Please help me install my RTL8180 card

darkalien_fc5 · #1 23rd May 2006, 07:20 PM

Hey everone,

It has been almost three days since I decided installing my wireless card's drivers in FC5. So far, no luck.

I have tried:

1- The realtek 1.5 drivers
2- The opensource drivers (http://rtl8180-sa2400.sourceforge.net/)
3- And ndiswrapper

Here's where I am at.

LSPCI command:

Code:

00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge [K8T800/K8T890 Sout h]
00:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8180L 802.11b MA C (rev 20)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy LS
00:07.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI (rev 02)
00:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller ( rev 80)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (r ev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/ C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller  (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller  (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller  (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller  (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T89 0 South]
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTra nsport Technology Configuration

deleted some stuff

By doing that, I thnk (I am still very new at linux) that it tells me FC5 (64bit) sees my card.
So I try the drivers found at Realtek's website.

I untar them, and do the make command:

Code:

[root@localhost rtl8180]# make
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.16-1.2111_FC5/build SUBDIRS=/root/Desktop/rtl8180 MODVERDIR=/root/Desktop/rtl8180 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.16-1.2111_FC5-x86_64'
  Building modules, stage 2.
  MODPOST
*** Warning: "rtl8180_remove" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "rtl8180_init" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "rtl8180_open" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "rtl_register_netdev" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "rtl8180_get_stats" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "rtl8180_xmit" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "rtl_alloc_wlandev" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "rtl_unregister_netdev" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "rtl8180_close" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "rtl8180_ioctl" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "rtl8180_set_multicast_list" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "wlan_debug" [/root/Desktop/rtl8180/open8180.ko] undefined!
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.16-1.2111_FC5-x86_64'

Okay, so these look like warnings only. So I go ahead and do the insmod commands the readme says:

Code:

[root@localhost rtl8180]# insmod 8180_26_private.ko
insmod: error inserting '8180_26_private.ko': -1 Invalid module format

Ah. Looks like a problem. So this is day one. I search on google.com/linux and find something regarding the warnings or this error.

I type in "modinfo 8180_26_private.ko" and it gives me:

Code:

filename:       8180_26_private.ko
vermagic:       2.6.9-1.667 686 REGPARM 4KSTACKS gcc-3.4
depends:

Uh-oh. My kernel is 2.6.15 . My first question is this: Is this error negligeable or is it fatal? Is there a way to bypass it? I decided, and by reading on the internet, determined that I needed an opensource driver.

So I downloaded them, installed them and everything successively. Here's the lsmod:

Code:

[root@localhost rtl8180]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ieee80211_r8180        67716  0
ieee80211_crypt_wep_r8180    38912  0
ieee80211_crypt_r8180    39944  2 ieee80211_r8180,ieee80211_crypt_wep_r8180
ppdev                  42441  0
autofs4                55241  1
hidp                   83137  2
rfcomm                104801  0
l2cap                  91585  10 hidp,rfcomm
bluetooth             116933  5 hidp,rfcomm,l2cap
sunrpc                192137  1
ip_conntrack_ftp       41361  0
ip_conntrack_netbios_ns    36033  0
ipt_REJECT             38977  1
xt_state               35265  11
ip_conntrack           92669  3 ip_conntrack_ftp,ip_conntrack_netbios_ns,xt_state
nfnetlink              40073  1 ip_conntrack
xt_tcpudp              36545  13
......
...

As you can see, they are installed. Now, following the instructions, I am supposed to "ifconfig -a"

Code:

[root@localhost rtl8180]# ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:11:09:3B:61:66
          inet addr:192.168.1.50  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::211:9ff:fe3b:6166/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:3562 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3594 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1869439 (1.7 MiB)  TX bytes:611051 (596.7 KiB)
          Interrupt:18 Base address:0xac00

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          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:2209 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2209 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:2239957 (2.1 MiB)  TX bytes:2239957 (2.1 MiB)

sit0      Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4
          NOARP  MTU:1480  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:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

According to the install text, there should be a wlan0 in there. THESE ISN'T. So here's my next question. How do I add that wlan0?
I already tried the modprobe.conf edit trick, here's mine:

Code:

alias wlan0 ieee80211_crypt_r8180
alias eth0 via-rhine
alias scsi_hostadapter sata_via
alias snd-card-0 snd-ens1371
options snd-card-0 index=0  
options snd-ens1371 index=0  
remove snd-ens1371 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0 >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-ens1371
alias snd-card-1 snd-ca0106
options snd-card-1 index=1  
options snd-ca0106 index=1  
remove snd-ca0106 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 1 >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-ca0106

I used ieee80211_crypt_r8180 because in the lsmod command. it displays it as, I think, including the other two. So now, since I think wlan0 is attributed to those drivers, I open up the Network configuration app.
I, in the devices tab, add a new wireless one, using, which I thought should work, the already present ieee80211_crypt_r8180(wlan0) option.

So I configure it, and when I try to activate it:

ieee80211_crypt_r8180 device wlan0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.

Oh no. Another error about wlan0 not existing. For now, I really want someone to help me make the linux-based drivers work. I gave up hope on the ones given by Realtek since they aren't opensource. What I really need is someone to please tell me how to make "wlan0" appear in "ifconfig -a". How to add it, how to make it work and use the drivers I have.

I'm sure someone will tell me to use ndiswrapper. That's another story. If you want, I can tell you my fruitless tale of ndiswrapper (again the wlan0 not being there error).

I hope I have given enought information. My kernel version, if you need it, is "2.6.16-1.2111_FC5-x86_64"

Please help me!

steve1961 · #2 23rd May 2006, 08:04 PM

OK, a bit of a shot in the dark here, but if you're running 64 bit FC5 you have to use 64 bit drivers. If I was you I would download the windows 64 bit driver from here:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&Software=True

and install using ndiswrapper. If you had problems with ndiswrapper before it might have been because you were using 32 bit drivers??

At some point in the past I also tried to compile the realtek drivers for linux and never managed to get them to work.

PS I know you didn't want ndiswrapper related advice, but best I could do I'm afraid

darkalien_fc5 · #3 23rd May 2006, 08:27 PM

Well, here's my history with ndiswrapper.

I installed it, using yum. Back then, it was for the 2111 kernel revision. So I installed the 32-bit drivers, nothing worked, I got depressed, and uninstalled it.

Yesterday, I realized my error. I reinstalled it (it was now a new kernel 2122 revision I think) along with a new kernel. I had to install via yum the nvidia drivers for that kernel again. No matter, yum rules, so I didn't really care.

I did what all tutorials said to do. I loaded the 64-bit driver, when I would do the "ndiswrapper -l" command it would say the driver and the device were present and working, the modprobe.conf file was edited, everything was like the tutorial said it should be like.

Then, the fatal wlan0 thing. By typing "dmesg | grep "wlan0" " I didn't get anything. When I would do "ifconfig -a" no mention of wlan0. Whatever I try, I cannot get wlan0 to be recognized. In the network config app, its there, listed as ndiswrapper. It should work, normally. Linux sees my card. ndiswrapper seems to be properly configured, except the wlan0.

What I need to now is how to make the "ifconfig -a" show wlan0. That's all I really need for now.

darkalien_fc5 · #4 23rd May 2006, 08:29 PM

I found a thread where I had asked for help about ndiswrapper. The last post where someone asks me why ndiswrapper didn't show in "lsmod" was because it was when I uninstalled it.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=447088

steve1961 · #5 23rd May 2006, 08:36 PM

All you should have to do is type:

/sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper

and wlan0 should show up in ifconfig After loading the module it should also show up when you type lsmod. If this isn't happening, even though ndiswrapper -l shows the driver loaded and teh hardware present I'm afraid I don't know what else to suggest.

darkalien_fc5 · #6 24th May 2006, 10:04 PM

Well, it may have to do with the fact the I'm running a 64-bit FC5. I also have the 32-bit DVD so I'll install it (if it doesn't work I'll put 64-bit back, I have nothing to lose) and post my results here.

In the end I'll probably switch to another distribution. My dad runs Ubuntu and he uses the wireless drivers that came with it. I really like FC5 though, so unless I get a pop-up from my FC5 kernel telling me to give up, I'm sticking with it.

darkalien_fc5 · #7 25th May 2006, 09:25 PM

Okay. Ubuntu works with my card. I am currently running and typing this on the live CD. If this distribution works there has to be a way to make FC5 work with my card.

blue13130 · #8 27th May 2006, 12:55 AM

I have the same card running fine with ndiswrapper on FC4 and also had it operating with ndiswrapper on FC5. I downgraded back to FC4 cause it ran better on my machine for some reason.

I remember after I installed ndiswrapper I did the modprobe.conf trick and then went to Network Configuration and had to add a new connection for the wireless card and then set it to not be initialized on boot and then it would list when I ran ifconfig

I use the Realtek 8180L Win2000 ver 1.73 driver on a 32 bit system
lspci
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8180L 802.11b MAC (rev 20)
lspci -n
06:00.0 Class 0200: 10ec:8180 (rev 20)

pianoman72 · #9 29th August 2006, 07:53 PM

Here are the instructions I used:

<http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1495931&forum_id=390417>

(obviously subsitute 8180 for 8187)

BTW your kernel version needs to be 2.6.15-1.2054

First you need to

"yum install kernel-devel-$(uname -r)"

to get the correct kernel-devel - not the "updated" one.

If you have updated your kernel you are going to have to search the forums for that project because there is a patch you will have to do to the "make" file. You'll see what I mean because when you type 'make' it will just delete everything in the folder and you'll have to download from the CVS again.

I chose to re-install the OS because the instructions above were complicated enough.

Anyway, the card works pretty well, but I sure wish they would continue their efforts on this driver because it is pretty funky.

I am using the famous Linksys Wpc11v4

If anyone is trying to get this working feel free to PM me.