# Realtek 8172 not supported, looking for USB Adapter Solution

## Kruppe

I recently bought a brand new thinkpad W500 but I am as of yet unable to get the wireless card working, from several google searches it appears that this wireless card does not have good support (if any) on linux so far. 

Are there any cheap usb wireless adapters that work well on linux that anyone can recommend? 

Also if anyone has any ideas on getting this card working that would be even better.

Thanks for any assistance provided.

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## NeddySeagoon

Kruppe,

Lets check out your wireless adaptor.

Please post lspci or lsusb, whichever shows the device

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## Kruppe

As soon as I get home from work I will post the info.

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## Kruppe

Here is the relavent section of lscpci -vv

```

03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 8172 (rev 10)

   Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device e020

   Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-

   Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-

   Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes

   Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11

   Region 0: I/O ports at 3000 [size=256]

   Region 1: Memory at f4200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]

   Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3

      Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold-)

      Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

   Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Count=1/1 Enable-

      Address: 0000000000000000  Data: 0000

   Capabilities: [70] Express (v1) Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00

      DevCap:   MaxPayload 256 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <512ns, L1 <64us

         ExtTag- AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-

      DevCtl:   Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-

         RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-

         MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes

      DevSta:   CorrErr+ UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq+ AuxPwr- TransPend-

      LnkCap:   Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <512ns, L1 <64us

         ClockPM- Suprise- LLActRep- BwNot-

      LnkCtl:   ASPM L0s L1 Enabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+

         ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-

      LnkSta:   Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-

   Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting

      UESta:   DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSVoil-

      UEMsk:   DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSVoil-

      UESvrt:   DLP+ SDES+ TLP- FCP+ CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF+ MalfTLP+ ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSVoil-

      CESta:   RxErr+ BadTLP+ BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout+ NonFatalErr+

      CESta:   RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr+

      AERCap:   First Error Pointer: 00, GenCap+ CGenEn- ChkCap+ ChkEn-

   Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel <?>

   Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 00-e0-4c-ff-fe-22-55-88

```

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## cach0rr0

you might plug lspci -n output into here

http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/index.rhtmlx

see if it shows a driver for it, first and foremost.

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## Kruppe

I tried that with no success, I have also tried a solution posted here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1182457 and it sort of works, but the encryption doesn't seem to work. To be honest I' not sure the rest works either but at least I see the wlan0 interface when I use ifconfig and iwconfig, it even successfully scans for nearby networks.

I still need WPA to work though  :Sad: .

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## cach0rr0

hrmmm

http://osdir.com/ml/linux-kernel/2009-07/msg11914.html

This confirms what I've read a number of other places. 

Seems the only option as of right now is ndiswrapper, and even that is largely broken as it doesnt allow for connecting to encrypted networks

I'll let someone more "in the know" confirm, but not looking good. 

Far as USB devices to consider, can't really go wrong with this list

http://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=compatibility_drivers#usb

If it supports packet injection, fairly safe to say it's reasonably well supported in the kernel, mature, in wide use, etc

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## Kruppe

That doesn't sound too promising, guess I will go for the USB stick route for now.

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## cach0rr0

I'd wait til one of the *real* experts gives the negative response before abandoning all hope, but indeed that looks fairly authoritative and final to me. 

I bought this cheap POS laptop *specifically* because it was one of the newer Atheros. The fella in the store let me boot from the sysrescuecd thumb drive i keep on my keychain, so i could confirm beforehand what each required  :Smile: 

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## Kruppe

Another option of mine is to simply buy the working card (intel 5300 or 5100) that is lenovo branded (it has to be lenovo branded in order for it to work in this laptop sadly). That would actually be cheaper than paying for the restocking fee at lenovo and would be a "cleaner" solution than the usb stick. The downside is that it would be a lot more expensive. If only there was a way to tell if linux support will ever come out for this chipset.

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## NeddySeagoon

Kruppe,

You need a driver from the Staging Drivers in a recent kernel.

Staging drivers are not ready for the main tree but are included for users to test anyway.

Get the testing gentoo-sources and give it a try. Staging drivers are under rapid development and not always forwards. 

If 2.6.30-r4 doesn't work, try a 2.6.29 kernel.

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## Kruppe

```

vendor: 10ec ("Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd."), device: 8199 ("RTL8187SE Wireless LAN Controller") 

```

This one? 

I've tried that and it doesnt work (ie things like "iwlist scan" don't work).

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## NeddySeagoon

Kruppe,

Yes, its listed. You should need  

```
<M>     RealTek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN NIC driver 
```

and the normal wireless stack options.

I'm not sure if you need firmware or not.

What does dmesg say when you unload and load the module ?

What kernel versions did you try?

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## Kruppe

I'm using kernel version 2.6.30-gentoo-r4, thats  the only one I have tried so far.

Here is my kernel config:

http://pastebin.com/m7b9de48d

Here is the Dmesg output

```

[   10.364185] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 30 for MSI/MSI-X

[   10.364367] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready

[   13.321889] e1000e: eth0 NIC Link is Up 1000 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: RX/TX

[   13.321987] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready

[   24.185111] eth0: no IPv6 routers present

[   73.098466] rtl8187se: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.

[   73.100225] ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'

[   73.100227] ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'TKIP'

[   73.100228] ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'CCMP'

[   73.100229] ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'WEP'

[   73.100230] 

[   73.100231] Linux kernel driver for RTL8180 / RTL8185 based WLAN cards

[   73.100232] Copyright (c) 2004-2005, Andrea Merello

[   73.100233] r8180: Initializing module

[   73.100234] r8180: Wireless extensions version 22

[   73.100235] r8180: Initializing proc filesystem

```

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## NeddySeagoon

Kruppe,

Its worth trying the testing vanillia-sources. As I write, that should be 2.6.31_rc5, so the 2.6.31 kernel is not far away.

2.6.28 and 2.6.29 are also worth trying, if the driver is there.

I don't see any errors in your dmesg - if you needed firmware and it was missing, there would be a message there.

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## Kruppe

I will give the vanilla-sources a shot but according to this http://osdir.com/ml/linux-kernel/2009-07/msg11914.html they probably wont work.

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## Kruppe

The vanilla-sources produce similar results to the gentoo-sources. This card just does not want to work  :Sad: 

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## Kruppe

Using ndiswrapper on the windows 2000 driver (which works without encryption COMPLETELY) i get the following dmesg when i try and connect to a WPA secured network, whats going wrong?

```

[  698.233204] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

[  738.649111] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

[  773.681251] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

[  779.151484] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready

[ 1446.951770] kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds

[ 1446.952277] EXT3 FS on sda5, internal journal

[ 1446.952282] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with writeback data mode.

[ 1764.410172] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

[ 1765.218093] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready

[ 1775.981110] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

```

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## NeddySeagoon

Kruppe,

I've never used ndiswrapper with encryption

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## poly_poly-man

My brother just got his new thinkpad X200.... with the same card  :Sad:  .

From what I've seen on the internet, ndiswrapper is the solution (he shouldn't need encryption).

However, from systemrescuecd (using the amd64 kernel), ndiwrapper gives a bunch of bad ioctl messages against /dev/ndiswrapper (which doesn't exist), using both the WinXP driver and the WinX64 driver (both net8192se.inf, both give hardware found)

is this a problem with what I'm doing (keep in mind I haven't used ndiswrapper since 2006), or a sysresccd problem? does the gentoo minimal cd have ndiswrapper?

are there any plans to make support for this natively?

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