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May 20, 2013, 11:34am

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Topic: Realtek RTL8192SE (Read 309 times)

toothandnail
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Realtek RTL8192SE
« Thread Started on Apr 19, 2012, 3:47pm »

I've just installed Saline (32-bit) on a customer's machine (he managed to kill Windows 7 completely, and has decided he'd like to try Linux.....).

The machine is a Packard Bell (can't remember the model number). For the most part, the install was fine, and its picked up all the hardware. However, it isn't finding the wifi card. lspci gives me this:

Code:
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8192SE Wireless LAN Controller (rev 10)
    Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 8186
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
    I/O ports at 1000 [size=256]
    Memory at b2400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
    Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
    Capabilities: [70] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
    Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
    Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
    Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 88-55-22-fe-ff-4c-e0-00

After a bit of hunting, it seems that the card is supported under testing, but not under Debian stable. So I seem to have two choices - download and build the driver from the Realtek web site (which may be a bit problematic, judging by the information I've been finding), or build a 3.xx kernel, which should allow me to enable support for the wifi in the kernel.

Looking at the repos, I see there is source for one of the 3 series kernels. So, my question is, is anyone running a 3.xx kernel with Saline, and are there any things to watch out for?

I've not built a kernel in a long time, so it could be interesting building it on my own laptop and, so long as I can create a proper Debian package, moving it to the Packard Bell.

Paul

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Anthony Nordquist
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Re: Realtek RTL8192SE
« Reply #1 on Apr 20, 2012, 1:04am »

You can manually install the Debian backport of the Linux kernel. Open a root terminal and enter this command:
apt-get install -t squeeze-backports linux-headers-3.2.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae linux-image-3.2.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae

Note that all modern 32 bit Debian kernels are either i486 or i686 PAE now. The biggest issue to watch out for is that the back ported Nvidia binary driver wasn't compiling against the backported kernel. Whether or not this has been resolved I am unsure, the mailing list on this went quiet some time ago now. Also, be advised that Remastersys disks may not boot, you should test one before relying on it to do so.

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petrek
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Re: Realtek RTL8192SE
« Reply #2 on Apr 20, 2012, 2:33am »

Probably you will need to install few more packages before installing this kernel (at least from backports linux-base, initramfs-tools and from wheezy at), otherwise you'll break everything. Also, you don't need to install this kernel for newer drivers. Here you have page, where you can find the latest drivers for older kernels:

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download

Try stable version, it should be ok, if not, you can always try some other version

« Last Edit: Apr 20, 2012, 4:42am by petrek »

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Skallagrigg

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Re: Realtek RTL8192SE
« Reply #3 on Apr 20, 2012, 4:56am »

Apt will automatically pull in the dependencies for you when you run the command, these do include linux-base and initramfs-tools.

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petrek
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Re: Realtek RTL8192SE
« Reply #4 on Apr 20, 2012, 6:21am »

I wrote it just in case it didn't for some strange reason (for me it doesn't work, I see only
E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-3.2.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-headers-3.2.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae'
E: Unable to locate package linux-image-3.2.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-image-3.2.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae' ). And this particular kernel needs also at from wheezy, so it needs to be downloaded manually, so I thought I'll write everything together

« Last Edit: Apr 20, 2012, 9:10am by petrek »

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Skallagrigg

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Re: Realtek RTL8192SE
« Reply #5 on Apr 20, 2012, 7:23pm »

Apr 20, 2012, 1:04am, Anthony Nordquist wrote:

Thanks! I've installed it on my own laptop, seems to be working fine, and the Realtek drivers I needed are there. I'll try it on the problem machine early next week with any luck.

The only casualty seems to be laptop-mode-tools, which is complaining about an unsupported kernel.

Quote:

Note that all modern 32 bit Debian kernels are either i486 or i686 PAE now. The biggest issue to watch out for is that the back ported Nvidia binary driver wasn't compiling against the backported kernel. Whether or not this has been resolved I am unsure, the mailing list on this went quiet some time ago now. Also, be advised that Remastersys disks may not boot, you should test one before relying on it to do so.

Thanks. Shouldn't be a problem for the moment at least. I use synbak for backups, and the machines I'm interested in at present are using Intel graphics.

Paul.

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Re: Realtek RTL8192SE
« Reply #6 on Apr 20, 2012, 7:25pm »

Apr 20, 2012, 2:33am, petrek wrote:

Thanks. Looks like a useful resource. I'll see how the updated kernel goes on the other laptop initially.

Paul.

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