Thursday, March 7, 2013

Ubuntu 12.10 RTL8192C Install Driver

Hello everyone..

I have a new computer now.. But I was not able to connect(!) to the Internet for a while.. And I can say that it was very painful to install a wifi driver on Ubuntu.. As I was successful, now I'm writing this for people like me looking for a solution to this same problem! :)

I have a USB wifi device that needs a RTL8192C driver to work properly.. Unfortunately, Ubuntu was not able to recognize my device.. Actually, it recognized it, but I was being disconnected every minute.. So I decided to install the driver manually.

First, I tried to install "ndiswrapper", and wanted to use Windows driver available on the Web/Device CD. I had many problems with installing ndiswrapper, activating drivers, blacklisting drivers.. so much work!!! And I ended up by reinstalling ubuntu, because my computer freezed and never worked again!! :/

Just try the easiest way to install! You are lucky that you have device that has Linux support. Simply, visit http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/searchView.aspx?keyword=RTL8192cu Download the driver needed as a tar file. Go to the directory where you downloaded device driver. In my case, file name is "RTL8188C_8192C_USB_linux_v3.4.4_4749.20121105".

tar -xzvf RTL8188C_8192C_USB_linux_v3.4.4_4749.20121105.tar.gz


This command will create a folder with all extracted files.

cd RTL8188C_8192C_USB_linux_v3.4.4_4749.20121105
chmod +x install.sh
sudo ./install.sh


If everything goes well, the driver will be installed. If you have an error like:

make: *** /lib/modules/3.5.0-25-generic/build: No such file or directory. Stop.
make: *** [modules] Error 2


Then, you have to install corresponding linux headers. In your case, another kernel version may be a problem. Just replace version number with whatever version you need.

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-3.5.0-25-generic


After that, you will be able to install device driver. Now, try to install again:

sudo ./install.sh


You will see that the driver is successfully installed. Reboot your system. And enjoy! :) Hope it helps guys..

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you Nadinima!

I tried your solution, it works but I have to repeat it each time I restart my computer and then I have no more sound...

kernowyon said...

Anonymous, you will need to blacklist the kernel driver to stop Ubuntu using that (which doesn't work properly).
Easy to do, just go to
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf in your favourite editor, using sudo and add the following to the bottom of the list -

blacklist rtl8192cu
blacklist rtl8192c_common
blacklist rtlwifi

Save and reboot. Your system will now not use the built in kernel driver, but the one you built following nadinima's notes.

You will, annoyingly, have to rebuild the driver each time a new kernel is installed by an update - but it is just a simple case of following the instructions again - but you won't need to download the driver again, simply go to where you saved it and "made" it before and run install.sh there.