Wireless and audio wont work on my fresh installs.

Rikeri · 09-16-2018, 07:46 AM

Hi, I've recently trying to install Linux onto my fairly new, and very cheap(really low specs) laptop. I've tried Lubuntu, Ubuntu and now Zorin Lite which is my favorite and the one I plan to use.

The problem however is that all of the above OS fail to detect my audio while both Ubuntu and Zorin fail to detect my wireless firmware. It runs on Lubuntu fine. The wireless is my main concern at the moment.

I know my PC uses a realtek wlan adapter so I went to their site on another computer and downloaded all 4 of their wlan/bluetooth drivers and tried each of them one by one on the 'Windows Wireless Drivers' thing. They all come up as 'Hardware Present: No'. I also tried various random commands I found on the internet for these things but none of them work. I mean except for the ones that download stuff from the internet since the laptop doesn't have a Ethernet port.

The following is the result from running 'sudo lshw -c network':
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
logical name: wlan0
serial: 84:20:96:d0:a1

6
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt18723bs mutlicast=yes wirelesss=unassociated

I tried posting this on Zorin OS but the post didn't go through(I think). It didn't show up but maybe its just laggy.

Thanks.

business_kid · 09-16-2018, 01:19 PM

Hello, Rikeri & Welcome to LQ.

The most effective search is usually to google '<device> linux module' and you'll usually find something. In some cases Realtek particularly will have a module, but not in the kernel. That usually builds a module using your kernel source and puts in /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/misc.

If firmware is required, that may be another issue. You find the binary and stuff it as instructed in /lib/firmware.

Rikeri · 09-16-2018, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Hello, Rikeri & Welcome to LQ.

The most effective search is usually to google '<device> linux module' and you'll usually find something. In some cases Realtek particularly will have a module, but not in the kernel. That usually builds a module using your kernel source and puts in /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/misc.

If firmware is required, that may be another issue. You find the binary and stuff it as instructed in /lib/firmware.

Hi, Business Kid thanks for replying. I tried searching up my specific driver 'realtek rt18723bs linux driver' but there was no driver for that version. Does the driver need to be exact or can other realtek wlan linux drivers work?

Also it might be a firmware issue since every time before start up, three missing lines pop up for a second saying:
[ 8.972493] Request firmware failed with error 0xfffffffe
[ 9.067029] Request firmware failed with error 0xfffffffe
[ 9.069716] Request firmware failed with error 0xfffffffe

business_kid · 09-17-2018, 03:58 AM

Yes, one driver might be covering a few, or many realtek chips. They do keep making different models, but research, development & testing/approvals isn't that fast a process even if you throw huge resources at it.

Asking for firmware is a good sign. Repeat the google with 'firmware' instead of model. Something I missed earlier was this.

Code:

configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt18723bs mutlicast=yes wirelesss=unassociated

That indicates some module is talking to it, so relax, and let's worry about firmware. That's a binary to run the onboard cpu. This is conbfusing as it's non-free stuff, but this seems to be a worthwhile_link Try rebooting with that installed. No dependencies, I imagine. It seems to pack stuff in /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/. Can you handle debs? there's deb2tgz somewhere.

Rikeri · 09-17-2018, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Yes, one driver might be covering a few, or many realtek chips. They do keep making different models, but research, development & testing/approvals isn't that fast a process even if you throw huge resources at it.

Asking for firmware is a good sign. Repeat the google with 'firmware' instead of model. Something I missed earlier was this.

Code:

configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt18723bs mutlicast=yes wirelesss=unassociated

That indicates some module is talking to it, so relax, and let's worry about firmware. That's a binary to run the onboard cpu. This is conbfusing as it's non-free stuff, but this seems to be a worthwhile_link Try rebooting with that installed. No dependencies, I imagine. It seems to pack stuff in /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/. Can you handle debs? there's deb2tgz somewhere.

Thank you for your continued help on this Business Kid. I think Zorin can run debs. When i tried installing that pack I got the following error message:

Code:

dpkg: error processing archive /home/rikeri/firmware-realtek_0.43_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/lib/firmware/RTL8192E/main.img', which is also in package linux-firmware 1.157.20
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /home/rikeri/firmware-realtek_0.43_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

It might be because of something I tried earlier when I was browsing google for answers. I cloned this git repo which seems to be filled with realtek drivers https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new and ran a

Code:

make
sudo make install

on it. It seems to have filled /lib/firmware/rtlwifi with a bunch of *.bin files. Should I remove these and try again? Or is the error something else.

Rikeri · 09-17-2018, 06:59 PM

I finally got my wifi to work and also learned how stupid I am in the process. The driver was rtl8723bs not rtONE8723bs. I was browsing google after searching with rtONE8723bs when I noted that most of the other realtek firmware and drivers all start with 'rtl'. That's when it clicked to me that I am a complete moron.

After establishing that fact I was able to easily find the correct driver and install it. Thank you so much business kid. I couldn't have done this without your help! <3