# [wireless] Realtek r8187b ( 0BDA:8198 )

## bartull

Hi,

I bought new laptop two weeks ago and installed gentoo. Unfortunately, my wireless card doesn't work.

Some information first...

```
lsusb

Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0bda:8198 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

ndiswrapper -l

net8187b : driver installed

             device (0BDA:8198) present

dmesg | tail

ndiswrapper version 1.53 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)

usb 2-6: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4

ndiswrapper: driver net8187b (Realtek Semiconductor Corp.,12/26/2007,5.1116.1226.2007) loaded

wlan0: ethernet device 00:1b:9e:f3:d4:5a using NDIS driver: net8187b, version: 0x1, NDIS version: 0x500, vendor: 'Realtek RTL8187 Wireless LAN USB NIC                                     ', 0BDA:8198.F.conf

wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK

usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper

iwconfig

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any  

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.457 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   

          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:20 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3  

          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

```

Everything seems to be fine. But iwlist wlan0 scan gives No scan results.. I even do not need scanning. But I can't establish connection with my AP.

I've tried some commands like iwconfig wlan0 power on, ifconfig wlan0 up etc. No results.

I've used both Win98 and WinXP drivers. I've also tried compiling linux drivers, but I think they do not support 0BDA:8198 rev. of this card. 

Any ideas? Need help, I'm quite annoyed...   :Rolling Eyes: 

----------

## NoNaMeNo

Hi!

I bought a laptop (Toshiba) that brings a realtek 8187b as wireless network device. It is an integrated USB device and don't work properly under Linux. I have only tried this driver: 

http://www.datanorth.net/~cuervo/rtl8187b/

It is very buggy but seems to work, depends on the environment (kernel version and .. I don't know). The pre-patched version for kernel v2.6.23 works "fine", the pathced version for kernel version 2.6.24 is still more buggy. Fortunately, I can say that works. 

I have been using it connecting it to WIFI g (54mbits/s) (DLink G624T) and to WIFI a/b (2mbits/s) (3COM OCR 812).

It recommends to use its version of wpa_supplicant included in the package. I've been using gentoo's version. (WPA)

I've been using wireless tools too, the iwconfig cli  :Smile: . (WEP)

Don't be scared when dmesg shows @99xlines that informs about ERROR!!

Good Lcukl!

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## bartull

Hi!

Thanks for fast reply. I've already tried these drivers   :Crying or Very sad:  ... Can you give me your result of lsusb? Is your card 0BDA:8198?

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## NoNaMeNo

uhm..

```
Bus 006 Device 002: ID 0bda:8197 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
```

I thought you had 8197 like me, not 8198 :S

and He says:

 *Quote:*   

> This is the driver I got from Realtek, plus a patch to support ID 0x8197.

 

and..

 *Quote:*   

> Will this patch work with my card?
> 
> Short answer: I don't know. Try it and find out! 
> 
> Long answer: Do an lsusb | egrep '0bda:81(87|89|97)'. If your card comes back, it ought to work.
> ...

 

so.. I don't know if you are going to get it work.Last edited by NoNaMeNo on Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:28 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## bartull

And that's the problem... 0bda:8198   :Evil or Very Mad:   :Evil or Very Mad:   :Evil or Very Mad:   :Evil or Very Mad:  I wrote to Realtek. Maybe they'll help me? Thanks anyway  :Wink: 

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## bartull

So, I haven't got any answer yet... 

Anyone? Any advice?

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## pappy_mcfae

If you have the Windoze drivers on hand, you can always go the ndiswrapper route if you're running a 32 bit system.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## bartull

I have tried ndiswrapper with several drivers (WinXP, Win98 etc.).   :Wink:   The result is described in my first post...   :Confused: 

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## pappy_mcfae

What kernel version are you using? If you want to at least be ABSOLUTELY sure ndiswrapper won't work, downgrade to kernel version 2.6.22.19 and retry. If ndiswrapper works at that point, then try 2.6.26. Some .25 kernels work with ndiswrapper, some don't. The .23 family has almost no ndiswrapper support, and it's gone from the .24 version kernels (purportedly to 2.6.24.8, where it "reappears". The vanilla-sources 2.6.26 kernel supports ndiswrapper really well on my test system. However, I recommend the .22 kernel because ndiswrapper is fully supported in it.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## bartull

Ok, I will try it. Thanks.

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## Anarcho

If you wait a few more weeks...From what I've read the driver for the B-revision is included in 2.6.27.

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