know if that will help though).
Realtek provides drivers for Linux (Ferdes Fides posted the link). Have you tried with that one?
There are detailed instructions on how to install inside the driver package.
From a quick search around the net, I see there are many problems reported with this adapter in many distros...

Hi,

The driver at Realtek is only a few months old so problems should be resolved.
It says it will work on up to the 3.2 kernel.   I've had nothing but good luck with
the 2.6.38 however.   That Realtek driver should be a perfect match.

Delete the connection, recreate, reconfigure, the usual routine then.

Post back then.

FF

[kjpetrie]

This seems to be a common problem and appeared on my 32-bit laptop install (but not the 64-bit) when wpa_supplicant was upgraded. The symptom I had was that the connection in the laptop would fail to connect and keep retrying for ever. It wasn't possible to stop it except by ensuring the connection wasn't set to start at boot and rebooting. If I could get into the Configuration (when it was endlessly trying to reconnect Network Centre became non-functional) I would find it was changing the Security setting from WPA-PSK to Open WEP, which couldn't connect to the WPA router.

I tried a 3.4 kernel, but because my machine has special needs and there is no kernel-source package in testing, I downloaded a vanilla kernel and compiled that instead. It made no difference until I rebooted into my old kernel (another non-pclos 2.6.36!), which can no longer find the interface with the iwlwifi dirver. I have yet to boot the new kernel to see whether it can still find the device, but my 64-bit still connects fine, so it's not a hardware failure.

It seems there's a problem with wpa_supplicant or a related package at present which makes it unreliable and I will investigate further when I get time. It might be the conf file needs some new options set which are offered in the conf.rpmnew to make it work with some systems, or it could be it needs some dependencies upgraded or it could be a packaging problem or it might be a regression in the program itself...

The wi-fi is Intel 5100 in my case.

If I find anything useful I'll pass it on.