Re: Make WiFi work.

[Joel Roth <joelz@pobox.com>]

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 03:29:44PM +0100, Paul Isambert wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I've just installed Debian next to Windows 7, with the first DVD
> (i.e. debian-6.0.3-amd64-DVD-1.iso). It was not without trouble, but
> now it works.
> 
> The problem is the wifi. My card (Realtek RTL8191SE Wireless LAN
> 802.11n PCI-E NIC, says Windows) is apparently not recognized. I've
> tried various solutions explained here and there, I have installed
> firmware-realtek and ndiswrapper and wpa_supplicant and I don't know
> what, nothing worked.

Hi Paul,

Fellow RTL8191SE sufferer here (in a ThinkPad T410.)

In my case, lspci says:

    03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
    RTL8191SEvB Wireless LAN Controller (rev 10)

The ndiswrapper approach never worked for me. 

I compiled kernel 2.6.36 with the driver source I downloaded 
from Realtek.

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=48&PFid=48&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true#RTL8191SE-VA2

(Actually, the driver sources are also in the staging
directory of the Debian 2.6.36 kernel sources. Maybe I did
something stupid, but being in "staging" seemed to interfere
with the driver loading in the compiled kernel. Is it enough
just to move it elsewhere in the tree?)

You also need to install the firmware. I have these files:

/lib/firmware/RTL8192SE
/lib/firmware/RTL8192SE/Realtek-Firmware-License.txt
/lib/firmware/RTL8192SE/rtl8192sfw.bin
/lib/firmware/RTL8192SE/rtl8192sfw492.bin
/lib/firmware/RTL8192SE/rtl8192sfw74.bin
/lib/firmware/rtl8192sfw.bin

Now you're ready for:

    modprobe r8192se_pci

In my case, I can see the driver has loaded successfully
because the wireless indicator LED on the laptop turns on.

Then I can start wpa_supplicant and wpa_gui.

    ifconfig wlan0 up
    wpa_supplicant -B -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf &

At the moment, there is just this one line in
/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

    ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

Then start 

    wpa_gui

Click on SCAN, then when a smaller window pops up, click
on *its* SCAN button. A list of APs will show up. You can
choose an entry from the list by double-clicking. This gives
you a menu to enter a password and/or other parameters.

Finally issue:

    dhclient -x wlan0

I find '-x' helpful, as without it multiple dhclient
commands may cause problems with multiple dhclient
processes hanging around.

It took me an embarrassing amount of trial and error to get
this far.  Hope it will go easier for you!

> The hard part is that I have to switch to Windows to get an internet
> connection, gather info and material, restart with Debian, try,
> fail, switch to Windows again, an so on and so forth. Plus those
> stuff I'm instructed to do, modprobe, iwconfig, you name it ... are
> ancient Greek to me, so I apply them blindly, and perhaps what I've
> done before has gotten in the way, etc. So I'm a bit tired, but I
> really would like to switch to Debian -- and have an internet
> connection to find online documentation and start learning how to
> use it.

I currently don't need to use iwconfig or iw at all.
Modprobe I need in order to install the driver.

I've heard good things about wicd, but I've only 
spent about 30 minutes (unsuccessfully) playing
with it. 

HTH,

Joel


-- 
Joel Roth