Howto Install the Realtek 8171 Wireless Driver in Linux

I was asked to install Linux on a brand new laptop today (yet another who doesn't like Win 7!), it was an Advent M100 which contains the Realtek SemiConductor 8171 Wireless Adaptor.

The card is detected by the kernel (on Kubuntu) but no drivers are available, so neither ifconfig or NetworkManager find the device.

 

 

 

It's been a while since I've had to deal with Linux not having drivers (nearly everything is supported now!) but there's no pain involved in resolving this one;

  • Go to www.realtek.com and locate drivers for the RTL8191SE-VA2.
  • Download the drivers onto your system (I plugged a CAT-5 into the laptop, but you could download on another system)
  • Put the tarball somewhere convenient (I tend to use ~/Programs/ )
  • Extract and install it:

    tar xvpzf rtl8192se-*.tar.gz

    cd rtl8192*

    # Next step needs to be as root, so either

    sudo -s

    # or

    su

    make && make install

  • The next time you reboot the system your wireless card will be detected.