Interesting to read about the above. I also have a Realtek Mini-USB WLAN adapter 300MB and it is recognised right away by UbuntuMATE. No need to install additional drivers or alter any OS setup.
I plugged it on my Windows PC and it shows as device: “Realtek RTL8192CU Wireless LAN 802.11n USB 2.0 Network Adapter”.
@carriba, is this on the desktop version or the Raspberry Pi too?
Seems that my Realtek RTL8192CU WLAN dongle is no longer recognised either, albeit it did work back end of last year. I usually use the RPi device with the LAN cable hooked up to the network…
Here the contents of the /var/log/syslog file when plugging in the dongle:
`Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox kernel: [ 190.056228] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8178
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox kernel: [ 190.056256] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox kernel: [ 190.056273] usb 1-1.2: Product: 802.11n WLAN Adapter
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox kernel: [ 190.056288] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: Realtek
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox kernel: [ 190.056303] usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: 00e04c000001
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 4: "/sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2"
Jan 20 09:20:40 ubox mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 4 was not an MTP device
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.381271] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8192cu
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.412458] rtl8192cu 1-1.2:1.0 enx00e04c817843: renamed from wlan0
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.462278] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <error> [1453278041.552487] [platform/wifi/wifi-utils-wext.c:519] wext_get_range(): (wlan0): couldn't get driver range information (19).
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <info> (wlan0): driver WEXT range request failed
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <warn> (wlan0): failed to initialize WiFi driver
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <warn> wlan0: factory failed to create device: (unknown)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <info> devices added (path: /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/net/enx00e04c817843, iface: enx00e04c817843)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: <info> device added (path: /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/net/enx00e04c817843, iface: enx00e04c817843): no ifupdown configuration found.
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: (NetworkManager:375): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: object NMDeviceWifi 0x19e82b0 finalized while still in-construction
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox NetworkManager[375]: (NetworkManager:375): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: Custom constructor for class NMDeviceWifi returned NULL (which is invalid). Please use GInitable instead.
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529708] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529735] cfg80211: DFS Master region: unset
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529748] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529765] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529799] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529814] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529832] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529850] cfg80211: (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529866] cfg80211: (5490000 KHz - 5730000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529882] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 80000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:41 ubox kernel: [ 191.529897] cfg80211: (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 0 mBm), (N/A)
Jan 20 09:20:44 ubox ModemManager[320]: <info> Couldn't find support for device at '/sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2': not supported by any plugin
`
The only explanation I have right now is that something has changed. For sure, in the meantime I have updated the kernel to the latest version:
Linux ubox 4.1.15-v7+ #831 SMP Tue Jan 19 18:39:46 GMT 2016 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux
I may want to consider to reflash the SD card with UbuntuMATE 15.10, and stick to the older kernel version…
In the meantime, with rpi-update I installed a previous version of the kernel:
Linux ubox 4.1.10-v7+ #820 SMP PREEMPT Sun Oct 4 16:26:51 BST 2015 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux
And the USB dongle gets recognised, the LED lights up and I get under the UbuntuMATE desktop the network menu to connect to a Wifi network.
Here the entries in the /var/log/syslog file when plugging the dongle:
`Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox kernel: [ 99.923845] usb 1-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox rsyslogd-2007: action 'action 10' suspended, next retry is Wed Jan 20 10:16:44 2016 [v8.12.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox kernel: [ 100.025623] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8178
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox kernel: [ 100.025653] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox kernel: [ 100.025670] usb 1-1.4: Product: 802.11n WLAN Adapter
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox kernel: [ 100.025687] usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: Realtek
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox kernel: [ 100.025703] usb 1-1.4: SerialNumber: 00e04c000001
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> (wlan0): driver supports SSID scans (scan_capa 0x3F).
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> (wlan0): using WEXT for WiFi device control
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> (wlan0): new 802.11 WiFi device (carrier: UNKNOWN, driver: 'rtl8192cu', ifindex: 4)
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 5: "/sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4"
Jan 20 10:16:14 ubox mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 5 was not an MTP device
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox kernel: [ 101.319915] rtl8192cu 1-1.4:1.0 enx00e04c817843: renamed from wlan0
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> (wlan0): interface index 4 renamed iface from 'wlan0' to 'enx00e04c817843'
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> devices added (path: /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4/1-1.4:1.0/net/enx00e04c817843, iface: enx00e04c817843)
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> device added (path: /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4/1-1.4:1.0/net/enx00e04c817843, iface: enx00e04c817843): no ifupdown configuration found.
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> (enx00e04c817843): device state change: unmanaged -> unavailable (reason 'managed') [10 20 2]
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox kernel: [ 101.414741] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): enx00e04c817843: link is not ready
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox kernel: [ 102.071040] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): enx00e04c817843: link is not ready
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox kernel: [ 102.156576] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): enx00e04c817843: link is not ready
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox wpa_supplicant[479]: nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox wpa_supplicant[479]: nl80211: deinit ifname=enx00e04c817843 disabled_11b_rates=0
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox wpa_supplicant[479]: ioctl[SIOCSIWAP]: Operation not permitted
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox wpa_supplicant[479]: ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Invalid argument
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox wpa_supplicant[479]: ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Invalid argument
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox wpa_supplicant[479]: dbus: wpa_dbus_get_object_properties: failed to get object properties: (none) none
Jan 20 10:16:16 ubox wpa_supplicant[479]: dbus: Failed to construct signal
Jan 20 10:16:17 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> (enx00e04c817843): supplicant interface state: starting -> ready
Jan 20 10:16:17 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> (enx00e04c817843): device state change: unavailable -> disconnected (reason 'supplicant-available') [20 30 42]
Jan 20 10:16:17 ubox kernel: [ 102.292682] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): enx00e04c817843: link is not ready
Jan 20 10:16:17 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> Device 'enx00e04c817843' has no connection; scheduling activate_check in 0 seconds.
Jan 20 10:16:18 ubox NetworkManager[425]: <info> (enx00e04c817843): supplicant interface state: ready -> inactive
Jan 20 10:16:18 ubox ModemManager[364]: <info> Couldn't find support for device at '/sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4': not supported by any plugin
`
The connclusion I can draw is that somwehere throughout all the latest kernel updates the Realtek WLAN driver got messed up 
You may have broken dependencies, run the following terminal command which might fix the problem?:
sudo apt-get install -f
and restart if anything updates!. 
Nope, see here:
root@ubox:~# apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
root@ubox:~#
Does this help?:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=103989
Thank you for the pointer on this. I will definelty have a look into this, and am following up with My Posting at the Raspberry Pi forum.
I’ve flashed and installed yesterday evening UbuntuMATE 15.10 on my SD card, and after all the setup of the OS, my WLAN dongle gets recognised without any problems and I can hook up to the Wifi network.
I will give a try this weekend to write UbuntuMATE 15.10.1 on another SD card, and see whether the WLAN dongle gets recognsed or not. after the OS setup. I’ll let you know…
Another item I’ve noticed is that the original poster has problems with a RTL8192EU device, whereas myself I have a RTL8192CU device. Thus, not sure to which extent I have to take this info into consideration.
Try installing the Windows 10 .inf file with ndiswrapper. I’ve had some success with Windows based wifi dongles using this method. Be sure to reboot afterwards to make it work.
ndiswrapper is designed for Windows XP drivers only, so Windows 10 drivers wouldn’t work theoretically. ndiswrapper also only works on IA-32 (32-bit) and x86-64 architectures, so this solution wouldn’t work on the Raspberry Pi (ARMv7) unfortunately.
Reflashed UbuntuMATE 15.10.1 on my SD card, and now the RTL819CU WLAN adapter is being recognised without any intervention from my side.
A question, a solution for Ubuntu mate computer, could it work on Raspberry?
Regards…
The RTL8192CU WLAN dongle works on Raspbian Jessie without anty problems (if this is the question).
I installed the drivers on two computers with ubuntu mate 16:04 and I do not know if that solution works for Raspberry.
Regards…
It does work for me (and maybe others). Simply go ahead and try it out 