Problem with cheap chineese wifi dongles after upgrade of OS

Support & Help Requests Hardware
#1

Recently I started using Yakkety on my PC. Till now I was MS user for dekades:) I like UbuntuMate very much…
I think devs are doing great job on this project. I have just one small problem, and I see on the internet that others have this problem too… So, if could dev do something to help us it would be great! On the initial install Yaketty did not recognized my wifi stick. I couldn’t install driver from cd (came with dongle) either because it was compiled for k2.6… So I searched the web. My wifi stick has rtl8192eu chip on it. I found drivers on git… downloaded and did this
sudo su
sudo su
cd rtl8192eu-linux-driver
make install
depmod -a
modprobe 8192eu

As I understand this directives I compiled this driver (as superuser) on my kernel 4.8.0.37… Then with modprobe loaded driver… everythig was working as espected… but after every upgrade od OS 4.8.0.38 and 4.0.8.39 dkms failed to build… Error report said it was because it is third party driver? It didn’t gave me the option to report problem…
So, I am asking devs here to help me. Can you make module (community, doesn’t have to be proprietary) or whatever to solve this problem? Is it possible at all? A lot of these wifi dongles are based on this cheap realtek and mediatek (former ralink) chips (qualcomm and broadcom rare)…
any help would be appriciatted…
compiling after every upgade of OS is a pain in the *ss
Mile-Lile

#2

Have you tried the PPA mentioned in this thread? They say it’s working, but with latest kernels seem to have the “must remove then plug back in” problem if machine is booted with the dongle plugged in.

1 Like
#3

Hi Samuvuo,
thx for your help. I tried suggested on link you provided… I get on CLI sometning like: “you allready have newest 4.4 dkms installed… failed”… wifi stick works on reboot… problem is only when upgrading OS…

#4

I suggested using the PPA because then you get driver updates automatically in the future and you get a ready made post-install script that handles all the dkms related stuff for you.

Oh… you did not mention it in your post… you do have the dkms package installed, don’t you? And you created dkms.conf etc (or they were provided in the tarball)? If not, dkms has no way of knowing it’s supposed to handle things for you.

"DKMS is called automatically upon installation of new Ubuntu kernel-image packages, and therefore modules added to DKMS will be automatically carried across updates. "
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DKMS

Info about the PPA (has rtl8192eu-dkms - 4.4 for Xenial):
https://launchpad.net/~hanipouspilot/+archive/ubuntu/rtlwifi

#5

Thx again, and sorry for late reply… I get this message:

root@milelile-P31-DS3L:/home/mile-lile# apt-get update
Hit:1 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu zesty InRelease
Hit:2 http://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/ubuntu zesty InRelease                    
Hit:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/flexiondotorg/minecraft/ubuntu yakkety InRelease
Hit:4 http://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/ubuntu zesty-updates InRelease            
Ign:5 http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty InRelease                     
Hit:6 http://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/ubuntu zesty-backports InRelease          
Ign:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty InRelease
Hit:8 http://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/ubuntu zesty-security InRelease     
Hit:9 http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty Release                       
Ign:10 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty Release     
Hit:11 http://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/ubuntu zesty-proposed InRelease    
Ign:12 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all Packages
Ign:13 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main i386 Packages
Ign:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 Packages
Ign:15 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en_US
Ign:16 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en
Ign:17 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:18 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:19 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main DEP-11 64x64 Icons
Ign:12 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all Packages
Ign:13 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main i386 Packages
Ign:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 Packages
Ign:15 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en_US
Ign:16 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en
Ign:17 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:18 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:19 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main DEP-11 64x64 Icons
Ign:12 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all Packages
Ign:13 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main i386 Packages
Ign:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 Packages
Ign:15 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en_US
Ign:16 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en
Ign:17 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:18 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:19 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main DEP-11 64x64 Icons
Ign:12 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all Packages
Ign:13 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main i386 Packages
Ign:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 Packages
Ign:15 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en_US
Ign:16 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en
Ign:17 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:18 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:19 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main DEP-11 64x64 Icons
Ign:12 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all Packages
Ign:13 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main i386 Packages
Ign:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 Packages
Ign:15 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en_US
Ign:16 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en
Ign:17 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:18 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:19 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main DEP-11 64x64 Icons
Ign:12 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all Packages
Err:13 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main i386 Packages
  404  Not Found
Ign:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 Packages
Ign:15 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en_US
Ign:16 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main Translation-en
Ign:17 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:18 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main all DEP-11 Metadata
Ign:19 http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty/main DEP-11 64x64 Icons
Reading package lists... Done
W: The repository 'http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu zesty Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Data from such a repository can't be authenticated and is therefore potentially dangerous to use.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
E: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/hanipouspilot/rtlwifi/ubuntu/dists/zesty/main/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
root@milelile-P31-DS3L:/home/mile-lile# `
#6

“Error report said it was because it is third party driver”

I didnt read everything but many things, and this catched my attention.

Do you have efi/uefi?

You must disable secure boot in order to install 3rd party drivers. You can re-enable it afterwards.

One way to do it, if Im not mistaken, is to enter a command in terminal and then follow its instructions, make a password and retype it.

Then restart. For me, bios says press any key to change the state of secure boot. I press any key, and then I select from menu to change its state, off, and it asks my password character by character. I enter for example character #5 when it asks, then I press enter, then it asks another…

When its done, select from menu to reboot.

Your pc will tell you that you boot in insecure mode. Try the driver installation then :slight_smile:

Command is: sudo mokutil --disable-validation

I think with same command you can enable it again during next boot, in same way than you disabled it.