I have the wireless drivers BUT.....

malarcy · **Joined:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:04 pm **Posts:** 61

I emailed realtek - they sent me the 8187se linux drivers - BUT

I can't get them to build - certainly on my system Ubuntu 8.04.1 with the kernal headers and build-essential installed I don't get very far - I tried fixing the 1st few errors that came up (CFLAGS should be EXTRA_CFLAGS) and then started looking at the other problems - but lost the will to live.

I can't post them here for others to try (file is too big at 1.3 mb) so if someone can suggest somewhere I can post them then I will - happy to join in trying to get them work - but I didn't write 'em and whilst I am reasonably able with linux - I don't write device drivers, so it's a voyage of discovery for all of us.

Malarcy

Solinx: Added the file as an attachement

doody · **Posted:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:39 pm

Mediafire is a good file hosting site.

No fair, I emailed them for drivers as well, but they didn't reply.

malarcy · **Joined:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:04 pm **Posts:** 61

Here you go.

http://www.mediafire.com/?tmctfjmzbd9

Thanks for the pointer to mediafire

Malarcy

Grackle · **Joined:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:39 pm **Posts:** 44

Okay, I've made some modifications to compile it under Ubuntu 8.04 with the current included kernel. Here are instructions on making it work.

First, you need a proper build environment with the appropriate kernel headers. This is done fairly easily:

Code:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

Next, download and unpack the modified driver sources:

Code:

wget http://scopeboy.com/things/rtl8187se_linux_26.1012.0331.2008_modified.tar.gz
tar xvzf rtl8187se_linux_26.1012.0331.2008_modified.tar.gz

Now build them. Note that you'll need to set an environment variable in order to avoid a certain problem:

Code:

cd rtl8187se_linux_26.1012.0331.2008
export KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1
./makedrv

Now, assuming everything compiled without errors, try starting it all up using the wlan0up script. This will insert the appropriate modules and enable the wireless device. You should then be able to use it with Ubuntu's network manager.

Code:

sudo ./wlan0up

I don't have an MSI Wind, so I'd appreciate some feedback on whether or not this works.

Cupcake · **Joined:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 4:57 pm **Posts:** 12

Hi Grackle, malarcy

Just thought I'd let you know that the updated drivers seem to work splendidly for me with WEP on an Advent.

Great job getting that working

malarcy · **Joined:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:04 pm **Posts:** 61

TOP EFFORT

Confirmed working on 64 bit WEP setup - well done.

Malarcy

malarcy · **Joined:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:04 pm **Posts:** 61

Grackle

Just wanted to say thanks for the updates - just for my own education - would you mind explaining the mods you made (I can diff the files, but if you could give me some pointers that would be great) - also - what's the purpose of the environment variable - I am guessing that it's to stop the build process throwing errors but I am inquisitive by nature and if I can I like to learn from people who know more stuff than me.

Any help appreciated.

Malarcy

doody · **Posted:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:49 pm

Alright, looks like we have wireless working in Linux on the Wind

.

Grackle · **Joined:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:39 pm **Posts:** 44

Hooray, I'm glad to hear that it works. As for the changes, off the top of my head, this is what I had to do: The ieee80211 modules were trying to access a member of a struct whose name had changed since the driver was written, so I fixed that. r8180_core.c had a few problems. It used a #define that was no longer defined. I think it's doing something that's now deprecated, but I just kludged it to make it work. There was also some other line that was using a deprecated method of reporting device info. I just deleted it. It was not an essential part of the driver. I don't really know much about writing linux device drivers, so I went for the simple solution.

[edit] Oh, I forgot to mention, the environment variable suppresses an error regarding changed CFLAGS.

malarcy · **Joined:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:04 pm **Posts:** 61

Grackle wrote:

Hooray, I'm glad to hear that it works. As for the changes, off the top of my head, this is what I had to do: The ieee80211 modules were trying to access a member of a struct whose name had changed since the driver was written, so I fixed that. r8180_core.c had a few problems. It used a #define that was no longer defined. I think it's doing something that's now deprecated, but I just kludged it to make it work. There was also some other line that was using a deprecated method of reporting device info. I just deleted it. It was not an essential part of the driver. I don't really know much about writing linux device drivers, so I went for the simple solution.

[edit] Oh, I forgot to mention, the environment variable suppresses an error regarding changed CFLAGS.

Shoot - I was close - I didn't know about the CFLAGS bit. I changed the ieee modules to use the new page_select rather than page (if I remember correctly) - and the SET_MODULE_OWNER stuff I commented out rather than fixing - I just got bored at that point and thought I was going to spend all day on it.

Just a little bit more patience! - but whatever - you stuck with it and we have a working driver .

Malarcy

Grackle · **Joined:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:39 pm **Posts:** 44

Ah yes, SET_MODULE_OWNER was the one I removed.

grimsqueaker · **Joined:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 4:35 pm **Posts:** 2

excellent news, big pats on back deserved....

has anyone managed to get it working with WPA??

would give it the portability available to the windows build then...

ratx · **Joined:** Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:40 pm **Posts:** 18

Thanks Grackle!

gaptag · **Joined:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 10:19 am **Posts:** 20

Thanks Grackle! I just finished installing Ubuntu and compiling the driver and it seems to work great!

Hopefully given time the drivers will make their way into the kernel proper at some point!

stevo · **Joined:** Fri Jun 06, 2008 10:17 pm **Posts:** 20

Hmm--so did Realtek patch their 8185 drivers to work with the 8187SE? The best way to handle this would be to make a .deb file of these, so anyone using the same kernel could easily install them, but I'm learning how to do that with driver modules...

omahn · **Joined:** Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:50 am **Posts:** 10

grimsqueaker wrote:

has anyone managed to get it working with WPA??

WPA personal works, I'll be testing WPA enterprise on Monday.

malarcy · **Joined:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:04 pm **Posts:** 61

stevo wrote:

Hmm--so did Realtek patch their 8185 drivers to work with the 8187SE? The best way to handle this would be to make a .deb file of these, so anyone using the same kernel could easily install them, but I'm learning how to do that with driver modules...

Looks like they did patch the 8185 driver- the module builds as , 8185 - and although I am no expert the code doesn't look that clean to me - lots of compile warning idicating some sloppy coding - that said - they work - maybe there will be a nicer version for the SUSE distro when it comes out.

Malarcy

pipi · **Joined:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:09 pm **Posts:** 2

Hi all,

My first post on this forum, I've got the Advent and I managed to partition my drive and install Ubuntu - this works an absolute treat - even the windows effects work great.

The instructions at the start of this forum enabled me to use my wifi driver, at the moment I have to execute the wifi script on each boot up - is there a way I can automate this? (not being an ubuntu expert).

Great work guys!!

Cupcake · **Joined:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 4:57 pm **Posts:** 12

pipi,

You can copy all the .ko files into /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ and then run

Code:

sudo depmod
sudo modprobe r8180

That will map all the new modules so the wireless drivers are accessible at boot.

edit: Just for completeness, the list of .ko files you need are:

(in ieee80211)
ieee80211_crypt-rtl.ko
ieee80211_crypt_wep-rtl.ko
ieee80211_crypt_tkip-rtl.ko
ieee80211_crypt_ccmp-rtl.ko
ieee80211-rtl.ko

(in rtl8185)
r8180.ko

pipi · **Joined:** Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:09 pm **Posts:** 2

CupCake,

That worked a treat! - you're a star!!

Now I have a perfect ubuntu working on my advent

I have the wireless drivers BUT.....

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