# RTL1817 issues

## PM17E5

I've used the AWPCI06AH Alfa Networks adapter for some time on various computers, and I've noticed that it performs much poorer on my Gentoo Acer Aspire laptop, than it does on any Windows laptop or desktop I try it on. I can literally tel the difference in the brightness of the LED on the adapter. The same adapter will be nearly twice as bright on any Windows machine than on my Gentoo setup. My signal quality is also not as good, and connection speeds and quality really suffers.

I'm not sure which area to check in first, and would really appreciate some pointers. I'm using the built in kernel module for rtl8187. I'm using an Acer Aspire One (NAV50). Could it be something related to the power management of USB ports?

My lsmod is:

```
vfat                    6808  0 

fat                    35222  1 vfat

ath9k                  54456  0 

ath9k_common            1641  1 ath9k

rtl8187                42442  0 

ath9k_hw              187762  2 ath9k,ath9k_common

ath                     6068  2 ath9k,ath9k_hw

mac80211              130861  3 ath9k,ath9k_common,rtl8187

eeprom_93cx6             896  1 rtl8187

cfg80211              100196  5 ath9k,ath9k_common,rtl8187,ath,mac80211

```

My kernel is:

```
Linux k5m 2.6.34-zen1-one #3 ZEN SMP PREEMPT Fri Aug 27 20:13:43 EDT 2010 i686 Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N450 @ 1.66GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
```

However it's done this on a few kernels and I've yet to really get the proper performance out of this card.

My emerge --info is:

```
Portage 2.1.9.24 (default/linux/x86/10.0/desktop, gcc-4.4.5, glibc-2.12.1-r3, 2.6.34-zen1-one i686)

=================================================================

System uname: Linux-2.6.34-zen1-one-i686-Intel-R-_Atom-TM-_CPU_N450_@_1.66GHz-with-gentoo-2.0.1

Timestamp of tree: Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:00:01 +0000

app-shells/bash:     4.1_p9

dev-lang/python:     2.6.6-r1, 3.1.2-r4

dev-util/cmake:      2.8.1-r2

sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.1-r1

sys-apps/openrc:     0.6.3

sys-apps/sandbox:    2.3-r1

sys-devel/autoconf:  2.68

sys-devel/automake:  1.8.5-r4, 1.9.6-r3, 1.10.3, 1.11.1

sys-devel/binutils:  2.20.1-r1

sys-devel/gcc:       4.4.5

sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1

sys-devel/libtool:   2.2.10

sys-devel/make:      3.82

virtual/os-headers:  2.6.35 (sys-kernel/linux-headers)

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86"

ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"

CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-march=native"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo"

CXXFLAGS="-march=native"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs distlocks fixlafiles fixpackages news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org"

LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"

LINGUAS="en"

MAKEOPTS="-j3"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"

PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa berkdb bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdr cli consolekit cracklib crypt cxx dbus dri dts dvd dvdr emboss encode exif fam firefox flac fortran gdbm gif gtk hal iconv jpeg lcms ldap libnotify mad mikmod mng modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mudflap ncurses nptl nptlonly ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf perl png ppds pppd python qt3support readline sdl session spell ssl startup-notification svg symlink sysfs tcpd threads tiff truetype unicode usb vorbis x264 x86 xcb xinerama xml xorg xulrunner xv xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard synaptics mouse evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="en" PHP_TARGETS="php5-2" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="intel" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" 

Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
```

Any help would be appreciated.Last edited by PM17E5 on Sun Nov 21, 2010 4:52 pm; edited 2 times in total

----------

## yermandau

im using :

```
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:8189 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187B Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Adapter

```

Can you post your output lsusb?

Please changing topic to RTL8187b instead RTL1817

----------

## PM17E5

My lsusb is:

```
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:8187 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187 Wireless Adapter
```

I changed the topic.

----------

## yermandau

 *PM17E5 wrote:*   

> My lsusb is:
> 
> ```
> Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:8187 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187 Wireless Adapter
> ```
> ...

 

This is almost equal to my   :Shocked: 

```

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:8189 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187B Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Adapter

```

But the modules are the same. rtl8187 But your id is 0bda:8187 and my 0bda:8189

Im trying connect to using this card with this modules. I can not connect. But in windows works fine, so the card work. 

We can make more test together to try get a way. 

I suggest this tests ( i will make tomorrow and post here).

1A - Get a Ubuntu Live (Remembering this is a test  :Razz:  ), try connect, and see how will detect your card, if will detect, how modules will load, if will need ndiswrapper to work. (News from last time in my mail, Rogerio Luz say uses Ubuntu 10.10 64bit works using wicd) I will try.

2B - Using anohter card to connect in your Access Point using gentoo or another linux. Work? 

3C - Try remove passphrase in A.P. 

4D - Make some tunes like describe in ArchLinux. 

And please let me now if works. 

This is my 

```
lsusb -vvv
```

Output post here too, i will colect this info. 

http://pastebin.ca/1985873 - lines 882 to 1018

You can find more info here

Realtek Driver for Windows - http://218.210.127.131/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=1&PFid=1&Level=6&Conn=5&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true#RTL8187B

Arch Linux - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Rtl8187_wireless

Gentoo Wiki - http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/RTL8187

Mandriva Bug - https://qa.mandriva.com/show_bug.cgi?id=39334

NetworkManager Bug - https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=634448

Realtek Wlan Email - wlanfae@realtek.com

----------

## manaka

To see the power and link quality levels, you could use the following command:

```
cat /proc/net/wireless
```

There's a bug report in Ubuntu bugzilla about link quality issues with rtl8187.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/215802

The bug had been unsolved for 2 years. But I'm seeing the bug has been updated just a few days ago.  :Wink: 

The kernel patch the bug comments refer to is https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/139191/.

----------

## yermandau

Recently this module receive an update.

I update to kernel 2.6.37-rc1-wl+ from kernel git repositories and is working now. Im using NetworkManager to connect.

----------

## PM17E5

Having applied that patch I can see that it does seem to be a bit more responsive. I don't have any solid indicators but overall the connection feels better and websites load faster. However, the one thing I don't get though is my link quality is still the same. Why is my link quality so much better in Windows?

When I do iwlist txpower, I get:

```
lo        no transmit-power information.

eth0      no transmit-power information.

wlan0     unknown transmit-power information.

wlan1     unknown transmit-power information.
```

I've never been able to get that to work. The most I can do is iwconfig wlan1 txpower 20. But I can't actually get any detail about what power level it's at or anything. Also, while the previous bug has always existed on my system, after switching from linux-2.6.34-zen1-r2 to linux-2.6.35-zen2 I can no longer get wavemon to work to monitor my power levels. Although it does seem to feel a little more responsive as far as latency with the newer kernel.

```
wavemon

wavemon: can not obtain iw statistics: Operation not supported
```

Does anyone have any ideas?

----------

