Looking for a driver for my network card

[thecheddarcheese]

Hi, I'm looking for the correct driver for my wireless network card, but I'm not sure which one I should download from the archive. Here's the output of lshw -C network on Pop OS:

Code: Select all

*-network                 
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlp2s0
       version: 01
       serial: c0:35:32:1d:9a:47
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtw89_8852ce driverversion=6.9.3-76060903-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.139 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: irq:94 ioport:6000(size=256) memory:99b00000-99bfffff

[rockedge]

What are you doing exactly? What archive?

Which version of Puppy Linux are you referring too? Without anything other than that outout I'd say try in a terminal:

Code: Select all

modprobe rtw_8852ce

or:

Code: Select all

modprobe rtw_8852be

And look at the output in a terminal from:

Code: Select all

dmesg

[bigpup]

We need to know what exact Puppy version you are using.

Give complete full name.

Best to provide name of it's ISO file.

Are you sure you understand how to make a network connection in Puppy Linux?

[thecheddarcheese]

What are you doing exactly? What archive?

I'm trying to install a driver for my network card since it doesn't seem to be detected anywhere. The archive I'm referring to is this one.

Which version of Puppy Linux are you referring too?

BookwormPup64 10.0.7

Code: Select all

# modprobe rtw_8852ce
modprobe: FATAL: Module rtw_8852ce not found in directory /lib/modules/6.1.94
# modprobe rtw_8852be
modprobe: FATAL: Module rtw_8852be not found in directory /lib/modules/6.1.94

dmesg output

[mikewalsh]

@thecheddarcheese :-

I'm no expert in this field. However, I have spent enough time over the years, trawling RealTek's website in search of drivers, to have a fairly good idea of their numbering system by now.

AFAICT, the 8852 chip is one of the very newest they make. Is this a fairly new machine, or a new card/dongle? And out of curiosity, what made you go for Pop_OS!..?

The major difference between practices on the two sides of "the fence" are these:-

On t'other side, manufacturers go out of their way to provide up-to-date, fully-functional drivers for everything the moment it hits the shelves. You buy something for use with Windows, there's a driver all ready for it. This is helped by the fact that in the Windows world, everybody and his dog is running the exact same system software. So anything like this - which is dependent on certain specific items of system stuff - only has to be compiled exactly once. That's it. They build it ONCE.......and they know it will work for everybody.

When it boils down to it, it's all about gaining - and keeping - "Windows certification".

===================================================

Over here, drivers like this usually have to be reverse-engineered from their Windows counterparts. You can't count on finding the source code for any given driver, because for most manufacturers wedded to the Windows eco-system, they NEVER make it available. It's proprietary; it remains hidden.

So; the guys at the Linux kernel team who are responsible for this stuff frequently have to pick a Windows driver for that chipset apart, try to figure out just how it works, then re-build it to work with the kernel.

This all takes time.......because unlike Microsoft, who have a full-time, salaried workforce that do nothing BUT work on a given issue until it's solved, most kernel submitters/maintainers are holding down a full-time job to keep the roof over their heads. Work on "kernel stuff" has to be squeezed in during their spare time.......for free. Nobody's getting a regular wedge for doing this stuff. It's mostly done for the love of it, as & when they can find the time.

======================================================

It all boils down to this; getting new drivers added to the kernel - in this case, I would guess it's the network stack - can take anywhere from a matter of days to several months.....depending on how much time that particular maintainer can devote to their "hobby", along with solving whatever problems they encounter along the way.

I usually recommend that folks in this situation use a wireless dongle - with a known, well-supported chipset for which drivers are available; either packages OR already in the kernel - until it gets to the point where a kernel driver is finally available for your nice new hardware. At least it's a guaranteed way to get online, even if it IS something of a short-term, "kludgy" workaround.

Hmm.... @ozsouth might be able to help with this. He MAY even have a driver .pet available for this already...

Mike.

[thecheddarcheese]

@mikewalsh

Thanks for the reply!
I have a yoga pro 7, so yeah I think that's fairly new.
And I chose pop os because I wanted something out-of-the-box as my daily while I'm working on my arch rice, and just decided to give it a shot.

[ozsouth]

@thecheddarcheese - I cannot find source for rtw89_8852ce, so changing the kernel is the easiest option. I have made a 652mb version of bwpup64_10.0.7 with my kernel 6.6.47 (which has the driver),
OR
I can point you to a new kernel. (43mb).

[mikewalsh]

@thecheddarcheese :-

You can absolutely trust stuff from @ozsouth . He's been building kernels & wireless drivers for a long time; he knows his stuff, and his packages always work.

He's helped me out a few times over the years as well.....so I can personally vouch for the quality of his work.

Mike.

[rockedge]

so I can personally vouch for the quality of his work

Me too.