Neither F13 nor F14 ship with the RTL 8192e WLAN driver but, since so many of the newer laptops and netbooks use this chipset, many of us need the driver installed. As a relative newbie to drivers, kernels, and sources (yes, all three will matter), I found it a bit daunting especially since, on a clean install (which is what many folk will use), some things that are needed aren't there. Here's what worked for me, from a clean install of F14 beta RC2. There are 3 steps: (1) Obtain the driver source (2) Build the driver from source (3) Install the driver and restart the machine Everything came to life on the restart. Step 1 Getting the driver Realtek's site does offer a Linux driver, but for some reason my browser wouldn't download it; I still don't know why. I managed to obtain this file: > rtl8192e_linux_2.6.0014.0401.2010.tar.gz from, I think, the staging drivers from here: > http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=tree;f=drivers/staging/rtl8192e;hb=aa021baa3295fa6e3f367d80f8955dd5176656eb (click on 'snapshot' to obtain the file) Step 2 Building the driver I placed the gz file in a subdir 'rtl8192' in my home directory, and extracted all the files (keeping the embedded directory hierarchy). Then I read the README. (I did, really, because I simply didn't know - then - what to do next. But it didn't tell me all I was to need or do.) It said: su make make install So I did - you mustn't, you must do a couple of other things first, I label them (2a), and (2b), below. And so I hit the first error, something like: 'Subdirectory ...kernels/build does not exist'. (I cannot reproduce the exact error, now, because my system now works, but after a clean install of F14 you'll get something like that if you just do what the README says, straightaway.) If you look for the directory, it does exist. Sort of. It's a symlink but, if you're new to these and use the Thunar file manager to inspect it, it flashes very briefly and disappears. Turns out, it's a symlink to a directory under the 'source' of 'whichever' kernel you have had installed - but 'only' if you have the source of the kernel installed, which you haven't, on a clean install. 2a Pre-step 2a - install the kernel source You have to install the kernel source before you can build the rtl8192e driver. You'll need to (i) have an internet connection (hopefully you can use the eth0 wired LAN port on your machine), and (ii) you'll need to set up yum (or the graphical package manager - I used this) to use the 'source' repository as well as the binary repository. I don't know how to do that on the command line for yum, so I used the graphical system and enabled the 'source' repository for the fedora build I was using. You have to then let the package manager download the repository index and, if you use yum, you'll have to command it to do the same thing. (iii) you'll need to find the kernel you're using, and select its source for installation. Take care to choose the correct one if you get offered a choice. On my F13 system - which was a clean install and has not been upgraded, similar to the state yours should be in when first trying to load the 8192e driver - there is only one kernel listed, so it's easy to see. Select the kernel source for installation. Don't click 'apply' just yet, though, because we need something else installed as well. 2b Pre-step 2b - install gcc If you just install the kernel source, the missing 'build' directory appears, but the driver creation immediately fails again because the machine cannot find the compiler, gcc. At least, that's the case on my system which came from the XFCE CD which doesn't install gcc automatically. Find gcc in the package manager, and mark it for installation, as well. Now click 'apply', to install both the kernel source, and the gcc compiler(s). The system will install a lot of support files, just say OK to those. When done, we're good to go, and can follow the instructions in the driver README 2c Driver build In your subdirectory with the driver files that you've downloaded and extracted, su to root su and type 'make' make There'll be a few messages, and look at them carefully to make sure there are no errors. I didn't get any more errors but, if you do, then don't panic, just search around the net for anything with the [text of the error message], somebody is pretty likely to have hit your problem before, and you'll find some ideas for getting round them. If you cannot get round the problem. describing it on one of the fedora lists usually turns up some very strong advice. No errors, and we're on the last leg. 3 Install the driver Do what the README says. Type 'make install' while still root make install A few more messages to look at, and we're done. Again, check for errors. I didn't get any at this stage. I shut the machine down, and restarted. On restart, the machine connected automatically to a wireless network (because way back, before I even realised I needed a driver, I'd been trying to get wireless to work and I'd set up all the details for our wifi APs, so it found those anyway and just connected itself. I've since 'un-ticked' the 'connect automatically' option in network manager). I was delighted. And very impressed that the README, and the make files, worked as well as they did. They'd have worked perfectly, anyway, on a fully configured development machine with kernel sources and gcc compilers but, as I mentioned, those wouldn't normally exist on a user's desktop machine (in my view). But getting things set up isn't difficult, once you know what you need. Hoping this helps others installing the 8182e driver on laptops and netbooks. regards, Ron _______________________________________________ laptop mailing list laptop@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/laptop
