[gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[German]

Today I've bought a new USB wi-fi adapter which has rtl8192cu chip. I've plugged it into my lubuntu computer and it worked out of the box, however soon it drops the connection. I googled it and found out that many people have the same problem with this chip ( but mostly with *buntu flavours). I also found the workaround here: https://github.com/pvaret/rtl8192cu-fixes This box will be soon ( I hope ) will be transferred to Gentoo. I wonder if some one here is using this chip with Gentoo with new kernels, does it run ok and if this problem of *buntu specific? Thanks

-- 
German <gentgerman@gmail.com>

Re: [gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[Ralf]

Hi,

I had a rtl8192ce in my laptop. Nothing but problems with Linux. Don't
know why, but the signal strength always was much better when using Windows.

For me, the rtl8192ce only worked when using it as a module, not hard
compiled in the kernel.
Second, it is important to know that this WiFi Card stopped working for
me with kernels > 3.17. The card was detected but it didn't show up any
WiFis.
I read that there were fundamental changes to the rtlwifi stack in 3.18.

Eventually I decided to buy a new card and better card (Intel Centrino,
I now can connect to 5GhZ networks :) ) for my laptop and I'm so happy
now :)

No more Realtek WiFi cards for me.

Cheers
  Ralf

On 03/19/2015 06:42 PM, German wrote:
> Today I've bought a new USB wi-fi adapter which has rtl8192cu chip. I've plugged it into my lubuntu computer and it worked out of the box, however soon it drops the connection. I googled it and found out that many people have the same problem with this chip ( but mostly with *buntu flavours). I also found the workaround here: https://github.com/pvaret/rtl8192cu-fixes This box will be soon ( I hope ) will be transferred to Gentoo. I wonder if some one here is using this chip with Gentoo with new kernels, does it run ok and if this problem of *buntu specific? Thanks
>

Re: [gentoo-user] RTL-tm NICs (Was RTL8192CU)

[Matti Nykyri]

> On Mar 19, 2015, at 20:46, Ralf <ralf+gentoo@ramses-pyramidenbau.de> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I had a rtl8192ce in my laptop. Nothing but problems with Linux. Don't
> know why, but the signal strength always was much better when using Windows.

I've had nothing but problems with RTL-chipsets. But if you buy ~10$ NICs they just don't work like 400$ ones.

> No more Realtek WiFi cards for me.
+1

-- 
-Matti

Re: [gentoo-user] RTL-tm NICs (Was RTL8192CU)

[German]

On Sat, 21 Mar 2015 08:03:29 +0200
Matti Nykyri <matti.nykyri@iki.fi> wrote:

> > On Mar 19, 2015, at 20:46, Ralf <ralf+gentoo@ramses-pyramidenbau.de> wrote:
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I had a rtl8192ce in my laptop. Nothing but problems with Linux. Don't
> > know why, but the signal strength always was much better when using Windows.
> 
> I've had nothing but problems with RTL-chipsets. But if you buy ~10$ NICs they just don't work like 400$ ones.
> 
> > No more Realtek WiFi cards for me.

Hi Matti. What about this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704045
I saw some recommendations on this one from people using linux

> +1
> 
> -- 
> -Matti


-- 
German <gentgerman@gmail.com>

Re: [gentoo-user] RTL-tm NICs (Was RTL8192CU)

[Matti Nykyri]

> On Mar 21, 2015, at 12:06, German <gentgerman@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704045
> I saw some recommendations on this one from people using linux

The manufacturer doesn't support Linux officially. I would not buy a USB NIC unless that was the only choice! The chipset was not mentioned on the manufacturers site but searching the net shows it is AR9271 and the module is ath9k_htc. On top of that you need to download atheros firmware and install that to your kernel.

It has WPS setup. Some drivers with this have huge security hole that even if you disable WPS it remains on. If WPS is on there is practically no security in you WiFi network. In that case using a VPN is the only choice.

I would not recommend it, but I have no personal experience with the particular chipset. Although I don't recommend WiFi either ;) ...without a proper VPN.

-- 
-Matti

Re: [gentoo-user] RTL-tm NICs (Was RTL8192CU)

[Stroller]

On Sat, 21 March 2015, at 6:03 am, Matti Nykyri <matti.nykyri@iki.fi> wrote:
> 
> I've had nothing but problems with RTL-chipsets. But if you buy ~10$ NICs they just don't work like 400$ ones.

$10!?!? I paid $2 each, including delivery, for a couple of rtl8192cu / RTL8188CUS wifi dongles a year ago.

I actually bought them from different suppliers on eBay and, although they looked identical, they contained different RTL chipsets.

As I recollect, one worked perfectly one was flakey or worked not at all, but I was running them on an old PPC iMac and assumed that was the cause. I did a fair bit of debugging, intending to post to the Linux wifi driver developers list, before losing interest.

I kinda figured at such cheap prices I could, in future, afford to buy 2 or 3 wifi cards from 2 to 4 different suppliers (so $8 - $24 total) and I'd be likely to find at least one batch that works perfectly. Everyone complains when they get a cheap shitty wifi card that doesn't work, but there is probably an element of confirmation bias to this - we forget about all the cheap shitty wifi adaptors that just work perfectly. Are the name brands really that much more reliable?

I originally read your comment as "10$ NICs just don't work like 40$ ones" - realising that you wrote $400 is obviously a different matter. Reliability easily justifies $400 for the datacentre, but not for most home users.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[Alexander Kapshuk]

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Was the firmware for the driver in question installed as well?

What's the output of 'lspci -k' and 'lsusb -v' for your device?

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 7:42 PM, German <gentgerman@gmail.com> wrote:

> Today I've bought a new USB wi-fi adapter which has rtl8192cu chip. I've
> plugged it into my lubuntu computer and it worked out of the box, however
> soon it drops the connection. I googled it and found out that many people
> have the same problem with this chip ( but mostly with *buntu flavours). I
> also found the workaround here: https://github.com/pvaret/rtl8192cu-fixes
> This box will be soon ( I hope ) will be transferred to Gentoo. I wonder if
> some one here is using this chip with Gentoo with new kernels, does it run
> ok and if this problem of *buntu specific? Thanks
>
> --
> German <gentgerman@gmail.com>
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[Alexander Kapshuk]

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On Sat, Mar 21, 2015 at 10:36 AM, Alexander Kapshuk <
alexander.kapshuk@gmail.com> wrote:

> Was the firmware for the driver in question installed as well?
>
> What's the output of 'lspci -k' and 'lsusb -v' for your device?
>
> On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 7:42 PM, German <gentgerman@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Today I've bought a new USB wi-fi adapter which has rtl8192cu chip. I've
>> plugged it into my lubuntu computer and it worked out of the box, however
>> soon it drops the connection. I googled it and found out that many people
>> have the same problem with this chip ( but mostly with *buntu flavours). I
>> also found the workaround here: https://github.com/pvaret/rtl8192cu-fixes
>> This box will be soon ( I hope ) will be transferred to Gentoo. I wonder if
>> some one here is using this chip with Gentoo with new kernels, does it run
>> ok and if this problem of *buntu specific? Thanks
>>
>> --
>> German <gentgerman@gmail.com>
>>
>>
>
Apologies for top-posting.

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Re: [gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[German]

On Sat, 21 Mar 2015 10:36:08 +0200
Alexander Kapshuk <alexander.kapshuk@gmail.com> wrote:

> Was the firmware for the driver in question installed as well?
> 
> What's the output of 'lspci -k' and 'lsusb -v' for your device?

It works, so yes, firmare is installed. Module's name is rtl8192cu. It just drops the connection after a while, this is a problem
> 
> On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 7:42 PM, German <gentgerman@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Today I've bought a new USB wi-fi adapter which has rtl8192cu chip. I've
> > plugged it into my lubuntu computer and it worked out of the box, however
> > soon it drops the connection. I googled it and found out that many people
> > have the same problem with this chip ( but mostly with *buntu flavours). I
> > also found the workaround here: https://github.com/pvaret/rtl8192cu-fixes
> > This box will be soon ( I hope ) will be transferred to Gentoo. I wonder if
> > some one here is using this chip with Gentoo with new kernels, does it run
> > ok and if this problem of *buntu specific? Thanks
> >
> > --
> > German <gentgerman@gmail.com>
> >
> >


-- 
German <gentgerman@gmail.com>

Re: [gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sat, 21 Mar 2015 06:00:24 -0400, German wrote:

> > Was the firmware for the driver in question installed as well?
> > 
> > What's the output of 'lspci -k' and 'lsusb -v' for your device?  
> 
> It works, so yes, firmare is installed. Module's name is rtl8192cu. It
> just drops the connection after a while, this is a problem

You cannot assume that because it works, the firmware is there. The RTL
NIC in my Asus Vivo Mini MythTV frontend complained about missing
firmware at boot, but it still worked. Check dmesg, you may need firmware
to fix your problems.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Speak softly and carry a cellular phone.

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Re: [gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[Mick]

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On Saturday 21 Mar 2015 10:10:56 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Sat, 21 Mar 2015 06:00:24 -0400, German wrote:
> > > Was the firmware for the driver in question installed as well?
> > > 
> > > What's the output of 'lspci -k' and 'lsusb -v' for your device?
> > 
> > It works, so yes, firmare is installed. Module's name is rtl8192cu. It
> > just drops the connection after a while, this is a problem
> 
> You cannot assume that because it works, the firmware is there. The RTL
> NIC in my Asus Vivo Mini MythTV frontend complained about missing
> firmware at boot, but it still worked. Check dmesg, you may need firmware
> to fix your problems.

+1

In addidion, use modinfo to find out what parameters the particular module has 
and add these when you modprobe to switch off power management - which on 
buggy drivers tends to power down the card.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[German]

On Sun, 22 Mar 2015 09:01:03 +0000
Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Saturday 21 Mar 2015 10:10:56 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> > On Sat, 21 Mar 2015 06:00:24 -0400, German wrote:
> > > > Was the firmware for the driver in question installed as well?
> > > > 
> > > > What's the output of 'lspci -k' and 'lsusb -v' for your device?
> > > 
> > > It works, so yes, firmare is installed. Module's name is rtl8192cu. It
> > > just drops the connection after a while, this is a problem
> > 
> > You cannot assume that because it works, the firmware is there. The RTL
> > NIC in my Asus Vivo Mini MythTV frontend complained about missing
> > firmware at boot, but it still worked. Check dmesg, you may need firmware
> > to fix your problems.
> 
> +1
> 
> In addidion, use modinfo to find out what parameters the particular module has 
> and add these when you modprobe to switch off power management - which on 
> buggy drivers tends to power down the card.

Where do I have to use "modinfo". Can you give an example. From my research, that is exactly the power management which powers down the buggy drivers, but I don't know what what are these module options which will prevent to power the card down.
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> Mick


-- 

Re: [gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[Mick]

On Sunday 22 Mar 2015 05:19:41 German wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Mar 2015 09:01:03 +0000
> Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:

> > In addidion, use modinfo to find out what parameters the particular module
> > has and add these when you modprobe to switch off power management -
> > which on buggy drivers tends to power down the card.
> 
> Where do I have to use "modinfo". Can you give an example. From my research,
> that is exactly the power management which powers down the buggy drivers,
> but I don't know what what are these module options which will prevent to
> power the card down.

I don't have your NIC, but in a laptop I post this in I get:
=========================================
$ modinfo iwlwifi
filename:       /lib/modules/3.18.7-
gentoo/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/iwlwifi.ko.gz
license:        GPL
author:         Copyright(c) 2003- 2014 Intel Corporation 
<ilw@linux.intel.com>
version:        in-tree:
description:    Intel(R) Wireless WiFi driver for Linux
firmware:       iwlwifi-100-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-135-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-105-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode
srcversion:     FDA022BCC86979326790D21
alias:          pci:v00008086d00000892sv*sd00000462bc*sc*i*
[snip ...]

depends:        
intree:         Y
vermagic:       3.18.7-gentoo SMP preempt mod_unload 
parm:           swcrypto:using crypto in software (default 0 [hardware]) (int)
parm:           11n_disable:disable 11n functionality, bitmap: 1: full, 2: 
disable agg TX, 4: disable agg RX, 8 enable agg TX (uint)
parm:           amsdu_size_8K:enable 8K amsdu size (default 0) (int)
parm:           fw_restart:restart firmware in case of error (default true) 
(bool)
parm:           antenna_coupling:specify antenna coupling in dB (default: 0 
dB) (int)
parm:           wd_disable:Disable stuck queue watchdog timer 0=system 
default, 1=disable (default: 1) (int)
parm:           nvm_file:NVM file name (charp)
parm:           uapsd_disable:disable U-APSD functionality (default: Y) (bool)
parm:           bt_coex_active:enable wifi/bt co-exist (default: enable) 
(bool)
parm:           led_mode:0=system default, 1=On(RF On)/Off(RF Off), 
2=blinking, 3=Off (default: 0) (int)
parm:           power_save:enable WiFi power management (default: disable) 
(bool)
parm:           power_level:default power save level (range from 1 - 5, 
default: 1) (int)
parm:           fw_monitor:firmware monitor - to debug FW (default: false - 
needs lots of memory) (bool)
=========================================

So in my card I have: "parm:   power_save:enable WiFi power management" which 
is by default disabled.  If I wanted to enable this parameter I would need to 
use a boolean term, e.g. 'true', or 'on', or '1', or 'enable'.  Yours would be 
similar, but the exact parameter would be revealed when you run 'modinfo 
<your_module_name>'

Then call this parameter when you modprobe the module.  For example:

modprobe -r <your_module_name>
modprobe -v <your_module_name>  power_level=0

Look at dmesg or syslog to see the result of your incantantion.

If this solves your problem you can permanently define such a parameter in 
your /etc/conf.d/modules.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] RTL8192CU

[German]

On Sun, 22 Mar 2015 10:26:09 +0000
Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sunday 22 Mar 2015 05:19:41 German wrote:
> > On Sun, 22 Mar 2015 09:01:03 +0000
> > Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > > In addidion, use modinfo to find out what parameters the particular module
> > > has and add these when you modprobe to switch off power management -
> > > which on buggy drivers tends to power down the card.
> > 
> > Where do I have to use "modinfo". Can you give an example. From my research,
> > that is exactly the power management which powers down the buggy drivers,
> > but I don't know what what are these module options which will prevent to
> > power the card down.
> 
> I don't have your NIC, but in a laptop I post this in I get:
> =========================================
> $ modinfo iwlwifi
> filename:       /lib/modules/3.18.7-
> gentoo/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/iwlwifi.ko.gz
> license:        GPL
> author:         Copyright(c) 2003- 2014 Intel Corporation 
> <ilw@linux.intel.com>
> version:        in-tree:
> description:    Intel(R) Wireless WiFi driver for Linux
> firmware:       iwlwifi-100-5.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-135-6.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-105-6.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode
> firmware:       iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode
> srcversion:     FDA022BCC86979326790D21
> alias:          pci:v00008086d00000892sv*sd00000462bc*sc*i*
> [snip ...]
> 
> depends:        
> intree:         Y
> vermagic:       3.18.7-gentoo SMP preempt mod_unload 
> parm:           swcrypto:using crypto in software (default 0 [hardware]) (int)
> parm:           11n_disable:disable 11n functionality, bitmap: 1: full, 2: 
> disable agg TX, 4: disable agg RX, 8 enable agg TX (uint)
> parm:           amsdu_size_8K:enable 8K amsdu size (default 0) (int)
> parm:           fw_restart:restart firmware in case of error (default true) 
> (bool)
> parm:           antenna_coupling:specify antenna coupling in dB (default: 0 
> dB) (int)
> parm:           wd_disable:Disable stuck queue watchdog timer 0=system 
> default, 1=disable (default: 1) (int)
> parm:           nvm_file:NVM file name (charp)
> parm:           uapsd_disable:disable U-APSD functionality (default: Y) (bool)
> parm:           bt_coex_active:enable wifi/bt co-exist (default: enable) 
> (bool)
> parm:           led_mode:0=system default, 1=On(RF On)/Off(RF Off), 
> 2=blinking, 3=Off (default: 0) (int)
> parm:           power_save:enable WiFi power management (default: disable) 
> (bool)
> parm:           power_level:default power save level (range from 1 - 5, 
> default: 1) (int)
> parm:           fw_monitor:firmware monitor - to debug FW (default: false - 
> needs lots of memory) (bool)
> =========================================
> 
> So in my card I have: "parm:   power_save:enable WiFi power management" which 
> is by default disabled.  If I wanted to enable this parameter I would need to 
> use a boolean term, e.g. 'true', or 'on', or '1', or 'enable'.  Yours would be 
> similar, but the exact parameter would be revealed when you run 'modinfo 
> <your_module_name>'
> 
> Then call this parameter when you modprobe the module.  For example:
> 
> modprobe -r <your_module_name>
> modprobe -v <your_module_name>  power_level=0
> 
> Look at dmesg or syslog to see the result of your incantantion.
> 
> If this solves your problem you can permanently define such a parameter in 
> your /etc/conf.d/modules.
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> Mick
> 
Thanks Mick, I'll take a closer look at it when I have time. Appreciate it.

--