rtl819xE wireless driver malfunctions

[turbolad]

Hi.

I'm using Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04

On my Samsung NB30 netbook, I've been having problems with the rtl819xE wireless. Although it works most of the time, often it won't work on the first boot - I have to restart Ubuntu again to get the wireless working. It has times when it disconnects then reconnects.

Lastly, the log files get flooded with this: ieee80211_parse_info_param(): athros AP is exist

Any solutions?

Thanks.

[turbolad (turbolad995)]

The "cure" seems to be this, I quote:

I had the same wireless problem that you did. After a bit of looking around I discovered that the default Realtek kernel module was being loaded and the one provided with the "samsung-wireless" package was not being loaded - even though it was installed and available. You may be in luck because this was kind of an easy fix for me once I figured out what was happening.

Here's a few things you can try:
*** You need a wired connection to the network for this since we will uninstall the wireless module***

**Make sure you have updated your system to the latest supported kernel. Currently 2.6.32-24** If you haven't done that, then do it first and come back to this**

Now type:
$> lspci -v

This will show you the PCI bus information. Confirm that you have a Realtek wireless card model 8192x - otherwise this won't work :-) The information will show you that there is a module loaded and two modules installed.

One of the installed modules is r8192_pci and the other should be r8192e_pci
Assuming this is what you see, then proceed:

$> sudo lsmod |grep r8

This will show you what module is loaded in the running kernel. I'm going to guess that the r8192_pci module is loaded and not the r8192e_pci module.

$> sudo modprobe -r r8192_pci

This will gracefully unload the running module. Note that now if you click on the network status icon on the task bar you will not see a wireless option... thats good. That means the module is removed. You can verify by typing $> sudo lsmod |grep r8

Now that we've unloaded the default kernel module, we will load the one provided by "samsung-wireless".

$> sudo modprobe r8192e_pci

There should be no errors.

Verify that the module is loaded by typing

$> sudo lsmod |grep r8

The output should show the "e" module loaded. Now test your wireless... run it for a couple of hours... or even days... see if it solves your problem. It did for me.

BUT!! Don't reboot yet because when you do, the default module will load, you'll have a conflict and you'll be back to where you started :-)

If this fixed your problem, you need to prevent the default module from loading in the future. To do this you need to edit the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file.

$> sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf &

Once gnome-edit opens the file, add this at the end:

#This is a comment line - we will prevent the default Realtek 8192 modules from loading
#by blacklisting them
blacklist r8192_pci
blacklist r8192usb_pci
blacklist r8192se_pci

Now save the file and close gedit. verify the entry by checking:
$> sudo less /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Your entry should be there.

Now it's safe to re-boot. So reboot.
$> sudo reboot

When the system comes back up, verify which module has been loaded.

$> sudo lsmod |grep r8

It should be the r8192e_pci module, and your wireless problems should be solved on the NB30.

[turbolad (turbolad995)]

Note: Help with Linux on Samsung computers - Ubuntu in particular - can be found in the "Linux" section of the Voria site:

http://www.voria.org/forum/

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi turbolad,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 617533

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

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[turbolad (turbolad995)]

I believe this bug can be "fixed" if the latest "Samsung wireless" driver is used on the Realtek rtl819xE instead of the driver which comes with Ubuntu, when installing on the Samsung NB30.

Voria provides the help: http://www.voria.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu development release http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[turbolad (turbolad995)]

The "Samsung Wireless" does not work with the latest kernel on Ubuntu 10.04