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[Solved] realtek wireless drivers

Linux Kernel, Network, and Services configuration.
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lasuit
Posts: 3
Joined: 2013-07-01 16:58

[Solved] realtek wireless drivers

#1 Post by lasuit »

Even though I've been using Debian for over 20 years, I made a really newbie mistake. After a software upgrade with aptitude I noticed that I had a few obsolete packages. Some were old kernels, but for some reason my r8186 drivers came up which are for the Realtek wireless chips. I figured there must be some sort of replacement, so I purged the obsolete software. Well, surprise, surprise, no more wireless connectivity. I'm using AMD64 testing, and after looking through the repository I can not find any new or old drivers. I know Realtek has always had a problem with "free" software, but I wouldn't expect aptitude to break a working system. Although, it has happened before.

Any suggestions on how to get these working again? Thanks.
Last edited by lasuit on 2022-02-09 13:24, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: realtek wireless drivers

#2 Post by sunrat »

Drivers are generally built as kernel modules, they don't come in packages. Exactly which package removal do you think caused this? You can look in /var/log/apt/history if you don't remember and just reinstall it. I suspect you may have removed the firmware package firmware-realtek rather than driver.
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kedaha
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Re: realtek wireless drivers

#3 Post by kedaha »

Hi,
Maybe you still have it in your cache. For example, on my system:

Code: Select all

$ ls /var/cache/apt/archives|grep firmware
firmware-realtek_20210315-3_all.deb
So without a network connection, I would try:

Code: Select all

# cd /var/cache/apt/archives
# dpkg -i firmware-realtek_20210315-3_all.deb
But the name of your package may be different.
DebianStable

Code: Select all

$ vrms

No non-free or contrib packages installed on debian!  rms would be proud.

lasuit
Posts: 3
Joined: 2013-07-01 16:58

Re: realtek wireless drivers

#4 Post by lasuit »

Kedaha,

I tried your suggestion and the firmware was there, so I reinstalled it, but I must have broken other things because I rebooted, but it still cannot find a network. Thank you.

kedaha
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Re: realtek wireless drivers

#5 Post by kedaha »

When using testing you can expect things to break from time to time. It's likely a mismatch between the kernel and the firmware.
DebianStable

Code: Select all

$ vrms

No non-free or contrib packages installed on debian!  rms would be proud.

lasuit
Posts: 3
Joined: 2013-07-01 16:58

Re: realtek wireless drivers

#6 Post by lasuit »

Folks,

Thanks for your help. I did finally get this sorted out. I checked the aptitude log and found that there were a handful of other firmware modules that also got purged like "firmware-misc-non-free" and "firmware-linux-non-free." I reinstalled these and the wireless now works again. And now they are not marked "obsolete" any more. Thank you.

LTL
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Re: realtek wireless drivers

#7 Post by LTL »

kedaha wrote: 2022-01-28 10:53 Hi,
Maybe you still have it in your cache. For example, on my system:

Code: Select all

$ ls /var/cache/apt/archives|grep firmware
firmware-realtek_20210315-3_all.deb
So without a network connection, I would try:

Code: Select all

# cd /var/cache/apt/archives
# dpkg -i firmware-realtek_20210315-3_all.deb
But the name of your package may be different.
Hello,
I already reinstalled, but wifi was not found. Hope you can help.
loc@debian:~$ ls /var/cache/apt/archives|grep firmware
firmware-iwlwifi_20210315-3_all.deb
firmware-misc-nonfree_20210315-3_all.deb
firmware-realtek_20210315-3_all.deb
loc@debian:~$ /sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

enp2s0 no wireless extensions.

loc@debian:~$
Thank you very much,
Best regards,

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