[SOLVED] Fedora 16 and rtl8192cu wireless driver

[nedsnow]

Hi,

I have one of those tiny USB wifi dongles. Its chipset is RTL8188CUS, which seems to power many of this type of device. The drivers which come with kernel 3.1.X just don't work. The driver is loaded, the networks are scanned properly, but it won't connect - it just keeps asking for the WEP key, or the WPA key on a WPA network.

There are lots of forum posts for various distributions indicating that people have had success with the Realtek drivers, but not since kernel 2.6.X. The current version of the driver on the Realtek site claims to work for kernels up to 3.0.2, but I built and installed it, and it doesn't work on kernel 3.1.6.

I just received kernel 3.1.7 in the latest batch of updates, so I tried again with the built-in driver, but no success.

I don't know if it is related, but I am getting lots of these in the log:

[ 4484.413389] xhci_hcd 0000:05:00.0: ERROR no room on ep ring
[ 4484.413391] xhci_hcd 0000:05:00.0: ERROR no room on ep ring
[ 4484.413393] xhci_hcd 0000:05:00.0: ERROR no room on ep ring
[ 4484.413395] xhci_hcd 0000:05:00.0: ERROR no room on ep ring
[ 4484.413397] xhci_hcd 0000:05:00.0: ERROR no room on ep ring
[ 4484.413399] xhci_hcd 0000:05:00.0: ERROR no room on ep ring
[ 4484.413401] xhci_hcd 0000:05:00.0: ERROR no room on ep ring
[ 4484.413403] xhci_hcd 0000:05:00.0: ERROR no room on ep ring
[ 4484.413405] xhci_hcd 0000:05:00.0: ERROR no room on ep ring
[ 4484.413407] xhci_hcd 0000:05:00.0: ERROR no room on ep ring

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Ned

---------- Post added at 12:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:22 AM ----------

Hi,

I discovered that the problem was not with the kernel driver for the RTL8188CUS chip. Without realising it, I was plugging the dongle into a USB-3 port, as it was the only one available on the front panel of the computer. When I plugged the dongle into a USB-2 port, it connected straight away.

So, is this a problem with the xhci driver? Should the device work in a USB-3 port? That driver is where all those error messages were coming from in my previous post.

So, I'm happy that the dongle works, but concerned about the USB-3 support.

Regards,
Ned

[iamnguyen]

Hi Ned,

I am really new to linux, and I have similar problem that you have. I hope you would be able to help me.

I have a AWU111N wireless adapter, and it uses the same wireless driver. I have Fedora 17 and pretty much everything is updated. I downloaded the driver from http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...oads=true#2772, which gave me an install.sh file. I installed the file and the adapter seemed to pick up the network, but it couldn't connect me. I really don't know what to do. I installed the XP driver using Wine on Fedora but it didn't seem like it would help. I couldn't remove the XP driver using Wine.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[nedsnow]

Hi,

Your problem doesn't seem quite like mine - as I wrote, I discovered that the dongle wouldn't work in a USB3 port, but worked with the built-in drivers in a USB2 port. Are you plugging in to a USB2 port?

Installing Windows drivers using WINE won't work. To use the Windows drivers, you have to use the kernel NDIS wrapper. There are instructions around on the net on how to do that.

Unfortunately, I have discovered since my post that it is still not 100% there. I can connect to the Wifi fine, but after a variable amount of time ranging from a few minutes to a few hours, the connection will be lost and an authentication dialog will pop up. The authentication always fails, and the connection won't work again until I unplug and replug the adapter or reboot.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Regards,
Ned

[Misfit138]

The kernel drivers are horrible in my experience. They have a long way to go.
They are not usable with the Edimax ew-7811un; they work for 30 seconds, and then continually ask for the WPA password and never reconnect.

I blacklisted the rtl8192cu driver in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf as outlined in this article and used the drivers from the Realtek site.

I also followed this tip from the Ubuntu bugtracker to workaround the 'file not found' issue when compiling.

Fwiw there is a registered kernel bug for the rtl driver here.

[iamnguyen]

Thank you so much for your help, but I couldn't get to the link you talk about.

[Misfit138]

Originally Posted by iamnguyen

Thank you so much for your help, but I couldn't get to the link you talk about.

Oops.
Try again, I corrected the link!

[nedsnow]

Hi,

Not long after I marked this thread as solved, my adapter stopped working again. It would not authenticate at all, and would never connect. Every time I received a kernel update, I plugged the device in again, hoping that it would be fixed. This has not happened.

After the latest kernel failed (3.6.2-1.fc16.i686.PAE), I decided to try the Realtek drivers again I downloaded the latest driver file (RTL819xC_USB_linux_v3.4.4_4749.20120806.zip) and ran the install.sh script. Plugging in the adapter resulted in an immediate connection, which has remained stable for half an hour or so. It might still drop out after time, but looks good at the moment.

Regards,
Ned

[iamnguyen]

Hi Ned, the link Misfit138 showed me really helped me. Have you tried that solution? I stopped using Linux now, since my computer broke.

[nedsnow]

Hi,

What I did is essentially what is in that post - Install the Realtek drivers and blacklist the Fedora driver. The difference is that while I had no success with previous versions of the Realtek drivers, the current ones seem to work fine (still connected).

Regards,
Ned