# wpa_supplicant + nsidwrapper stopped working!?

## aharel

Hi,

Months ago I somehow got my wireless (the terrible Realtek RTL8188CE) card working, at least in most wireless environments.

From my notes, and from /etc/conf.f/net it worked with ndis_wrapper, rather than with the original Realtek drivers.

Not sure all is at it seems, because I ended up removing the Realtek drivers from /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist, and things still worked.

But after the latest world update, things (net.wlp3s0, hence also avahi-daemon, hence also cupsd and cups) don't work anymore. 

Furthermore, it's not clear how they could've possibly worked.

wpa_supplicant (when invoked with -h) says only the wext, nl80211, and wires drivers are supported.

Which is why when I try the config that worked for months, with 

wpa_supplicant_wlp3s0="-Dndiswrapper"

or when I try

wpa_supplicant_wlp3s0="-Drtl8192ce"

I get:

```
# /etc/init.d/net.wlp3s0 start

 * Bringing up interface wlp3s0

 *   Starting wpa_supplicant on wlp3s0 ...

Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant

wlp3s0: Unsupported driver 'ndiswrapper'

 *   start-stop-daemon: failed to start `/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant'                                                 [ !! ]

 * ERROR: net.wlp3s0 failed to start

```

BTW: lsmod lists both ndiswrapper and rtl8192ce, as well as rtlwifi and rtl8192c_common which are used by rtl8192ce

When I try using wext or nl80211, I get:

```

# /etc/init.d/net.wlp3s0 restart

...

 * Bringing up interface wlp3s0

 *   Starting wpa_supplicant on wlp3s0 ...

Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant                                                                            [ ok ]

 *   Starting wpa_cli on wlp3s0 ...                                                                                [ ok ]

 *   Backgrounding ... ...

 * WARNING: net.wlp3s0 has started, but is inactive

```

Where am I going wrong here?

- do people usually hack the wpa_supplicant installation so it supports more drivers?

- does the word "drivers" as used and listed by wpa_supplicant even mean the same as the "wireless drivers" I'm trying to use (ndiswrapper, rtl8192ce)?

- can Realtek drivers be driven by wext / nl80211 with some specific configuration I missed?

Other information:

from uname -a:

Linux ahx 3.7.9-gentoo #14 SMP Wed Oct 2 00:42:15 IDT 2013 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2620M CPU @ 2.70GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Installed packages (from equery):

[IP-] [  ] net-wireless/ndiswrapper-1.58:0, net-wireless/wpa_supplicant-2.0-r2:0, net-dns/avahi-0.6.31-r2:0

So far every flag I've seen mentioned is already enable in the kernel. But if there's something specific I should check...

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## eyoung100

Add:

```
net.ifnames=0
```

 to your kernel command line

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## aharel

Hi eyoung100,

thanks for taking the time to help!

I don't understand your reply.

Well, I understand the desire to get rid of the so-called "predictable" names (*).

But having carefully followed the udev upgrade instructions 5 months ago, my system will no longer work

with the old names. The network setup did work with the new names. In fact, it also worked with another wife in USB. 

I could switch between wifi's and everything  :Smile: 

What makes you suspect the new network names are related?

Any checks I can do for that?

(*) they're not very predictable when I happen to plug in my USB wifi into another USB port. And they are ugly, long, and hard to remember. No upside for a user like me.

 many thanks,

 Amnon

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## aharel

Just for the record, this is how this was resolved for my system:

Configured /etc/conf.d/net to use wext

     - after a reboot the rtl drivers are up, so no more ndis_wrapper

Configure avahi according to: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7404160.html

 cheers,

 Amnon

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## Decibels

I went through a lot of trouble getting that wireless chipset up and going. If the link above doesn't solve your problem try looking at what I did.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7170028-highlight-.html#7170028

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