Linux Mint Wifi Problems

obviouslytom

Fully [H]
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Messages
29,506
I am in the transition of switching from Windows to Linux and have been using Linux Mint on my old laptop for about 2 weeks now and liking it very much. The "newer" laptop I am typing this on has Win10 on it and for now I partitioned the drive to put Linux Mint on it.

The problem that I am having is that after the install, there were no wifi drivers installed. Since this laptop doesn't have a hard line port, I am stuck with wifi only.

Is there a way for me to go into Win10, download wifi drivers to a USB, reboot into Linux and then install the drivers to get it to work? The wifi card is a Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Adapter.
 
Plug in your phone and use it as a teather for internet to install the drivers?
 
Plug in you charging cable too the USB port and set it up through your phone. Once you have internet goigle Wi-Fi drivers for your laptop for linux abd ya may be able too find a few commands to make it happen
 
Got the usb tether to work and it found the wifi card. Downloaded something but when I pull up a driver list, it shows the hardware and say there is no driver
 
When I get the tethering connected and pull up the driver manager I get this message and it won't let me hit apply changes.

20210120_221226.jpg
 
I spent hours, as in over 10, trying to figure out how to get my old WiFi card to work on Linux. Gave up and spent $50 or whatever on some Asus AX200 Intel that wound up working out of the box.


That kind of shit gets ridiculously old on Linux fast.
 
Google brought me this. Google may have the answers to your problems

sudo apt-get install --reinstall git dkms build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
git clone https://github.com/tomaspinho/rtl8821ce
cd rtl8821ce
chmod +x dkms-install.sh
chmod +x dkms-remove.sh
sudo ./dkms-install.sh
 
got any advise for the [H]'er having linux issues?
I'd have to google the things just like the rest of you. Not in my realm of experience unfortunately. The wifi drivers I mean. All my mobile devices are Apple and they obviously don't require this kind of things. The only linux wifi devices I have are my Rock64 SBC and a couple of media devices and they all worked flawlessly out of the box.
 
I always have some google work too do getting drivers too work with linux on a laptop. Normally its not too terrible however as mentioned sometimes the solution just doesnt exist
 
I always have some google work too do getting drivers too work with linux on a laptop. Normally its not too terrible however as mentioned sometimes the solution just doesnt exist
That's why it's a bad idea to not check compatability before buying a laptop.
 
That will only bring a different problem set though. esxi is only a hypervisor. It won't magically bring driver support :)

A differnt set of problems most certainly however if it supports your Wi-Fi chip then you will be passing through the esxi network too linux which it almost certainly supports. On the other hand if esxi doesnt support your Wi-Fi chip it is a equal if not greater pita.
 
WiFi is still kind of a pain. If it’s a dedicated Linux machine, I’ll generally look up a highly compatible m.2 WiFi card. It might have drivers cooked into a different kernel version if it’s a newer chip. You could look up the model number and toss in ”Ubuntu” into the search to get more hits. I had a wifi6 card I used that required me to upgrade my kernel and after that it was fine. The good news is that even newer top end WiFi cards cost about as much as a 12” sandwich from subway and slightly harder to install than ram.
 
WiFi is still kind of a pain. If it’s a dedicated Linux machine, I’ll generally look up a highly compatible m.2 WiFi card. It might have drivers cooked into a different kernel version if it’s a newer chip. You could look up the model number and toss in ”Ubuntu” into the search to get more hits. I had a wifi6 card I used that required me to upgrade my kernel and after that it was fine. The good news is that even newer top end WiFi cards cost about as much as a 12” sandwich from subway and slightly harder to install than ram.
A cheap and dirty solution is a USB wifi plug. 6 euros from Ebay.
 
Ugh, realtek rears it's ugly head again.

If you manage to get it working they're nice. As mentioned, a usb dongle or replacement m.2/mpcie card may be the simpler solution.
 
Google brought me this. Google may have the answers to your problems

sudo apt-get install --reinstall git dkms build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
git clone https://github.com/tomaspinho/rtl8821ce
cd rtl8821ce
chmod +x dkms-install.sh
chmod +x dkms-remove.sh
sudo ./dkms-install.sh
The bottom 4 lines are what I do for a wifi card I run in Linux. Have to do it every bloody boot and sometimes mid use when it stops working, but this is the way.
 
The bottom 4 lines are what I do for a wifi card I run in Linux. Have to do it every bloody boot and sometimes mid use when it stops working, but this is the way.
There is definitely a way in linux to run 4 commands on boot up everytime the computer starts ;)
 
There is definitely a way in linux to run 4 commands on boot up everytime the computer starts ;)
Except the 3 first commands are not required. Once +x flag is set it never has to be reset again and the command can be executed with a full path at any time e.g. /home/user/command or /usr/bin/command... And the execution can be easily configured to be a part of the bootup script for example by editing crontab -e and setting @boot /home/user/command ...
 
Except the 3 first commands are not required. Once +x flag is set it never has to be reset again and the command can be executed with a full path at any time e.g. /home/user/command or /usr/bin/command... And the execution can be easily configured to be a part of the bootup script for example by editing crontab -e and setting @boot /home/user/command ...
Good information!

I think the average person doesn't know a lot of that information, or how to use it. Why can't I just right click a script and say "load on boot"?

Maybe I can and I haven't seen the option lol
 
Good information!

I think the average person doesn't know a lot of that information, or how to use it. Why can't I just right click a script and say "load on boot"?

Maybe I can and I haven't seen the option lol
You can set a crontab for this

Code:
#crontab -e
@reboot  /home/user/test.sh

That would make "test.sh" run on reboot.
 
You can set a crontab for this

Code:
#crontab -e
@reboot  /home/user/test.sh

That would make "test.sh" run on reboot.
I totally get it. There are ways to do it for sure. I have some scripts that run at boot. I guess my point was, the average NEW Linux user isn't going to know these things or looking at hardware revisions before they buy something. I mean, I have a usb wifi adapter that works in Linux. It's revision C1. It's model name is identical to A1, B1 and D1. So unless I look into hardware revisions, not even a specific model, I may run into issues.

Those other revisions do not work in Linux. For whatever reason.

People who have used Linux for many years go "lol, look at XYZ first", like it's some common knowledge or newbish not to. To me, putting a setting on a drop down menu on right click to run at startup and have Linux just automate it, makes sense to me and probably every other person in existence.

Why does it have to be so difficult to do such simple things?

/rant
 
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With systemd or user crontabs it's possible. Couldn't tell you why it's not an option, though. Make a suggestion to your favorite desktop environment devs, or write it if you can. I'm sure someone would appreciate it.

I might do it if I get a wild hair...I know a bit about programming, and plasma has a framework for that sort of thing, just not familiar with it. Know nothing about gnome, so can't help there.
 
With systemd or user crontabs it's possible. Couldn't tell you why it's not an option, though. Make a suggestion to your favorite desktop environment devs, or write it if you can. I'm sure someone would appreciate it.

I might do it if I get a wild hair...I know a bit about programming, and plasma has a framework for that sort of thing, just not familiar with it. Know nothing about gnome, so can't help there.
You know, that's not a bad idea. I am going to finally register on the Mint forums and make the noob suggestion haha
 
I totally get it. There are ways to do it for sure. I have some scripts that run at boot. I guess my point was, the average NEW Linux user isn't going to know these things or looking at hardware revisions before they buy something. I mean, I have a usb wifi adapter that works in Linux. It's revision C1. It's model name is identical to A1, B1 and D1. So unless I look into hardware revisions, not even a specific model, I may run into issues.

Those other revisions do not work in Linux. For whatever reason.

People who have used Linux for many years go "lol, look at XYZ first", like it's some common knowledge or newbish not to. To me, putting a setting on a drop down menu on right click to run at startup and have Linux just automate it, makes sense to me and probably every other person in existence.

Why does it have to be so difficult to do such simple things?

/rant
I wish Windows would have a right click menu to put programs to autorun.
 
Starting a program on startup is plenty easy in linux. If a user didnt know how too do it it would take the same amount of googling to find the answer.

If your trying to avoid scripts and commands you wont be able to utilize many of the benefits of Linux.

I can handle a gui-less Linux but absalutley cannot do the same for windows :p
 
Cron jobs aren't the only way to run programs at startup.

Some can be run as services (for example Plex server) and handled via simple commands to systemctl.

I use KDE and I can launch apps there in other ways including dropping an app in a folder like windows. KDE looks for programs in the ~/.kde/Autostart directory to be executed during it’s startup. The way to execute programs as KDE starts would be to;

  1. Copy programs directly to the directory
  2. Create (soft) link to programs from the directory
  3. Create a script which will execute other programs
KDE also remembers most apps already open so they auto launch on reboot.
 
lol..

Of the 4 questions you can see, none say it works out of the box. One says it didn't work at all and another had to edit config files. Neat.
All I see is positive reviews, except for one, and he was refuted as being a Linux noob.
 
Also, another thing, why cant the file be called startup? Why CRON?.. not a single perspn, without prior knowledge would know that things purpose. The naming scheme seems so ancient.
Because it isn't called startup in Linux. that's a Windows thing. It is more intuitive to call it "startup" but it is what it is. You just have to learn a few differences in Linux, and you're good to go. Just fuck off Windows terms, and start new. Once you start messing with the console and have a few commands down, Linux is just so BITCHIN'! It just feels like full freedom.

I'm sure you have aome Windows commands memorized, some of them, right, e.g.,

ping 192.168.1.1 -n 50
tracert [favorite hacking target ip/url] lol
tracert /?

You know it's just the same thing, just different words. It's a little different but the exact same concept. Besides, "startup" sounds like your talking to a 3 year old about Playschool. "Cron" just sounds more cool, right? :)

But then again, I FUCKING hated when MS started calling DIRECTORIES "folders." "FUCK THAT SHIT" Dennis Hopper, "Blue Velvet"
 
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