Ubuntu – Drivers for Realtek wireless module for Toshiba C850-A965

realtekwireless

I just bought a new Toshiba system, and before installing Ubuntu, I tried it out on a live CD. Unfortunately, Ubuntu doesn't recognize any wireless adapter.

$ sudo lshw -c network
  *-network UNCLAIMED     
       description: Network controller
       product: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: ioport:3000(size=256) memory:c2400000-c2403fff

From the above output, I think that my Realtek wireless chip is unrecognized as what it is. But in my experience, all the Realtek devices worked out of the box. Furthermore, regardless of the manufacturer even if the appropriate drivers were not available, at least the devices were recognized for what it is properly.

Additional Drivers does not detect any proprietary drivers for me to install. (I have yet to install Ubuntu, and ran Additional Drivers after updating repository lists)

Wireless works on Windows 7 after installing necessary drivers. That is to say, there is no problem with the hardware, I'm befuddled why the hardware is not recognized at all (refer to the lshw output above). As far as I am aware, even hardwares requiring proprietary drivers to function would at least be recognized in lshw output and such.

lspci -nn | grep Network shows:

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:8723]

Best Answer

Ubuntu 13.04 and newer

As of 13.04, the driver need not be compiled and installed separately, and comes integrated with the kernel as the rest of the drivers.

12.10 and older

Congratulations, you have the super-brand-new RTL8723AE-BT card!

As far as I am aware, even hardware requiring proprietary drivers to function would at least be recognized in lshw output and such.

Yes, unless the hardware is so new that it's not even in the lshw database yet :)

The only recent wifi card I know of that causes such havoc is the Realtek RTL8723AE-BT. It's so new that even the Realtek website does not mention it or make Windows drivers available (must be downloaded from Toshiba/OEM). You can verify with the -numeric switch to lshw that the last 4 digits of the product (PCI) ID are 8723:

sudo lshw -C network -numeric

This is also supported by the DriverIdentifier listing for your laptop model and the official specifications of the C850-A965:

enter image description here enter image description here

However, Realtek Support has made their internal driver available via Dropbox (for now) and it seems to work well on 12.04 as well as other recent Linux distros.

Steps to download, build and install RTL8273AE-BT driver:

Note: I'm not sure how well this will work on a live CD, since a reboot is typically a good idea after installing new kernel modules. But it should work on an installed system (don't forget to upgrade to the latest kernel on that first though!)

Open a terminal, and type/paste one line at a time:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic linux-headers-`uname -r`
wget -O- http://dl.dropbox.com/u/57056576/DRIVERS/REALTEK/rtl_92ce_92se_92de_8723ae_linux_mac80211_0006.0514.2012.tar.gz | tar -xz
cd rtl_92ce_92se_92de_8723ae_linux_mac80211_0006.0514.2012/
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe rtl8723e

The Ubuntu LiveCD should detect the wifi-card now, and in a few seconds you'll be able to choose the network to connect to. In that case, later on, you can delete the rtl_92ce... folder created in your home directory.

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