# Wireless card not found, gentoo minimal install [solved]

## noaham

Hi everyone,

This is the first of what will probably be many posts asking for help. Hopefully at some point I will stop asking and be able to start answering other people's! Thanks in advance for all your help.

I've decided to install Gentoo on my laptop, mostly because I'm so frustrated with Windows (although I'll be keeping it on there becaue I need it for work etc). It's also hopefully going to be a learning excersize for me to discover more about Linux and OS's in general. I have spent the last few weeks imersing myself in the various guides and documentation and decided to take the plunge today but have hit a roadblock, embarrassingly early on...

I'm installing off the most recent minimal install cd, and am trying to configure my network connection. My network cards are:

```
0e:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8187SE Wireless LAN Controller (rev 22)

14:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semicontuctor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 02)
```

ifconfig gives me:

```
eth0    Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:26:22:35:a2:8c

        UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

        RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

        TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

        collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

        RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

        Interupt:19 Base address:0x4000

lo      Link encap:Local Loppback

        inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0

        inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

        UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1

        RX packets:106 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

        TX packets:106 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

        collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

        RX bytes:2356 (2.3 KiB) TX bytes:2356 (2.3 KiB)
```

iwconfig gives me:

```
eth0    no wireless extentions

lo      no wireless extentions
```

I tried ~# modprobe rtl8187 but this doesn't seem to have had any effect and I therefore can't run net-setup.

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in the Intsalling forum but in the end I thought it would fit best here, so I'm sorry if its in the wrong place. Thanks in advance!

NoahLast edited by noaham on Mon Apr 12, 2010 3:26 am; edited 1 time in total

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## DONAHUE

Life will be easier if you use the wired NIC to do the install.

If that is impossible I would suggest using a ubuntu or knoppix cd of the same (32 or 64) bitness as the intended install. Nothing on the cd becomes part of the installed system.

run 

```
ifconfig -a
```

 and see if the wireless appears.

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## noaham

Thanks DONAHUE, have taken your suggestion of using a knoppix cd, am now happily on my way.

I would still be interested in a solution if anyone has one, just for interests sake.

Noah

edit- ifconfig -a didn't bring anything else up

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## Rexilion

Do you see anything in dmesg? Does:

lspci -v

tell you anything?

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## d2_racing

Maybe it's kernel related, can you try with the latest SystemRescueCD and tell us if it finds your wifi card ?

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## noaham

Hi, thanks for all your help guys! I really appreciate it.

I took DONAHUE's advice and used the 64bit Ubuntu cd to install and I now have gentoo installed and booting on my system! The only thing that does not work is the wireless and it seems to be nearly the same situation as before. 

After I chrooted, the card (wlan0) was still available and I could connect to the internet. But now since I've rebooted it can't find it. Dmesg does not show the drivers (rtl9197) being loaded for the card however I definitely enabled them in my kernel:

```

effles / # cat /usr/src/linux/.config

...

# CONFIG_USB_ZD1201 is not set

CONFIG_RTL8187=y

CONFIG_RTL8187_LEDS=y

# CONFIG_MAC80211_HWSIM is not set

...

```

My other ethernet card (eth0) is loaded at boot, but it (obviously) can't connect so it just throws up an error. Is there something wrong in my run levels?

I will try the SystemRescueCD and see what happens

----------

## DONAHUE

boot ubuntu again and run lspci -k and check that the wireless card is using rtl8187 driver

boot your new system and run lspci -k and see if the install is using the same driver as ubuntu (if any)

drop into bios and see if the wireless NIC has a power saving or green setting; if so disable it and see if behavior changes

edit - oops - I think rtl8187 is usb bus connected so lspci is no help???

in your install

```
emerge usbutils

lsusb
```

this will show the nic with an 'ID xxxx:xxxx'

substitute the ID values in

```
lsusb -v -d xxxx:xxxx
```

This should definitely tell if the nic can be seen  and provide much other info, if you want others to see if they can find something: 

```
lsusb -v -d xxxx:xxxx >> /lsusbfile
```

will create a file, /usbfile, (put it on a flash drive instead if you wish) that you can find and post from a connected system.

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## DONAHUE

Here is the problem:

you have a RTL8187SE Wireless LAN Controller which is not supported by RTL8187, according to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/rtl8187 :

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> RTL8187SE (0x10ec:0x8199 and 0x10ec:0x8185 REV_22): This device will work with rtl8187se (currently in drivers/staging/), which is the vendor driver converted to compile with a 2.6.29, or later, kernel. A mac80211 version of this kernel is being developed.

 

so make a menuconfig change, and recompile kernel (make sure boot partition is mounted, if you have one, when copying kernel)

 *Quote:*   

>   Device Drivers  --->
> 
> [*] Network device support  ---> 
> 
> --- Network device support 
> ...

 

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## noaham

Thanks DONAHUE, fantastic help. My wireless is working perfectly now!

----------

## DONAHUE

Good job. You can edit the title of your initial post to add [solved].

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## d2_racing

Nice  :Razz: 

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