[Regression] Realtek RTL-8185 Wifi not recognized in Hardy 8.04 Alpha 5

[Chris Hasbrouck]

First, I'd like to note there is a forum post related to this problem as well http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4417010#post4417010

Scenario:
1. Installed Kubuntu Hardy Heron Alpha 4 using the hardy-desktop-amd64.iso image burned to a CD
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=8.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=hardy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu hardy (development branch)"
2. Only the wired version of my network is recognized by Network Manager and it does work when I connect it to my router using DHCP
3. Upgraded to Alpha 5 packages using Adept Manager "Full Upgrade" option and rebooted. No luck with wireless after reboot.
4. Card shows up in lspci
06:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8185 IEEE 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 20)
4. Received the following from lshw -class network
chasbrou@chasbrou-laptop:~$ sudo lshw -class network
[sudo] password for chasbrou:
  *-network UNCLAIMED
       description: Ethernet controller
       product: RTL-8185 IEEE 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN Controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 9
       bus info: pci@0000:06:09.0
       version: 20
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0 maxlatency=64 mingnt=32

I'll be happy to do more troubleshooting and will be able to five quick responses to any queries.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Chris,

Care to test the latest Hardy Alpha 6 release. If the issue still exists, per the kernel team's bug policy, can you please attach the following information. Please be sure to attach each file as a separate attachment.

* cat /proc/version_signature > version.log
* dmesg > dmesg.log
* sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log

For more information regarding the kernel team bug policy, please refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies . Thanks again and we appreciate your help and feedback.

[Brian Luft (brian-unbracketed)]

Hello,

I am having the same issue using Hardy Beta 1. The Realtek 8185 was working OK with 7.10 (except for the issues with WEP networks where the caps lock light comes on and system freezes as has been reported by others elsewhere). I downloaded the UI installer from Realtek and have tried the various drivers included in the package:
WinXP - ndiswrapper_loaddriver reports an error that it needs a 64 bit driver (I'm on AMD64x2)
Win2000 - same problem
Vista - incompatible ndis
Vistax64 - no go
x64 - ndiswrapper is able to load this driver (as evidenced in syslogs), but the system becomes unstable after a few seconds and subsequent reboots lock up until I remove the driver folder from ndiswrapper

I also tried downloading the Linux driver from Realtek but its for an earlier kernel version and won't build for me.

On a positive note, sound now works with Hardy (Gateway MT3423)! But no wireless is a major downer. I'm happy to provide more info as needed.

[Brian Luft (brian-unbracketed)]

version.log is attached to previous email
This is dmesg.log

[Brian Luft (brian-unbracketed)]

lspci log

[Brian Luft (brian-unbracketed)]

I am including the relevant logs from the Ubuntu 7.10 Live CD which detected my Realtek adapter and worked out of the box for comparison.

NOTE: THIS IS FROM A WORKING ENVIRONMENT OF LIVE CD 7.10 FOR COMPARISON. LOGS FOR THE BUG DIAGNOSIS ARE IN MY PREVIOUS MESSAGES/ATTACHMENTS ABOVE.

[Brian Luft (brian-unbracketed)]

NOTE: THIS IS FROM A WORKING ENVIRONMENT OF LIVE CD 7.10 FOR COMPARISON. LOGS FOR THE BUG DIAGNOSIS ARE IN MY PREVIOUS MESSAGES/ATTACHMENTS ABOVE.

[Brian Luft (brian-unbracketed)]

NOTE: THIS IS FROM A WORKING ENVIRONMENT OF LIVE CD 7.10 FOR COMPARISON. LOGS FOR THE BUG DIAGNOSIS ARE IN MY PREVIOUS MESSAGES/ATTACHMENTS ABOVE.

[Derek (bugs-m8y)]

Also no RTL-8185 in Hardy Beta.
Tad concerned on this eve of the kernel freeze.

[Derek (bugs-m8y)]

ftp://66.104.77.130/cn/wlan/rtl8185_linux_26%5B1%5D.1027.0823.2007.tar.gz
Trying to build these sources. Unfortunately they need some porting to work with 2.6.24 as noted above.
SET_MODULE_OWNER undeclared
proc_net undeclared
passing argument 2 of request_irq from incompatible pointer type

Hoping someone with more kernel and network experience might be able to tweak a bit and p'raps help me get something working on my machine.

[Will Daniels (wdaniels)]

I made a patch for this driver the other day to get it to compile on the 2.6.24 kernel. It worked fine with WEP through nm-applet initially, for about 24 hours, but suddenly it wouldn't associate to the AP no matter what I did. But I got it working with iwconfig and it's been perfect ever since (about 3 days now) with heavy load. I'm not much of an expert with drivers and kernel stuff, but the changes were quite simple. Surely somebody experienced could do the necessary to fix this properly in Hardy before release - it's such a shame that this driver was bugged for WEP with Gutsy, and now not even present in Hardy. You can get my patched sources from http://www.willdaniels.co.uk/index.php/blog/tech-stuff if it will help, and there is a brief explanation of the changes, but it's the first time I ever messed with this kind of stuff (or even made a patch file) so it might not be quite right.

[Brian Luft (brian-unbracketed)]

Will,

Very nice work and thank you so much for posting your changes. The build succeeded after applying your patch and so far the wireless adapter has been performing admirably (over the last several hours). Streaming, large downloads - no problem. Funny, I've always thought that the hardware that shipped with this laptop was bunk because with Vista I often had a lot of problems even getting a handshake going with the AP. I would always get "no response from router" until I got really close to the AP. With this realtek driver on Ubuntu it connects to WEP network even when I'm a few rooms away. Hmmm...

The good news is I can officially ditch Vista on this laptop now :) This Hardy release really has a lot of nice touches and I'm excited that I can pretty much make Ubuntu my full time OS now. Hopefully this driver issue will be resolved by release. It would be a win for all the cheapo laptop owners out there!

BTW I'm running on AMD64x2.

I have also posted this to the forum thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4743700#post4743700

[Derek (bugs-m8y)]

Thanks for your patch Will!
I appreciate your taking time to look into it and adding the .24-isms.
Will push it out to my friend's laptop the next time she's online.

[Bernard van der Velden (bernard-vyper)]

I had the same problem, but after trying the patch from http://www.willdaniels.co.uk/index.php/blog/tech-stuff my wireless works. I can't see the signal-strength of the access-points, but I can connect and use the using WEP encryption. My System is an Intel Core2 Quad Q6600@2,4GHz. Compiling gave me some non-fatal errors.

[Roland Giesler (lifeboy)]

Excellent, Will! My ndiswrapper drivers where also just disconnecting me from the AP randomly, but once I installed your patch even the graphic tool (nm-applet) works with the driver.

[Dieter Moerschel (dmoer)]

The patched linux 2.6.22 realtek driver works for my linux 2.6.24-17 too :D. Though I experience frequent disconnects from my AP. ('CCMP: replay detected' in my logs) (note: after deinstalling the network manager my connection was stable)

[Brian Luft (brian-unbracketed)]

Note that recent updates to the kernel image (2.6.24.18) broke the driver. Running makedrv to rebuild the driver worked fine.

[Dan Lenski (lenski)]

Will, thanks a ton for your patch! I have my RTL-8185 working flawlessly under 2.6.24-18 and 2.6.24-19, even under fairly heavy load as a server :-) This is the first time I have had this card working stably on a Linux system, and it is just great to finally have it working!!

I certainly hope that your patch will be picked up by Ubuntu and other distributors (*cough* 8.10 *cough*!!!!)

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

Perhaps someone could try the wireless compatibility stack in my PPA linux-backports-modules that I'm about to release for Hardy:

http://ppa.launchpad.net/timg-tpi/ubuntu

[Will Daniels (wdaniels)]

Hi Tim, I'm now adding this comment using the new mac80211-based driver from your linux-backports-modules package !!! :) :) Everything seems to work OK, even through Network Manager. I'm using WPA2 PSK encryption but can't try any others because the wireless on my Asus Eee only connects about 1 time in 20 so I'd rather not upset it at the minute, or I'll end up spending the whole evening fiddling with that. Nice work mate :) Thanks.

(PS: Only thing to mention is that the signal strength doesn't seem to be reported correctly, but I guess that will get fixed upstream soon enough)

[Will Daniels (wdaniels)]

I just noticed that this rtl8180 module doesn't load automatically at boot. Will people have to add it to /etc/modules manually then or is there something wrong/missing for the init scripts? Running depmod -a writes the dependency of rtl8180 on mac80211 into modules.dep file, as expected, but that doesn't cause it to load on boot (to be honest I've never really understood how modules.dep is supposed to cause that to happen anyway, although enough people seem to say it does).

[silkko (silkko)]

I have read a lot of articles on this and found a patch for this as well but i still can't get it working.. I believe this is because am a total noob.. all the same am a fast learner and would love it if i could have the step by step compilation.I use hardy.

I keep getting errors even after getting the patch. I got it from here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/196285 and http://www.willdaniels.co.uk/index.php/blog/tech-stuff.

I'd like to display a break down of my display..

[QUOTE]silkko@DATA-laptop:~$ unzip /home/silkko/Desktop/rtl8185.zip
Archive: /home/silkko/Desktop/rtl8185.zip
   creating: rtl8185/
  inflating: rtl8185/makedrv
  inflating: rtl8185/wlan0down
  inflating: rtl8185/release_note
 extracting: rtl8185/ifcfg-wlan0
  inflating: rtl8185/readme
  inflating: rtl8185/wlan0dhcp
  inflating: rtl8185/wlan0up
  inflating: rtl8185/wpa_supplicant-0.4.9.tar.gz
  inflating: rtl8185/rtl8185.tar.gz
  inflating: rtl8185/rtl8185-fix2.6.24.patch
  inflating: rtl8185/stack.tar.gz
silkko@DATA-laptop:~$ cd rtl8185
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]silkko@DATA-laptop:~/rtl8185$ ./makedrv
./ieee80211/
./ieee80211/ieee80211_module.c
./ieee80211/ieee80211_rx.c
./ieee80211/tags
./ieee80211/Makefile
./ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt_tkip.c
./ieee80211/ieee80211_softmac.c
./ieee80211/readme
./ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt_ccmp.c
./ieee80211/ieee80211.h
./ieee80211/ieee80211_tx.c
./ieee80211/ieee80211_softmac_wx.c
./ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt.h
./ieee80211/ieee80211_wx.c
./ieee80211/license
./ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt_wep.c
./ieee80211/ieee80211_crypt.c
rtl8185/
rtl8185/README.adhoc
rtl8185/r8180_sa2400.h
rtl8185/Makefile
rtl8185/copying
rtl8185/README.master
rtl8185/r8180.h
rtl8185/install
rtl8185/r8180_max2820.h
rtl8185/r8180_max2820.c
rtl8185/r8180_rtl8225.h
rtl8185/r8180_wx.h
rtl8185/authors
rtl8185/tags
rtl8185/r8180_pm.c
rtl8185/r8180_hw.h
rtl8185/r8180_gct.c
rtl8185/r8180_gct.h
rtl8185/r8180_rtl8225.c
rtl8185/readme
rtl8185/r8180_93cx6.h
rtl8185/ieee80211.h
rtl8185/license
rtl8185/r8180_pm.h
rtl8185/changes
rtl8185/r8180_rtl8225z2.c
rtl8185/r8180_wx.c
rtl8185/r8180_rtl8255.c
rtl8185/r8180_93cx6.c
rtl8185/r8180_sa2400.c
rtl8185/r8180_core.c
rtl8185/r8180_rtl8255.h
rtl8185/ieee80211_crypt.h
./makedrv: line 5: patch: command not found
rm -f *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko
rm -rf /home/silkko/rtl8185/ieee80211/tmp
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/build M=/home/silkko/rtl8185/ieee80211 CC=gcc modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.24-19-generic'
  CC [M] /home/silkko/rtl8185/ieee80211/ieee80211_softmac.o
/home/silkko/rtl8185/ieee80211/ieee80211_softmac.c: In function ‘ieee80211_softmac_init’:
/home/silkko/rtl8185/ieee80211/ieee80211_softmac.c:2236: warning: assignment from incompatible pointer type
/home/silkko/rtl8185/ieee80211/ieee80211_softmac.c:2237: warning: assignment from incompatible pointer type
/home/silkko/rtl8185/ieee80211/ieee80211_softmac.c:2238: warning: assignment from incompatible pointer type
/home/silkko/rtl8185/ieee80211/ieee80211_softmac.c:2239: warning: assignment from incompatible pointer type
/home/silkko/rtl8185/ieee80211/ieee80211_softmac.c:22...

[Will Daniels (wdaniels)]

silkko: you need to also install the patch tool:

sudo apt-get install patch

(sorry, I seem to have missed that in the instructions)

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount)]

I can confirm that this card still does not work in Ubuntu 8.04.1. I am rebooting to test Ubuntu Intrepid RC right now and will report back.

[Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount)]

I can confirm that 8.10 can and does recognize the card. Appears to only be a regression in 8.04

[Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount)]

I can also confirm that using the fix found here: http://willdaniels.co.uk/articles/howto-guides/10-howto/12-r8180-hardy using http://www.willdaniels.co.uk/attachments/rtl8185.zip, works perfectly.

Would you like me to post my dmesg and lspci for 8.04.1 and 8.10 LiveCD, including before and afters with the patch for 8.04.1?

[Brian Luft (brian-unbracketed)]

I just upgraded to 8.10 from 8.04 and I can confirm that the WiFi hardware
is recognized and working.

I did have to do a "sudo modprobe rtl8180" before it was recognized. As has
been reported elsewhere
(http://willdaniels.co.uk/articles/howto-guides/10-howto/12-r8180-hardy) and
(http://willdaniels.co.uk/articles/howto-guides/10-howto/15-rtl8180-hardy),
the network strength indicator shows much lower status then what it is
probably getting. In a few cursory bandwidth tests it is pegging out as high
as my DSL + home router combo should be delivering.

On an aside, the screen used to get all garbled anytime the screen would go
to screensaver or display would power off and I'd have to restart gdm. That
doesn't look to be happening anymore - Ubuntu FTW! Kudos to the team and
their efforts.

-Brian

On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 7:04 AM, Brett Alton <email address hidden>wrote:

> I can also confirm that using the fix found here:
> http://willdaniels.co.uk/articles/howto-guides/10-howto/12-r8180-hardy
> using http://www.willdaniels.co.uk/attachments/rtl8185.zip, works
> perfectly.
>
> Would you like me to post my dmesg and lspci for 8.04.1 and 8.10 LiveCD,
> including before and afters with the patch for 8.04.1?
>
> --
> [Regression] Realtek RTL-8185 Wifi not recognized in Hardy 8.04 Alpha 5
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/196285
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in "linux" source package in Ubuntu: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> First, I'd like to note there is a forum post related to this problem as
> well http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4417010#post4417010
>
> Scenario:
> 1. Installed Kubuntu Hardy Heron Alpha 4 using the hardy-desktop-amd64.iso
> image burned to a CD
> DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
> DISTRIB_RELEASE=8.04
> DISTRIB_CODENAME=hardy
> DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu hardy (development branch)"
> 2. Only the wired version of my network is recognized by Network Manager
> and it does work when I connect it to my router using DHCP
> 3. Upgraded to Alpha 5 packages using Adept Manager "Full Upgrade" option
> and rebooted. No luck with wireless after reboot.
> 4. Card shows up in lspci
> 06:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8185 IEEE
> 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 20)
> 4. Received the following from lshw -class network
> chasbrou@chasbrou-laptop:~$ sudo lshw -class network
> [sudo] password for chasbrou:
> *-network UNCLAIMED
> description: Ethernet controller
> product: RTL-8185 IEEE 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN Controller
> vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
> physical id: 9
> bus info: pci@0000:06:09.0
> version: 20
> width: 32 bits
> clock: 33MHz
> capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
> configuration: latency=0 maxlatency=64 mingnt=32
>
> I'll be happy to do more troubleshooting and will be able to five quick
> responses to any queries.
>

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks for the updates. I'm marking this Fix Released for Intrepid. For those running Hardy, have you tried installing the linux-backports-modules package to see if it helps? Thanks.

[Jérémy Subtil (bigmadwolf)]

Installing linux-backports-modules on Hardy avoids me to start my computer: the booting process is fine, but X doesn't start and doesn't even show any error message (there's only an endless trailing '_' on the black screen).

Maybe this issue is not due to RTL-8185 but to another piece of hardware…

Anyway, I wanted to upgrade to Interpid. I only gave a try to linux-backports-modules to give some feedback. Sorry for not helping much.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

[Jérémy Subtil (bigmadwolf)]

Finally I get exactly the same behaviour on Intrepid: modprobe is fine, but the computer freezes when the wifi card starts to become active (scanning or associating, I don't know).

[Jérémy Subtil (bigmadwolf)]

Finally I can say that I'm subject to the bug #152527, both in Hardy & Intrepid.

[Craig Buchanan (craig-g-buchanan)]

Have clean installed ubuntu 10.04 onto an old system 1995 , forgot to down load drivers. ubuntu installed clean but no propriety drivers recognised, hence no wireless connection. have installed ndiswrapper-1.56 but then ask's for windows INF file . I tried to download from another XP system but doesn't work or I cant find it as I am a newby.
My Wireless card is an realtek RTL -8139/8139c/8139c+.

Have tried to find drivers on net for this wireless card but to no avail . Could some one help me out to sort this problem as i know it is a minor one but i am just missing something that will make it work .

Ubuntu 10.04 is and looks great but it has its hair pulling moments to say the least .
Willing to learn & hope some one has a solution

cheers

Craig

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

Confirmed that this PCI device is supported via a mainline driver from at least Karmic and later; all supported releases after Hardy. Therefore closing off the development tasks for this bug. Please confirm whether this is an issue in Hardy still.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

8.04 has reached end of life and this package removed. If you still have this issue on a currently supported release, please reopen it and reassign it to the linux package