[Durham] WiFi does not work on Ubuntu 12.04LTS

[Oliver Burnett-Hall]

On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:58:35 +0100 (BST)
Bill and Anne Pritchard <wdnp2 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Here are the results. Sorry am not able to come to the meeting.I
> removed ndiswrapper.

ndiswrapper is still there, and still getting multiple errors when the
kernel tries to load it.

> [   24.583466] ndiswrapper version 1.57 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
[snip]
> ndiswrapper (import:232): unknown symbol:
> ntoskrnl.exe:'PoRegisterPowerSettingCallback' [   24.910928]
> ndiswrapper (import:232): unknown symbol:
> ntoskrnl.exe:'PoUnregisterPowerSettingCallback'
[snip]
> [   24.912791] ndiswrapper (load_sys_files:199): couldn't prepare
> driver 'net8192ce' [   24.915006] ndiswrapper (load_wrap_driver:121):
> couldn't load driver 'net8192ce' [   24.915234] usbcore: registered
> new interface driver ndiswrapper

It might not be affecting anything, but I'm worried that ndiswrapper
could be blocking the kernel's attempt to load the native driver.

If you add a line that reads 'blacklist ndiswrapper' to a file
in /etc/modprobe.d/ (there might be a file there called blacklist or
blacklist.conf you can use, or you can create a new file in that
directory) it will make sure that the ndiswrapper module doesn't get
loaded.

Better news is that the kernel can see and identify your wireless
hardware, as shown by this output from lspci:

> 02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE
> 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01) Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor
> Co., Ltd. Device 8211 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle-
> MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx- Status:
> Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort-
> <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx- Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
> Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10 Region 0: I/O ports at 2000
> [size=256] Region 2: Memory at 82000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable)
> [size=16K] Capabilities: <access denied>
>     Kernel modules: rtl8192ce

What's mystifying me is that there doesn't seem to be any attempt to
load the rtl8192ce kernel module.

Okay, a few things to try:
1) Run lsmod and make sure that rtl8192ce definitely isn't loaded.
2) Run 'find /lib/modules/$(uname -r) -name rtl8192ce.ko' to make sure
   that the module exists.
3) Try loading the module manually: 'sudo modprobe rtl8192ce'.

HTH,

- olly