The firmware should be in /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/, but appears to be missing. As expected for a distro that excludes non-free blobs. If you want to use that card you need to acquire and install the firmware for it.

Then reboot and the driver should load the now existing firmware and hopefully work. You could also modprobe -r and modprobe the rtl8192ce module to avoid rebooting. Things like this is why I like to install linux in linux with stuff like arch-chroot or debootstrap. It lets you get all the quirky networking stuff worked out before you have to actually use the network on a fresh install.

Most times I have ethernet options to other devices that handle wifi. In days of old my asus rt-n12 handled this ($40 at frys). But I gave my asus rt-n16 to my dad so now I only have the rt-n12 for the ISP side of wifi. So I ethernet to another laptop that bridges to the wifi. Someday I'll get a raspberry pi 3 or better and it'll handle that task.

@#31: oh! I'm -learning-, in VBox, so I'm -not- aware of the whole concept of firmware *.bin
So, my post #29 probably won't work (fully anyway). I'm confused/lost (what will happen?):
`modinfo rtl8192ce` on Trisquel doesn't list the "firmware: ... .bin" (but has the .ko !)

Vexon,

The first compromise is to ditch Trisquel and use another distro, preferably a lightweight one such as antiX-16.1.

I have a similar Realtek wifi card (RTL 8192E) inside my Samsung N220 netbook.

I am using the 32 bit version of antiX-16.1 and the wifi works without any modification.

I cannot guarantee that your RTL8188CE will work in a similar fashion, but it has to be worth a try.

antiX is usually very good at enabling wifi cards, including awkward ones from Broadcom.

Download the 32 bit antiX-16.1_386-full.iso:
http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?tit...Page#Downloads

antiX-16 FAQs:
http://download.tuxfamily.org/antix/...FAQ/index.html

To enable wifi after installation:

Menu > Control Centre > Network > Network Interfaces (ceni) > wlan0 > follow wizard and give SSID/network name and wifi password.

Here is a link to somebody using Debian 8 Jessie:
https://www.linuxbabe.com/desktop-li...lling-debian-8

There are specific instructions on how to deal with the Realtek RTL8188CE card.

EDIT

Having said all that, the easy way is to get a wifi adapter that works.

Here is another that works "out of the box" because I have just tried it.


TP-Link-TL-WN727N ($8 on ebay):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TP-Link-TL-W...3D262822622542

Normally when it's missing it'll show up in dmesg. It'll also show up when it isn't missing.

$ dmesg | grep -i firmware

If you examine the source or use strings on the binary that is the kernel module (.ko), you'll see it there too.

$ strings /lib/modules/3.16.0-4-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8192ce/rtl8192ce.ko | grep .bin

For debian jessie on a 64 bit system. For other drivers it tends to end in .fw. Like my ethernet one for a device I actually have on the system I'm posting from.

$ strings /lib/modules/3.16.0-4-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169.ko | grep -i .fw

Which firmware gets used depends on the hardware, so there will be more listed there than will get used by your system and your hardware. Replace 3.16.0-4-amd64 with $(uname -r) if you're not using debian. Although without the actual name, tab completion doesn't aid you in long path names.

Are you sure about this? Isn't there a way of installing a driver offline? Anybody?

You were faster than I could respond to your post #20. My response to that was post #26.

What conflicting things am I saying? And where did I say I want free software only?

Reading my posts again, I can't but wonder if my post #12 caused some confusion. What I meant to say there was: That's why it's a very situation, because I'm gonna have to install the non-free driver now.

Does this maybe clarify things a bit better? Sorry for the confusion again.

And thanks for the help.

Cheers.

I can't even take specific parts of this post to respond, because I don't even get what part is what!

Jjanel, I think you just graduated from Chinese to Minoan!

Is this even legal?

Anybody wanna help??

I don't think that'll be happening. Unless, again, someone can suggest a way of doing that.

I am glad you said that, because I think I will have to switch that machine to GNU at some point too. A question though: Don't most Atheros cards have free drivers? I certainly saw some of them being advertised as precisely for being free/libre.

Whats a "special drawer"?

What's the difference between the firmware and the driver? I think this is important, because if firmware is the software already present in the physical chip, and if I would be changing that, I would like to back it up first!

Again:

Anybody can provide some information please!

P.S.: By the way, the rest of the post went into a secondary language again for me (though I understood quite a bit, so it's not Chinese!).

Jjanel, seriously!

Again, beachboy2, why would I need to do that? Can I not install this freak'n driver (free or non-free, doesn't matter) and be done with it? I mean, is this really this difficult?

I didn't figure you did, thank you for working with on that.

Hmm, check the exact file name of the package. Is it the same as what you entered in the command? It's not seeing it for some reason...

Regards...

I thought I owned this thread, but... Maybe not.

I let you two lads chat in your language I guess...

Essentially a garbage can.

Also, if you have can establish an ethernet connection, take a look at post #31.

Regards...

But he is trying to help.

I think he was following up on Shadow_7's idea (I think) of making sure that you have the driver module installed along with the firmware, otherwise just installing the firmware will do no good. Using the command "modinfo" and then the driver name would be a way of verifying that.

Regards...