Realtek RTL8188EE Dead in Linux, Works in Windows
 

My internal Realtek RTL8188EE wireless card is hard blocked, regardless of the state of my "airplane mode" key. My laptop does not have a dedicated RF kill switch.

Background: I made the switch to Debian 11 a year and a half ago. After a few months, my wireless connection became increasingly intermittent until the wifi would go down as soon as I started the laptop. No CLI commands would bring the connection back up; the only solution was to restart the machine. In the wireless menu in my KDE Plasma system tray, the message “device wl01 cannot be found” would appear.

Recently, I upgraded to Debian 12, and the exact same symptoms began about 6 weeks after the upgrade.

This problem still occurs if I boot up from a Debian 12 live install disc, however the wireless works like a charm when I boot from a Windows 12 PE disc.

Finally, I gave up and bought a new USB wireless adapter. Same behavior.

Advice is greatly appreciated!

$ sudo rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

$ inxi -MJN
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion 17 Notebook PC
v: 0975100000405F10000620180 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 227F v: 77.26 serial: <superuser required>
UEFI: Insyde v: F.12 date: 08/18/2014
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter driver: rtl8188ee
Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet driver: r8169
Device-3: Realtek 802.11ac NIC type: USB driver: btusb
USB:
Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0
Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0
Device-1: 1-1.3:3 info: Chicony HP Truevision HD camera type: Video
rev: 2.0
Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 9 rev: 2.0
Device-1: 2-6:3 info: Realtek 802.11ac NIC type: Bluetooth rev: 2.0
Device-2: 2-8:2 info: Elan Micro Touchscreen type: HID rev: 2.0
Hub-4: 3-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0

$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net:
08:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:8179] (rev 01)
DeviceName: Realtek RTL8188EE 802.11bgn Wi-Fi Adapter
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL8188EE mini-PCIe card [103c:197d]
--
09:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 08)
DeviceName: Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [103c:227f]
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

$ dmsg:
[ 6.030236] rtl8188ee: rtl8188ee: FW Power Save off (module option)
[ 6.030685] rtl8188ee: Using firmware rtlwifi/rtl8188efw.bin
[ 6.033159] rtl8188ee 0000:08:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware rtlwifi/rtl8188efw.bin
[ 6.040635] rtlwifi: rtlwifi: wireless switch is on
[ 6.064275] rtl8188ee 0000:08:00.0 wlo1: renamed from wlan0
[ 43.612759] wlo1: authenticate with dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84
[ 43.612782] wlo1: 80 MHz not supported, disabling VHT
[ 43.628997] wlo1: send auth to dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84 (try 1/3)
[ 43.630619] wlo1: authenticated
[ 43.636587] wlo1: associate with dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84 (try 1/3)
[ 43.640111] wlo1: RX AssocResp from dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84 (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=22)
[ 43.640353] wlo1: associated
[ 43.780905] wlo1: Limiting TX power to 30 (30 - 0) dBm as advertised by dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84
[ 43.848785] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlo1: link becomes ready
[ 974.227494] rtlwifi: AP off, try to reconnect now
[ 974.227579] wlo1: Connection to AP dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84 lost
[ 981.800650] wlo1: authenticate with dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84
[ 981.800666] wlo1: 80 MHz not supported, disabling VHT
[ 981.810691] wlo1: send auth to dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84 (try 1/3)
[ 981.812525] wlo1: authenticated
[ 981.815238] wlo1: associate with dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84 (try 1/3)
[ 981.818874] wlo1: RX AssocResp from dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84 (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=17)
[ 981.819111] wlo1: associated
[ 981.863213] wlo1: Limiting TX power to 30 (30 - 0) dBm as advertised by dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84
[ 994.931276] rtlwifi: AP off, try to reconnect now
[ 994.931313] wlo1: Connection to AP dc:8d:8a:11:2b:84 lost
[ 1039.040230] rtl8188ee: Failed to polling write LLT done at address 73!
[ 1039.040241] rtl8188ee: Init MAC failed

$ nmcli radio wifi:
enabled

$ sudo iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eno1 no wireless extensions.

wlo1 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=off
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off

Hello lugnuts & welcome to LQ

Realtek don't usually write linux code. Look for a driver on github.com. Just search for the device. You will have to download the code and compile it. Follow instructions in the README, and for heaven's sake STOP BUYING REALTEK. There are other manufacturers, you know. Qualcomm is always great on wifi.

My apologies for replying. Though I not an expert at wifi, I am usually good enough at reading mesg logs.

It seems as though your wifi hotspot is telling your laptop to limit it's transmit power, and then shutting down your connection right after your laptop does that.

The problem might be with the hotspot in the log. Does your wifi have the same failure with other hotspots?

If it is the same failure everywhere, but not for windows, then I would guess that Debian is incorrectly controlling your wifi signals.

That your wifi under Debian originally worked, and time passed before the problem showed itself, this would suggest that /something changed/ in your wifi configuration.

One easy thing to check-on is your "country code". If you do not have one specified, you probably should, pick one compatible with your location.

Also be aware that if you are using recent releases of Debian, you really really really need to check on what version of "lzmautils" you have installed. There is a severe security alert out regarding a backdoor. A backdoor could let an intruder change your wifi config, or do anything else they want.